Are you the kind of person who reads the instructions before you start something new ? Or do you only search “help” when you are stuck?
How we learn has interested me for some time - I suppose ever since I was first introduced to Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles . More recently we have been discussing how we learn with our students at Edinburgh Napier University.
In the workplace there has been a switch over recent years from “training” to “learning” and whilst I personally think that this can only be a good thing I wonder how many people really know or understand how they themselves learn best. When I found that I had a strong tendency to being an “activist” learner using Honey & Mumford’s theory a lot of issues about the way I worked fell into place ( this possibly had as much to do with the fact that I do prefer to learn by doing than the theory itself..)
Experienced trainers know to include a variety of activities in their programmes to incorporate the needs of as many of their students as possible. Many of us have been “taught” in the past by lecturers/teachers/trainers who did not. As an example I know that my understanding of economics is as much to do with the way my lecturer worked with us ( interesting/exciting/varied) as my interest in the subject ( hmmm - very little!).
OK - the activist learners reading this post may have already moved on so let me get to the point.
Here are my suggestions of how you might learn - my interpretation of Honey & Mumford and many other learning styles
- you have never done this before - but you will simply jump in and give it a go
- you have never done this before - but you have done something similar and using that experience will give it a go
- you have never done this before -but you have read about it and have some background knowledge so you will give it a go
- you have never done this before - so you will need to go and read about it and ask questions before you do
and to make sense of what happened ( throwing in a bit of Kolb’s theory here) add …
…the students I am currently working with are required to apply their learning in class in their workplace and write a reflective report on what happened. Having read many of those reports I strongly believe that the power of reflecting on your learning - no matter what your learning style is - cannot be underestimated.
Please share your views and experience on this. It would be a great help to me ( and my students will thank you too!)
I was reading the Time Out Guide book I had for my trip to Stockholm at the weekend on the flight home as I had to fill a couple of hours and not surprisingly there were no English lanuage newspapers at the airport ( which is a fact not a complaint - see below on that point!). I was glad I had not read it in full before I travelled though. In the restaurant section they handily reminded me about the incompetent “Swedish chef” in the Muppet Show with his imcomprehensible accent which must be really really annoying for the wonderful real Swedish chefs out there.
How easily are swayed by what others say?
A friend recently told me about a workman she had hired to do some handyman work on a recommendation from a colleague with the warning ” he is really good but can be a bit grumpy”. She was prepared for his grumpyness and was surprised and delighted that he was totally charming while working for her.
And I regularly read the reviews at www.tripadvisor.com before booking a hotel. At the start we actually changed bookings on the strength of reviews but I am more cautious now and try to read between the lines and balance the good reviews against the bad ones to find some middle ground. As a regular contributor myself I try to ensure that any bad points are explained in context. It is not really helpful for example for a reviewer to complain that a 5star resort is “expensive” - duh? Or that brands from home are not available locally - surely the point of travelling is to broaden the mind and experience ( as at the airport)? But hotel managers have the right and opportunity to comment on the reviews but they should not just post a cut and paste response to all bad reviews like I saw for one hotel. I passed that one over !
It is generally accepted that businesses need to work hard to keep abreast of what their customers are saying about them and work harder still to maintain a good reputation.
But what about individuals - small business owners ( like the handyman) or employees even? Getting meaningful feedback can be very helpful and using that as a basis for doing more of what you are good at ( and less of what you are doing badly!!) is advisable.
But a word of warning - weigh up good and bad feedback against each other balance it and to put it into context . In other words don’t rush off to improve on something that only one person out of many thinks needs improved.
And be careful how you talk about others - out of context that grumpy comment could have cost the handyman a customer. When it comes to visiting new places or hiring new workmen - try to start out without bias and as my Mum says ” take as you find”.
Over several years I have been involved in university programmes that build workplace learning into the coursework where the students are asked to apply their academic learning to real life situations and reflect and report on what happens. I love reading this kind of submission. The stories are often full of experiences and outcomes that are unexpected to the writer and should form the basis of their understanding of their own skills and talents as well as recognising what they might want focus a bit of attention on developing.
But I am often disappointed that the emphasis is on that “developing” bit and there is only a quick mention in the passing of what went really well let alone a plan for how they could do more of that.
Myexperience of performance appraisal systems is a bit out of date as it’s been a while since I have been an employee so I had hoped that things had changed recently but I know from many conversations that these is most often what I would call a “deficiency” position ie establishing what needs to be put right. I know, though, that there will be good organisations out there - and good line managers - who do recognise what is going well.
But maybe we don’t help ourselves - and I include myself in this here. Personal learning happens all the time - it does not have to be scheduled, sourced or indeed paid for - but if you are not recognising and valuing what you have/ are learning then maybe it’s about time to start.
