Be innovative and learn how to learn! Cultural intelligence to a better learning (Fernando Salvetti)

How can we manage knowledge, human and intellectual resources and cognitive and behavioral dynamics at their best within corporations? How do we create and manage, in a flexible and dynamic way, an effective organization filled with people always ready to learn and develop? In the current scenario, the primary economic and natural resources are not (or not only) financial capital or work itself; they are also relationships, knowledge and human and intellectual capital. Knowledge, abilities and imagination - as well as the networking used to share experiences, competencies and knowledge (therefore, the ability to learn) - are more important than physical, technological and financial capital traditionally at the center of economic and organizational scenarios. One of the most important competitive differentiation factors among companies lies in the capacity for cultivating and enhancing the (famous but not necessarily widespread) intangible assets: intelligence, experience, imagination and, more generally, the soft skills as well as the specialized and transversal competencies, the know-how and know-what competencies. To increase people’s learning ability means to allow them to develop their creativity and spirit of innovation. In recent years experiential learning has developed significantly. It is a client-focused, supported approach to individual, group and organizational development that engages learners by using the elements of action, reflection and transfer. Developing learning ability requires flexible strategies and good tools that foster the aptitude to adapt and to orient oneself in dynamic situations. Last but not the least, a dimension of great importance to facilitate the implementation of learning ability is fostering cultural intelligence mainly as it relates to the anthropology of knowledge and epistemology.