Learning is fundamental to succeeding in the workplace or anywhere else for that matter. We’ve all heard the phrase, “fake it ‘til you make it” but have also hopefully realized by now that the phrase is really just a fun way of saying “learning by doing” or “learning on the fly.” Fakers get ousted while learners get skill sets.
With technology changing the way we do business and people around the world challenging and disrupting traditional approaches to delivering in the workplace, personal development (i.e. learning) is becoming more important. Let’s face it: if you’re not learning you’re standing still, which puts you in a vulnerable position.
That said, we don’t always prioritize learning and when we do, we don’t always learn effectively. I’d like to think that I’m constantly learning, so in the spirit of personal development, I’d like to reflect on the topic and challenge you to learn how to learn.
Learning: how much time do you spend on it?
Searchlight intelligence is defined by psychologist Howard Gardner as the ability to connect the dots between people and ideas, where others see no possible connection. This ability is essential to anticipating what comes next and succeed in emerging futures. The only way to develop searchlight intelligence is by being receptive and open to learning.
Good leaders invest time and energy in learning and challenge their teams to learn by doing. Plus, employees rate personal development opportunities as one of the most important factors in the workplace. Learning and development are clearly beneficial, but also a challenge for most companies.
“Incorporating new learning into your work is one way to retain knowledge.”
Research reveals that there is no evidence of the impact training has on employee development, return on investment or performance.
“Learning at work isn’t about how many hours you put in, it’s about getting the right information to the right people at the right time.”
Simply put: you learn best when you learn less.
“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.”
Eris Ries.
We learn for the wrong reasons: for the learner to be promoted, for the learning and development department to meet their KPIs.
We learn at the wrong time and about topics that are not relevant for our role, which means we often forget the majority of what we learn. Our brains tend to quickly forget information that we don't use.
How can we make learning part of every day work?
Learnings should be part of the normal workflow, meaning that for learning to really happen, it must fit into and align with working days and working lives. For example, we can learn during our daily job by asking our colleagues, clients and reports questions.
Learning within the workflow is a new idea put forth by Josh Bersin and Marc Zao-Sander, which they say should be driven by both the individual (bottom-up) and their corporate (top-down) counterparts. Changes from both sides are required to make learning effective.
Making time and space to learn instead of obsessing over deliverables
According to one of my favorite authors, Gianpiero Petriglieri, Learning is the Most Celebrated Neglected Activity in the Workplace.
But what Petriglieri reveals in his article is that the majority of organisations focus on results. They want their leaders, employees and consultants focused on delivering rather than thinking, even if learning and thinking are actually essentials to delivering. Does this make sense? For example, how much time if any do you allocate to knowledge sharing across your team? You know that it would be beneficial, but do you have time for that between business reviews? If it’s beneficial wouldn’t it help deliver results?
“Transformational learning does not just make us more knowledgeable. It does not just refine our skills. It changes our perspective.”
Think about it. Do you have the opportunity to think, read and process your experiences at work? Do you have access to people who have different perspectives of your team, or is your company made of very similar individuals (or at least this is how they all want to look at work)? Tomorrow I’ll ask my team what they are currently learning or what they would like to learn. If someone doesn’t have an answer, I’d be glad to help them identify some development goals. Learning and the willingness to learn should be a prerequisite to being part of a (actually my) team.
Activities such as meditation, sports, yoga, taking time off our smartphones and learning are considered critical to increasing creativity, imagination and productivity. But do organisations really give employees time for that?
“Workplace pressures and norms just turn our instinct to steer clear of failure into a habit.”
The pressure put on us by our directors or even ourselves if we work as entrepreneurs directs us towards results and deliverables and doesn’t give us space to reflect. We have no time, or we give ourselves no time to be bored, even if boredom can trigger creativity and innovation.
If the best leaders are constant learners, how does a leader become a constant learner?
The Personal Knowledge Mastery is the model proposed by the authors of this article as a lifelong learning strategy. The pillars of the model are:
Seek: filtering information that is relevant and valuable to base our thinking and decision making on.
Sense: personalize information and use it (reflecting on what we learn and putting into practice).
Share: exchanging resources, ideas, and experiences with our networks, as well as collaborating with our colleagues.
Knowledge hiding
First, we don’t learn and second, we don’t share...
Despite attempts by companies to encourage knowledge-sharing, many employees withhold what they know (knowledge hiding). Research conducted to investigate Why Employees Don’t Share Knowledge with Each Other found that the main reasons for knowledge hiding are:
People share and hide knowledge for different reasons.
They are more motivated to share when they work in a cognitively demanding job and have a lot of autonomy.
They are more likely to hide knowledge if they think colleagues rely on them too much.
The results suggest that if managers want to encourage more sharing, they need to design work so that people want to discuss what they know.
So, how much we learn and how much we share doesn’t only depend on us but also on our leaders, and consequently, on how companies train leaders.
Are training initiatives effective?
Last year, American companies spent roughly $90 billion on learning and development efforts. In 2018, the average American employee received training at a cost close to $1,000 per person (quite a big investment for a company). But are those training initiatives really effective?
Not according to this research, and the reasons are as follows.
We learn for the wrong reasons: for the learner to be promoted, for the learning and development department to meet their KPIs.
We learn at the wrong time and about topics that are not relevant for our role, which means we often forget the majority of what we learn. Our brains tend to quickly forget information that we don't use.