Book: “The Expertise Economy: How the Smartest Companies Use Learning to Engage, Compete and Succeed”, Kelly Palmer & David Blake

Why this book?

This is the 9th – September 2019 – book from My Year of Reading 2019 list.

In that post I was specific on the reasons for reading this book, stating the following:

• Hopeful that this book will further my personal online learning experience and seek to transition that more formally into my paid employment.
• This book is by two Degreed execs including the CEO who emailed me in the past in response to a public tweet about my content mgt hell as did one of his staff team when he cc-ed her, both gave me their best practice and advice. I have used Degreed to play with training pathways.

My reading of the book

I read each chapter making notes as I read.

At the end of each chapter, I set myself some application questions (that are usable by others) and answered those questions.

I posted my notes with my questions and my answers at the end of each chapter in the Workplace by Facebook community of learners that I facilitate.

For this book, I am posting here chapter-by-chapter as I read and not just posting the full set of notes when I have completed the book. This is to enable readers to follow along who do not want to use Workplace by Facebook.

My overall assessment and response to the book

(to be completed when I have finished this book)

Introduction

Book Club Questions

Q1: What is your interest in this subject that has triggered you to read this book?
A1: Following on from my extensive online learning experience over the past 6 years outside of my working life, I have got the learning bug. I am keen to hear from the authors what the current best practice is for learning in organisations. This is also an area of personal interest for possible future career options.

Q2: What in your view causes an organisation to become obsolete?
A2: Complacency, not understanding their market, short term-ism, lack of product/service development, missing the opportunities of digital working practices, “we have always done it this way”.

Q3: So we understand where each of us is coming from, what is your level of involvement in defining your or your clients’ organisations’ approach to learning and development strategy?
A3: No formal input to the organisation. I occasionally share some ideas etc with other managers in the organisation. This strategy is laissez faire in the sense that it is down to the individual managers to run their teams how they see fit.

Q4: What are you doing, if anything, for your own personal development outside of anything that is happening inside your own organisation? If you are a service deliverer to organisations or to individuals, answer this question for yourself independently of those clients.
A4: Following on from the last question, I tend to do my own thing outside of the organisation that inevitably feeds into my capability for my day job. Two major milestones in my learning journey – stumbling into my 1st MOOC in 2013 (Learning Creative Learning, MIT) and being introduced to Working Out Loud Circles by Michelle Ockers in 2016.  I went on to do c25 MOOCs from various suppliers on a wide range of subjects and have facilitated 6 circles (1 of which was one of John Stepper’s WOL Self-Care circles. I read widely and deeply facilitating a virtual book club going through books, setting questions for each chapter, taking notes as I go and posting those notes with answers to my own questions. I am a regular participant in weekly Twitter Chats for enterprise social networks (#ESNChat) and learning & organisational development (#LDInsight) as well as curating the tweets for each chat in a Wakelet. I am also involved in 1:1 peer support, coaching and mentoring. Most of the above I do in a Workplace by Facebook community of learners using an educational, non-commercial licence that 2 Facebook execs gave me in response to tweets about accessing Workplace during an #ESNChat at the end of 2017. Of my 6 circles, 2 were run on Slack and 4 were on Workplace after getting the licence. I have facilitated 2 x Week 0 calls for other circles.

Q5: What skills do you believe you increasingly need in your own world of work and more widely?
A5:

1. The ability to make a number of my working practices routine/automated.
2. Manage distractions.
3. Do one thing at a time.
4. Apply what I learn more quickly and deeply.
5. Actually do deep work.
6. Manage my own self-care with specific reference to my inner voice.
7. Reflect on what I do more.
8. Widen and deepen my MS Project expertise.
9. Become more relentless in my drive for conclusions and follow-up.
10. Implement any form of rapid Weekly Review per David Allen.
11. Sort out my content acquisition, marshalling and sharing processes so they are less chaotic.
12. Ditto with my content creation processes.
13. Become more familiar with collaboration skills …
14. … and then put them into practice.
15. Get more ruthless with carving out time for just-in-time learning and learning for capability.

