Push for Accelerated Learning

In over three-and-a-half decades of my working and consulting experience, one thing that I have learned is that I can never learn enough. More important than that I learned very quickly that I needed to learn how to learn. By that I mean to decipher what is important for me to learn, even if that means unlearning what I had previously learnt. For learning is a continuous act; you are learning even when you think you are not.

The mind subconsciously records much of your actions and its effects, as well as those of others. They come back to you eventually and it is up to you to grasp their significance. Then there is the speed at which you learn. Yes, it has to be paced in a way that it does not cause you a burnout. I remember, when I was in school that there was this cousin who was constantly reading the dictionary to be aware of a new word maybe every other minute.

A few years later he would struggle to pass tests in other subjects, as the subjects became slightly more complicated, while he was too used to linear form of learning and his mind had become overused and consequently tired.

That adds another layer to the aspect of learning; that you have to learn, as the situation demands. Just that you have to find the flow that takes you seamlessly on the path of learning rather than in jolts. And in today’s business world that is moving ahead at the speed of light, learning at both individual and institutional level must be accelerated to keep pace with the developments. Not just in general but also compared with what your competition is learning.

As Peter Senge, the systems scientist and founder of the Society for Organisational Learning, said: “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organisation’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”

Substitute organisation with yourself and you realise that for the next promotion or to become the most suitable candidate for that advertised job, you must learn faster than the others.

So what must you do to be able to learn fast either as an individual or for your team to perform better or to lead your organisation to become the best in the industry?

Ask a lot of questions

Yes, they must be quality questions as much as possible but honestly, a fair amount of questions of all types and levels helps in accelerating learning, as expertise and experience are both leveraged on all sides. It is because one questions often leads to another and that is where the issue is further dissected and learning happens.

The teams and departments, where there is more quietness than discourse, invariably fall back into a routine, which, in my opinion, is the very antithesis of learning and development.

In teams where a lot of questions have been asked from each other, each member has that soft pressure to keep abreast of the learnings and developments in their field. No one would want to come up short and since knowledge feeds on knowledge the desire to learn more increases. The more the questions are aimed at finding solutions the more accelerated is the learning, as then debate ensues at every question.

Inculcate a growth mindset

Leadership at every level has to create the right environment to foster this mindset. It is not about just growth in numbers. That can happen temporarily even without accelerated learning. You have to have growth in terms of vision and have a vision for growth.

You do that by asking those questions, yes but also in setting goals for the team and department that would be impossible to achieve if one does not learn every day, whether they are hard or soft skills or simply knowledge about whatever it is an executive does and how it can be done better, smarter and cost effectively.

Have reviews

These are vital for quicker leaning. For instance, I would have a research done on the consumer behaviour and impact every time we finished with a promotional campaign. I would have four weeks before it began to stand as a benchmark and then four weeks after it finished to see whether any buying behaviour or brand perceptions changed. The research would be reviewed by the entire brand management teams and learnings absorbed.

That would help us choose, which media was more effective and when. Or whether the message was clear. The increase in sales would never be taken as the primary measure; change in positive behaviour towards the brand was the key.

Likewise, have regular reviews on all aspects of your business, internal, as well as external. Have a process in which some indicators are measured over a period of time to show, which way is the direction of whatever initiative has been taken.

Act on learnings

Nothing kills the desire to learn more than to see no action taken on any previous lessons learnt, whether it has come through research or interaction on perspectives. You must act on the learnings, even if it is to sound out that you will hold the course. Yes, not all learnings lead to a change in course.

Sometimes, learnings indicate that whatever you are doing right is good for the future. But you have to document that non-action too. At the other extreme, you take decisions that change the course whether it is an HR initiative or a new technology.

Whatever you do the key is to act on the information you have gained. This sends the signal that the effort that has gone into learning is not wasted.

Have access to knowledge

In the time of social media and smartphones you do not have to build an office library physically. However, you can build a virtual library, where you catalogue articles and data for every need and for every function of the office. You see the internet is an ocean of knowledge except you may not know where to look or even if you do it can get hugely cumbersome to sift through the gigabytes of info.

So if you have a knowledge manager who has a team that scrutinises the articles and data and posts the learnings on the relevant forum that can be read quickly and acted upon, or that helps in decision-making, that can accelerate learning in quick time.

In the end note these are the learnings that are different from what one learns through formal training and mentoring. Those are vital, of course, but since they cannot be carried out every day teams and organisations can lose momentum to learn.

But you can ask questions every day, you can act on information continuously, you can review every week or so even in short bursts and above all work every living moment to build a growth mindset and an environment that rewards constructive contribution.

(The writer is a corporate consultant, coach and former CEO with over 35 years of experience in leadership, building brands and organisational strategy. He now advises on business strategy, marketing, HR and media management)