I am group coach for a 2 cohorts of management students right now. From what they say their written reports I can see clearly that they have learned a great deal from being part of the programme. I will stress to them that the measure of what they learned is less about the mark they get for their work and more about how they are using that learning.
This is my entry for Robert Hruzek’s Group Writing project for April on the theme “What I learned from Adversity”.
A few years ago my husband returned from a networking event to tell me that he had bumped into my old friend and former flatmate Anne. He told me that she was going through another round of chemotherapy and that she looked fine but it was about time she and I got together again.
Anne and I were the kind of friends who - even if we did not see each other for years - would pick right up from where we left off. We had worked together many years before which led to us sharing a flat and though - and maybe because - we were like chalk and cheese we got on really well. So I called her and we arranged to have lunch. And as before we started talking like there had been no gap. The elephant in the room of course was that she was clearly under the weather because of her treatment and she was wearing a wig. That would not have been obvious to anyone who did not know she was undergoing treatment. It was very natural and styled by her own hairdresser. I know - because she told me! So any worries I had about tiptoing round how she was were immediately dispelled. She also told me that - at that stage - she knew she had “longer than 2 months and less than 2 years” left according to her consultant. Now I needed to work out how to react but taking my lead from her I asked her questions and she answered.
We met up regularly after that. She went on holidays to places she wanted to visit - taking all of her medication with her and doing as much as she could. She was annoyed that she was too tired to train for a half marathon. She worked every day except the days she was very sick because she loved her job and her clients were very important to her. I asked her how she coped when she was feeling down - and she said that she just talked about it.
We arranged to have lunch a few weeks later somewhere where we could sit out in the sunshine and have a glass of wine and bunk off for the whole afternoon. Then I fell sick and was out of action for a few weeks so we rescheduled. Sadly , Anne died the week before that date could be filled. The number of people at her funeral and the warmth of feeling for her showed how much she was loved and respected.
A few weeks later my dear friend Dorothy called me to ask if I would go to hospital with her as she had found a lump on her breast. Dorothy knew about Anne and indeed supported me when she died. So now I had another dear friend with cancer. I went to all of Dorothy’s appointments with her. She dealt with each challenge by asking questions, checking that she understood properly, seeking advice and taking decisions for herself. Even when at the worst stages of her chemotherapy she could be found trying to cheer someone else up. She thanked the nurses and doctors for their care and commented specifically on things she found helpful on the basis that doing more of that might help other patients too. She is now fully well and, although she will be on medication for the rest of her life, has been told that she has not greater risk of another cancer than the general population.
So what did I learn from Anne and Dorothy?
From Anne I learned that - cliched though it might be - we should live life to the full and never put anything we want to do off til tomorrow because we have no idea what is ahead.
And from Dorothy - taking control for addressing whatever challenges you face helps stop those challenges controlling you.
I have an inexplicable fear of frogs. I have asked my parents and we can’t work out where it comes from. There is certainly no one incident in my past that we can remember - and my brother was a bit of a menace when we were growing up but I know he did’t bring any Kermits home.
Last week my husband and I took a break on the beautiful island of Barbados. High season - ie after the end of the rainy season - starts in December. The rainfall drops significantly. The first couple of days ( which were in November remember) it rained - a lot. But it was warm rain and when the sun came out it dried up instantly.
We decided to wander over to the outside bar area to have a drink before dinner and as soon as we stepped out of our apartment door the heavens opened. As a Scot I always have an umbrella with me so we headed out anyway. As we neared the bar I realised that something had just hopped over my foot - and then I looked and there were loads of them. Frogs - real live jumping frogs! Oh my goodness ( well that was not quite what I said…) I ran into the bar only to find that it was closing up but one look at me and the barman offered us a drink anyway. I sat tightly holding my rum punch ( what else) and keeping my eye on the floor around me. We had to leave after that drink and it was still raining. I am a bit on the large side for my husband to carry me - even in a fireman’s lift - so I had to grit my teeth and make a dash for it . Safely back in my room I allowed myself to breathe and my husband examined the bruises from my fingerprints as I held on tightly to his arm for support.
It makes me laugh now to tell this story but my fear was real. It may seem ridiculous to some - others might empathise. That does not take away the fact that the only person who can deal with that fear is me. It didn’t rain for the rest of the week so I persuaded myself that I would not see another frog - but they had to be around somewhere so I was a bit on edge.
As I see it there are a few stages for dealing with fear
1 Recognising it for what it is - name it, talk about it
2 Understand that to be afraid is a human reaction - no matter how irrational the trigger for that fear
3 Choose to do something about it if it stops you from doing something - that is the crucial thing.
So here is my question for today?
Is there something you are afraid of in your life that is stopping you from doing what you want to ?
And if there is - what are you going to do about it?