Q6: Assess yourself and those in your organisation against the skills listed in this part of the book.

today’s vital skillset for success includes:-

1. learning agility – learn new things quickly
   Simon: very adept at this for the whole learning life cycle, would like to apply more of what I learn; this includes just-in-time learning for specific things I need my existing office tools to do
   Organisation: heavily need-driven, parts of the org are getting more proactive at capability development, currently recruiting for people with specific skills for potential/actual contracts
   
   
2. collaboration
   Simon: a subject I want to explore more, very collaborative within and external to my organisation; virtually nothing I do I can do without the work of others; a heavy link sharer not attachment sharer, increasingly frustrated at the lack of collaboration platform to work with (email and file shares only), no video calls just audio calls
   Organisation: many different people with different roles and capabilities are needed to implement IT solutions for our clients; our knowledge could be better marshalled and used to speed up our service delivery, we do amazing work for amazing clients who do amazing things
   
   
3. teamwork
   
Simon: happy leading and/or being a member of any team, good at clarifying roles, planning, implementing, mostly in virtual teams with internal staff and client staff in multiple organisations, could have better working relationships with some colleagues that I continue to work on
Organisation: my view is that we could increase the formality and planning of our work to be more effective and efficient, we get things done with complex technology, be great to have communication about strategy and progress against strategy, the bulk of the company works out of a single location, we could be making use of collaboration platforms to get things done more effectively and quickly, knowledge on specific solutions needs to be more widely shared


4. perseverance
   
Simon: I am relentless when driving activities through to completion per my core project management role and service management
Organisation: we are good at maintaining up-time of large solutions including fire-fighting to solutions when there are solution issues


5. curiosity
   
Simon: I am curious to my core on a relentless quest for knowledge about things I already know and things that may become of interest at a later date, I am good at asking questions to satisfy my curiosity.
Organisation: A hard one to answer. I sense that this curiosity is mainly for knowledge directly related to current activities and not more widely re R&D


6. ability to question the world around you
Simon: always asking questions to help my understanding and to take others deeper, always looking to identify requirements from clients and not just accept their designs (if that is the design, what is the problem or opportunity you are trying to address?), always interested in other people’s point of view
Organisation: in some senses, similar to me but I am finding this question hard to answer for those further from me, close colleagues do seek to understand the business requirements for our clients before, during and after we have delivered our solutions

Q7: Respond to the question “do you, and how do you, learn every day?”. Take your answer anywhere you would like to go in one stream of writing.
A7: A definite and emphatic “Yes!”. In every and all ways … books, podcasts, WOL circles, videos, book clubs, back-channelling at conferences (I don’t get oyt much or hardly at all!), in-person study groups, Twitter, Facebook groups, Workplace by Facebook groups that I am community manager for, other Workplace by Facebook multi-company groups of global Chief Workplace Offices, Workplace by FB admin, comms professionals etc, webinars, hosting webinars, community managing my own and other communities, MOOCs. Since doing my first MOOC and the WOL circles, I have learned the power of learning in groups. This has opened my eyes and been life-changing for me.

Q8: For whatever organisation is most relevant to you, does your organisation have captured anywhere:-

1. the skills it needs,
   Simon: I am not aware of these being logged corporately. I would assume and hope that individual managers do their own thing with this.
   I have been involved in doing this at a previous company I worked for where we had a set of competencies defined for our part of the IT team and there were a wider set of competencies for the whole organisation. This work still stands the test of the time per the docs linked to above.
   
   
2. who has those skills
   Simon: see answer for 1.
   In my own case, these have not been formally or informally discussed with me or logged.
   
   
3. and how proficient are they,
   Simon: see answer for 1.
    
4. what best builds those skills,
   Simon: see answer for 1. A number of staff are technical requiring supplier certifications.
   I did play with Degreed many months ago defining a number of roles and adding resources related to each role by way of a training pathway. This was purely experimental at the time but could form the basis of anything I did in this area in the future.
   
   
5. what are our current learning and development plans?
   Simon: see answer for 1.
   

Q9: For yourself, answer the following:

1. what are my job or career goals?
   Simon: to manage bespoke/package software development projects with the need for business change of core operational business processes requiring me in a consultancy and project management role. More widely, to implement and use collaboration platforms for own or other organisations. To job craft to make use of the skills I have picked up outside of work in paid employment or service roles. Work to implement WOL circles and become more widely known and recognised as a WOL advocate. More formal coaching and workshop facilitation roles.
   
