Experiential Learning at Work: Why Can’t it be Painless?

Argues that the ways in which managers learn experientially are unnecessarily painful and will remain so without significant change in the shape and patterning of organizations and the wider socioeconomic infrastructure. First identifies distinct sets of experiential learning patterns from interviews with managers and administrators in three organizations. Then discusses the barriers preventing the widespread adoption of these patterns in day‐to‐day managerial practice.