High potentials as high learners

To deal with change, organizations need to find and nurture those who are most facile in dealing with it. Identifying those who can learn to behave in new ways requires a different measurement strategy from those often employed, one that looks at the characteristics of the learning agile. In this article, we explain some initial steps toward identifying the women and men with the most potential to lead, regardless of what the future may hold for them. As indicated by a measure of learning from experience, those with the highest potential tend to be interested in first-time challenges, are eager to learn, and can get results under tough conditions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons Inc.