   
2. what skills do I need?
Simon: project management, requirements elicitation, business consultancy, workshop facilitation, business process mapping, data modelling, meeting chairing and actions capture, service management, managing internal and external staff to deliver projects/solutions


3. where am I strong or weak?
   Simon: weak at technical stuff but not necessity in my current role, lack of project opportunities in recent past that fully match my skills profile, would like to be more proficient using MS Project and Visio, lack of recent practice of lots of my skills, need to do a refresh of what I know and resume practic
   
   
4. where can I best build the skills I need?
   Simon: lots of the skills can be built on my own, need putting into practice on workstreams that I am managing, look for coaching opportunities (e.g. project mgt culture, change mgt culture), ditto with skills transfer
   
   
5. how can I measure and prove my skills?
   Simon: for each skill, define what constitutes gradings such as None, Novice, Proficient, Expert and then assess myself for each skill assigning a grading appropriately, ideally with colleague confirmation/input. This needs examples throughout.

Q10: What is your view, if you have one, of where the Learning and Development function should sit in an organisation?
I am agnostic on this to the extent that each organisation needs to sort out its own organisational structure so I would rather answer this for each specific organisation when I have understood their business strategy and people strategy and the strengths/weaknesses of the organisation internally and the opportunities/threats confronting the organisation. A key part of L&OD is to maximise the value for money of all development work. Wherever possible, such development should be standardised to assist in the ongoing development and nurturing of organisational culture. My personal view is that the scope and remit of  teams and roles such as HR, L&D, OD, Compliance etc etc need to be clearly defined so the inevitable overlaps are clear for all to see and manage.

Q11: What do you understand by the term self-directed learning?
A11: A person deciding for themselves why, what, when, where, how and with whom they are going to learn anything.

Q12: Would you say you are or are not a self-directed learner and why?
A12: Yes! Learning for me is a priority and has become something of a hobby that I do outside my daily work. I do more learning than the vast majority of people I know. This was also confirmed to me during an assessment while doing Harvard’s Leaders Of Learning which classified me as a Distributed Individual. See video @ https://youtu.be/5JCPve4D3HA. This me to a tee!

Q13: What are your own preferred ways of learning? Take your answer anywhere you would like to go in one stream of writing.
A13: I love having the agency to do my A11 answer above with no requirement for permission from anyone else for time or budget etc. I can learn anything I choose to learn when etc. I love learning from books. I love discussing books etc with others. I am new to learning from others and that has been an eye-opener given that all my formal education was me taking exams etc on my own with no work assessed as part of a group. I love learning from experts via YouTube. I hate the L&D sessions where what you learn is derived from the collective wisdom (sic … aka ignorance) of the group re “what do you know about etc etc?”. This is OK if that is made clear at the outset when “booking”. WOL Circles have truly been a huge eye-opener to me via getting to know complete strangers and then working with 4 others from around the world on the same exercises and on different personal goals and truly learning from others in the moment. I loved that discipline. MOOCs remain for me a good way to learn new things. Not done any for a while now. Books and book clubs and 1:1 peer support are my current best ways of learning. I remain a black belt rabbit-trailer. My current activity is locating content on Disraeli after hearing David Starkey recommending studying that PM’s life for Boris Johnson as he seeks to govern all parts of the UK.

Notes

Many companies suffer obsolescence

company disruption will only compound in the years to come

50% of S&P 500 companies will be replaced over next 10 years

to avoid being part of that churn:-

1. reinvent yourself
2. think about digital disruption
3. upskill your people

large scale transition in how we work:-

1. digitisation
2. automation
3. acceleration

critical skills & expertise will be imperative for orgs to succeed

“The task confronting every economy, particularly advanced economies, will likely be to retrain and redeploy tens of millions of midcareer, middle-age workers.”; 2018 McKinsey Global Institute

uncharted territory esp re speed of change

few precedents for the scale of retraining needed

The workforce is not prepared

“hire only” strategy not ideal for getting the new talent & skills needed

challenge of training relevantly even in universities

challenge of finding people you need

some grads incapable of delivering basics of their degree learning in a work situation

issue includes hard and soft skills

today’s vital skillset for success includes:-

1. learning agility – learn new things quickly
2. collaboration
3. teamwork
4. perseverance
5. curiosity
6. ability to question the world around you

if you are not ready & willing to learn every day and keep up with rapidly changing world, you will not stay competitive

you do not finish learning all that you (will) need to know at university

Business leaders closing the skills gap

government have power to move this on but key role for companies and their leaders to lead the way

you need to retool yourself, at least 5-10 hours learning each week else obsolete
[ Randall Stephenson, CEO, AT&T ]

all forms of learning

people often under-estimate how long they spend on learning as they do not always categorise what they are doing as learning

employees with right skills impact companies’ ability to succeed

many business leaders are not asking the right questions

consider:-

1. how many CEOs know if they have right skills for their company?
2. how many managers & leaders know what skills the people on their teams have?
3. how many employers have a clear view of the skills they will need for the future?

questions to ask:-

1. CEOs
1. do we have the skills we need to win?
2. Business Leaders
1. what skills do we need?
2. where are we strong or weak?
3. what will best build those skills?
4. how are we doing?
3. Employees
1. what are my job or career goals?
2. what skills do I need?
3. where am I strong or weak?
4. where can I best build the skills I need?
5. how can I measure and prove my skills?

(and then iterate round each loop)

The power of building skills for the future

most forward-thinking orgs are being proactive in adapting to shift in workforce

expertise has never been so crucial as it is today to a person’s or org’s success

many in midst of digital transformation & understand that (re)(up)skilling is a matter of staying relevant

Visa moved learning function out of HR to Corporate Strategy i.e. more than compliance training

many shifting to adapt to changes in workforce and not standing still

business strategy not learning programmes

networks internal/external now more important, skills form the connections

networks form around what people can do

we employ people for what they can do and their purpose in doing it

skills development needs to be at same speed as change

need people with the skills needed and who can build new ones quickly

needs to be environment where people are continuously learning new skills

orgs need to encourage people to learn every day – build it into the work already being done not separate

The Expert Revolution

old methods of corporate learning will not work for building future skills

people now often self-directed

people learning everywhere all the time

but orgs not recognising what people are learning, what skills they are building & how working for future careers

people are doing this for survival – they want to stay relevant in the workforce too

lots of experts in your workforce in all teams – the 80% who are not targeted for mgt/leadership development who have had to figure out on own how to develop their expertise & build skills and knowledge

they did/do this by identifying / plugging gaps in their skills and learning in any form they can & applying what they learned until mastered it

some have had mentors, others not

orgs need to grow talent base – focus on developing new experts, helping all close skills gap & master specialised capabilities

do by encouraging them to own their own personal professional development every day

the most effective leaders inspire employees to personalise what/how they learn

do not treat all the same

learning complicated / messy

not just about supporting people but also about creating right environment for people to take ownership of what / how they learn

this book shows how

structure:-

1. review latest scientific research on how people really learn re their motivation and how they develop expertise
2. guiding principles:-
1. make learning a competitive advantage
1. helps attract talent
2. embrace personalised learning
1. don’t waste time with what they do not need
3. combat content overload
1. curated content – human and machine
4. understand the power of peers
1. focus on how we learn from our peers
5. succeed with the right tech
1. learning eco-systems
6. analyse your employees’ skills with data and insight
1. better understanding of their current skills
2. what they need
3. how close gaps
4. help people find their next opportunity
7. make skills and expertise count
1. skills quotient (SQ)
2. labour market inside orgs where skills are the currency
3. apply SQ to recruiting, reskilling, promotions, mentoring

Chapter 1: How We Really Learn

Book Club Questions

Q1: What is your assessment of how well you know how people learn?
A1: Having read “Make It Stick” earlier this year, prior to that not well at all! After reading that book it was like I was being told all that you know about learning is wrong. I am better placed now but still a lot to learn especially really believing that we are all different in how we learn and that should be taken into account when we are designing learning experiences.

Q2: What is your assessment of other people’s motivation to learn? Use the 4 blockers to motivation from the chapter if that helps your response.

1. you do not value what you are doing or how you are doing it
   Simon: aware that some people are only prepared to do the bare minimum when it comes to learning, often due to the same people working to live and not seeing work as more fulfilling than that.
2. you do not believe you are capable of learning a complex subject
   Simon: aware that some people put themselves down re what they are able to do and learn in a work environment.
3. you blame environmental circumstances (e.g. no time to learn)
   Simon: aware that some people are not given the time to learn in their work environment, mostly though if people ask to learn and it is directly relevant to the current or imminent job roles then that learning can happen. An approach to addressing this is learning specifically on the job with peer coaching on real work assignments.
4. you struggle with negative emotional states that distract you from learning
   Simon: no awareness of examples of this that come immediately to learn. Distraction often due to pressures of the day job and time not being allocated to the person to do the training. Great example recently of a colleague telling me and other leaders in the organisation were about to spend half a day a week doing training in a specific location in the office and ideally were not to be disturbed during those times.

A2: Overall, many people may not be aware of what is stopping them from learning more or at all. This would especially be the case for those where there is no review and assessment-type process for such consideration.

Q3: What is your assessment of your own motivation to learn? Use the 4 blockers to motivation from the chapter if that helps your response.

1. you do not value what you are doing or how you are doing it
   Simon: This is not me at all. I am an inveterate learner. I do need to improve some of my learning processes to be more effective.
2. you do not believe you are capable of learning a complex subject
   Simon: I do have blind spots and lack of interest in some subjects and topics. I suspect I could make the effort but no interest. Some of this relates to work-related things re motivation but also general learning.
3. you blame environmental circumstances (e.g. no time to learn)
   Simon: most of my learning is done in my own time and that time is extensive. I am looking increasingly to up my capability during my normal day-job activities and looking for opportunities to document my own best practice to help others.
4. you struggle with negative emotional states that distract you from learning
   Simon: some of this goes back to 2 in this list above. Distraction is an obvious one. I need to learn to channel my curiosity in such a way that it does not get in the way of me starting or progressing my learning activities.

A3: Nothing to add to the above.

Q4: The chapter talks about neuromyths about learning. Do you have any fixed views about your own or others’ learning?
A4: I try to do a little and often but often binge learn when I get the bit between my teeth. Books are a core element to my learning. A fan of videos too. Not convinced by only reading book summaries. I need to read fiction so it is not all business- etc- related.
Strong believer in deciding for myself how, what, where, when, why, with whom I learn. I see that as being a challenge if I was to have to justify to colleagues at work what learning I wanted to do re time and budget approval processes. I would love to do more in the L&D space but that is just not possible in my current role and would have to be done in my own time (taking leave etc). A year + ago it was great being part of an in-company WOL event as the only independent person giving my view but that had to be in my own time.
Already this book is confronting me with the fact that I view others’ learning as I view my own that there is one best way plus I have not really considered in detail how other people learn and how that might challenge or benefit my own way of learning. 

Q5: What are your own sacrosanct beliefs about learning?
A5: I want to learn from experts in the subject area. I do not want to be trained by people who are not experts. Learning needs to be continual in all areas of life to cross-fertilise. Learning needs to be put into practice. Learning needs to be done for capability development as well as just-in-time learning. The former is often harder to justify if not my decision. I need to decide what etc I learn. I am also really into developing my strengths rather that seeking to improve my weaknesses (unless those are crippling!).

Q6: Describe your motivation for learning in the past and now including any specifics about autonomy, mastery and purpose.
A6: School – all had to be done, not lots of motivation. University – I went to my 4th choice university but turned out to be an ideal fit for me. Course was new to me in all subject areas (Business Studies / Management Science) and I loved most of the subjects. All my choices as I went along. MBA a few years later learning on the back of a number of years experience. Took longer to complete that planned as I wanted to do all parts of all course units. Learning during employment – invariably directly work-related. Some classic courses whose content I still use to this day. Some of which I sourced myself. Others to meet specific needs. One memorable example where every person in the entire company went through some amazing customer service training. Reading books in recent years has come to the fore as something I get a lot out of especially when reading with others. Learning to learn with others has been eye opening and amazing. MOOCs I started doing in 2013 and then switched to Working Out Loud circles in 2017. Doing lots of work on career and life planning with others including 1:1 work as peer support to each other. Books increasingly now the vehicle for my learning.

Q7: How do you describe how your learning and your career interrelate?
A7: My learning since 2013 has been mainly about capability. I know that I need to sort my career aspirations out to job craft or seek other roles that better fit my current range of passions and interest areas. These capabilities are relevant to my current role but only if we get contracts in those areas. In summary, I would love my learning to better enable me to do amazing work in amazing roles.

Q8: Describe you and growth mindset and fixed mindset.
A8: Definitely have a growth mindset personally. I suspect I need to pitch that to and challenge others more re their own view and their own personal development

Q9: How do you respond to know-it-all versus learn-it-all?
A9: I have always been aware that I do not know-it-all and hopefully I never come across in that way. I love and believe strongly in the whole learn-it-all idea and way of being. I believe I live that and am seen to live that by those who know me closest.

Q10: List any examples of you and grit and resilience in your career and learning to date.
A10: I have bounced back from periods of redundancy. I suspect I need more grit and resilience in my daily life in all my roles. I would be more effective as a result. I am addressing some inner critic/voice issues to become more capable in these areas. I am a completer/finisher and always seek to complete what I start. I need to be more relentless when starting and progressing “difficult” things.

Q11: What is your view of knowledge and skills?
A11: Knowledge is head-knowledge that may have progressed to skills to use and apply that knowledge. I am continually seeking to apply more of the knowledge that I acquire.

Q12: What issues do you see with a one-size fits all for learning?
A12: We each have unique ways of learning and therefore a common approach may not be appropriate ever or rarely. We also have our own preferences for learning which may conflict with others’ preferences. Likely that such training will not meet all requirements.

Q13: What issues do you see with tailoring learning for all employees in an organisation?
A13: Cheaper (in the short term) and easier to produce learning experiences that are one-size-fits-all. More difficult and more complex to tailor to specific employees e.g. you would need to conduct some assessment on how each employee prefers to learn. Likely that such training will meet all requirements.

Q14: Go through the learning loop and assess yourself on each step re proficiency and practice.
A14:

1. knowledge
   Simon: On a continual quest to learn in all contexts and from all media that I consciously choose to consume
2. practice
   Simon: Some learning knowledge is easier to apply than others. E.g. I have just read James Clear’s Atomic Habits in which there are lots of exercises to apply the content but for other books where the text is more commentary or assessment this is more about knowledge to bring to bear on situations later. I am on a quest to apply more directly the knowledge I have obtained through learning. Part of this is the reason why I have started setting myself questions to answer for each non-fiction book I am reading.
3. feedback
   Simon: I am aware that it would be helpful to get more feedback in response to my service delivery and product outputs. I should seek that more proactively. I do encourage others with feedback including alternative ways of doing things or how to improve the process etc.
4. reflection
   Simon: I am aware that I need to do this more proactively. I am taking first steps but need to do considerably better and not just do this cursorily. I see that people hold this up as extremely beneficial but I have yet to fully buy into this as I have yet to experience the full value of doing so. 

Q15: Give 1 or more examples of how you could use the Learning Loop with your next learning activities.
A15:
A: Immunity To Change 1:1 Peer Support programme

1. knowledge
   Simon: read the book content to fully understand what the authors are saying
2. practice
   Simon: do all the exercises in the book and the Harvard MOOC content that we are using and share all of that with the other person.
3. feedback
   Simon: seek and obtain feedback from the other person on the outputs from 2
4. reflection
   Simon: assess and respond to feedback from the other person from 3 and do  on the outputs from 2

Q16: What is your reflection practice and how could you improve your practice?
A16: Reactively - I am better. Responding to Twitter Chat questions and conversations. Ditto for course questions, exercises and assignments.
Proactively – I am improving, Started journaling in a paper Five-Minute Journal (each day - 3 things grateful for, 3 things that would make today great, daily affirmation “I am …”, 3 amazing things that happened today, how could I have made today even better). And also journaling in Evernote which is currently more like a diary. Definitely wanting to do better at deep reflection on learning, practice etc,

Q17: How vulnerable would you feel if your answers to the question of your training needs in the Introduction (Qs 5 and 6) were made public to your  colleagues?
A17: Quite vulnerable in places but happy to have a conversation on this with anyone and the more open-minded and less judgemental they are the better. I am a Working Out Loud advocate so this content is effectively open to all in any case (public blog post).

Notes

to help people become experts, critical to understand how people learn best

know more about how the brain works and how people learn most effectively today

The science of learning

surprising that most companies do not use what we know about the science of learning to help employees learn & build skills

Bror Saxberg did project at NASA re better understand how brain stores/codes info in 1978/9 – need to take cognition and motivation into account

when something new to learn “you need to start, persist and put in mental effort. That’s when the brain changes. It’s like a muscle, and the brain actually changes as a result of learning.”

things that can go wrong with learning motivation:-

1. you do not value what you are doing or how you are doing it
2. you do not believe you are capable of learning a complex subject
3. you blame environmental circumstances (e.g. no time to learn)
4. you struggle with negative emotional states that distract you from learning

people learn  when they care

to get people to care - understand that each person has unique mix of cognitive capabilities & motivations – you need to know what makes them tick from these 2 perspectives

failure to do this is a very poor way to get engagement and learning

you have to solve for context, personalisation & motivation for successful learning

Neuromyths about learning

Julia Sperling, neuroscientist – myths:-

1. myth: people only use 10% of their brain
   reality: you use almost entire capacity of your brain
   
   
2. myth: people are either right- or left-brain thinkers
   reality: they do not function completely separately; learning has nothing to do with this
   
   
3. myth: people have an optimal channel (e.g. visual, hearing) through which they learn
   reality: people actually use as many channels as they can access; most effective when all senses combined into the learning experience;
   people learn best when they have to teach someone else how to do something
   
   
4. myth: there are certain windows of learning and when they close impossible to reopen them
   reality: people can learn new things at any age; neuroplasticity of brain allows us to learn, refine, add new capabilities throughout our lives

The truth about learning

Sperling – things to help us understand how brain actually works re learning:-

1. all capable of learning throughout our lives & we all have unlimited capacity to learn
2. how mindful we are impacts how well we learn something new;
   mindfulness (paying attention to present moment) & meditation can significantly improve our readiness to take in new knowledge
3. mindset matter – growth mindset = we believe we can learn new things
4. focused attention is highly impactful to learning (multitasking is discouraged!)
5. we learn best when we have desire; also helps when we feel learning is relevant to us & when we are in an enjoyable learning environment
6. positive feedback accelerates the learning journey

Eagleman also hightlights the importance of sleep in learning

sleep essential for memory function & for making connections

all-nighters and cramming not good

more effective to study then sleep

reading in general is important for learning

fiction develops the brain’s “theory of mind”, builds empathy with the characters to understand mental states, thoughts, emotions & beliefs

helps leaders understand their employees & their teams at deeper level and tailor motivators to individual needs

Learning fast does not equal being smart

Todd Rose – author of End of Average – states people conflate learning quickly with intelligence – but research shows no correlation

standardise testing built on this notion – giving more time to a test actually does help some people

slowing down learning overall can work to our advantage

more than 1 way to get something right

more than 1 path to mastery

taking time to learn is not sign of poor intelligence

we often reward the speedy learners who learn just enough

Motivation is everything

encouraging people to learn also means motivating them to learn

Malcolm Knowles (adult educator) – 1st extensive research on adult learning – an adult’s strongest motivators to learn are internal / intrinsic not external / extrinsic

adults need to know why they need to learn something

when it comes to learning, motivation is key

see Daniel Pink’s book “Drive” – mismatch between what science knows and what business does

talks about human motivation:-

1. autonomy – our desire to be self-directed
2. mastery – our urge to make progress & get better at what we do
3. purpose – our yearning to contribute & be part of something larger than ourselves

cf Kenneth Thomas’ list (mgt prof):-

1. meaningfulness
2. choice
3. competence
4. progress

what do businesses actually do:-

1. instead of autonomy & choice, command & control model for what/when employees should learn incl compliance training
2. more focus on completion than learning
3. clueless about lack of employee engagement missing the fact that people have need for meaning in their lives via meaning & meaningful work

lots of companies use external motivators – eg office-based services – but these do not address core internal motivators

what today’s employees want:-

1. have an impact in their work
2. flexibility of when/where to do their work
3. see their work connected to bigger purpose
4. opportunity to learn/grow in careers

compensation is key external motivator but does not outweigh internal motivators

if companies addressed this in their strategies would help recruitment & retention

employees need sense of meaning / purpose to motivate them into learning

Meaning and purpose as drivers of learning

best employees drawn to orgs that are mission-driven & want to have positive impact on society

Aaron Hurst researched relationship between purpose and work

people wired to see work from 2 perspectives:-

1. purpose orientation – personal fulfilment + method of serving others
2. work as way to achieve status, advancement & income

merging purposeful employees with goal-orientated orgs is powerful mix

Philip Mirvis (org psychologist) – combo fosters developmental engagement where org aims to activate & develop more fully its employes (and org in general) to produce greater value for business & society

Carol Dweck (psychologist, Stanford) – having a purpose makes life more meaningful – effort gives meaning to life, means you care about something, willing to work for it

she believes in power of mindset, believing you can improve

people have either a growth or a fixed mindset when it comes to learning

fixed mindset:-

1. we are either smart or not
2. learned all we can
3. lack ability to learn a complex topic
4. challenges are threatening

growth mindset:-

1. we can learn something new every day
2. we can improve our ability to learn about complex subjects if we try
3. growth people have brains that engage
4. challenges are exciting

“not yet” grades vs failing grades – students get opportunity to rework – so grade not based on 1st submission

Learning and mindset as a competitive advantage

leaders who embrace growth mindset tend to be more introspective about their own learning and leadership

cf Satya Nadella, CEO of MS from 2014 – inspired by Dweck – understands learning can be huge competitive advantage – learn-it-all vs know-it-all – the former will win

ask at end of each day – where was I too close-minded or where did I not show the right kind of attitude or growth in my own mind?

smartest employees now may not be smartest in long term – factor this in during recruitment

ask about their learning last year in interviews

people who value learning can demonstrate learning when asked

Grit and resilience

Angela Duckworth – 27 when moved from mgt consulting to teaching 7th grade maths in NY school – lower IQs performing better than high IQs – motivation key factor

changed to graduate research – started asking children and adults “who is successful here and why?”

predictor of success – grit or passion & perseverance for very long term goals

usually unrelated or inversely related to IQ

in successful learning need both grit and a growth mindset

Getting practical about learning

difference between knowledge and skills

(Simon: application!)

in orgs generally no distinction between the 2

for their employees to know more or gain new skills, needs to be common / basic understanding of what learning is all about

Lectures are not learning

in most orgs, knowledge transfer is at foundation of corporate training

training requests met by classroom lectures or e-learning equivalent

need to take the time to understand the requirement

passive receivers of info with quiz at end

training all staff the same thing when specific people have the issue is bad approach

cf training the average person, 1-size fits all is far from optimal & defo not effective

(Simon: develop strengths)

taken from university model, content learned and tested but not used later

it is what you do with knowledge you gain that is most important

move to active learning – putting knowledge into practice

knowledge is what you know, skills are what you can do

Simple learning loop

learning process:-

1. knowledge
1. multiple sources
2. practice
1. often skipped!
2. vital to develop a new skill
3. feedback
1. on practicing the new skill
4. reflection
1. on experience of the prior 3 steps

then cycle back round

following each step helps us gain / retain important knowledge / skills, whilst building a real appetite for further learning

Reflecting builds emotional intelligence

beneficial reasons for reflecting:-

1. gain greater insight on your experience
2. help with problem solving, critical thinking & EQ
3. even without feedback you can reflect yourself

often missed in flow of business

having a structure to catalyse it is critical – use it on your learning log

ideally share this with others

Vulnerability in learning

one reason why the above is not applied in orgs is some people do not like to admit that they need to learn – makes them feel exposed and vulnerable

OK to do this in school as there to learn!

if boss knows you need to learn something will they think differently of you? held against you in performance reviews

takes courage to say you do not know something in a competitive work environment

as leaders, key role to reassure employees that this is OK

Five steps to helping employees learn and gain expertise

how to incorporate this into your organisational learning strategy?

1. understand and apply the simple Learning Loop
2. model mindset and apply the right motivators
1. don’t just recommend course to meet need
2. what do staff want
3. learn-it-all not know-it-all
4. let staff take ownership of their own learning
3. have employees assess skills gaps
1. help them understand their strengths, weaknesses & skills gaps – adds incredible value
2. where do they want to go career-wise
3. staff to identify their best exemplars
1. who is really good at what you want to do?
2. which experts held in high regard by peers & immediate supervisors?
3. who do you want to emulate?
4. brutal self-assessment of their skills gaps
4. encourage autonomy with your employees
1. as employer focus on what gets not done not how it gets done
2. build trust with your employees
3. given them ownership over their career path with support, mentoring etc
5. encourage more reading and fewer lectures
1. some of the most respected leaders of our time are avid readers
2. stay near and emulate people you admire
1. you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with