Being a professional in the field of learning and a self-professed
life-long learner, it is no coincidence that learning plays a critical role in
my day-to-day life. Whether it is improving a skill or acquiring a new good
habit or just gaining new insights, I am always up for learning. I distinguish
meaningful learning from mere acquisition of information/knowledge in the sense
that learning results in change. This could be change in behavior, perspective, intention or action.
No matter how self-directed we are, there is only so much we can learn
on our own. Our context, whether it is the workplace, family or society,
contribute immensely to our learning because learning cannot take place in a
vacuum. And I believe that the context provided by
people around us contributes the most to what we learn. As captured in the infographic below, the top three ways that my colleagues and confidants can support and challenge my learning in meaningful ways are Feedback,
Dialogue and Compassion.
Feedback: And I am refering to constructive feedback here. My most
important "aha" moments have been a result of the constructive
feedback provided by colleagues and confidants who cared enough to observe
something (behavior, action, words) and had valuable inputs to provide on how
that something was either great and useful or could be improved upon. Not only was this
constructive feedback informative, but it was also though-provoking and many
times has led me to challenge my assumptions and even bring about a
transformation in me.
Dialogue: Another powerful way that some deep insights and learning has
come my way is through engaging in dialog. This is a wonderful way of sharing
perspectives, especially contrarian perspectives, and to really understand what
the other point of view is and where it is coming from. Dialogue is the
foundation of critical thinking because it brings to attention those
perspectives that I may never have been able to get a peek into, had I not
talked about it with that colleague or confidant. It literally provides
"food for thought". Many times it has also been a way of affirming
that I am not completely crazy and that my thoughts are coherent enough to make
sense to someone other than me!
Compassion: This one may seem a little out of place; what's compassion
got to do with learning in meaningful ways, right? For people who place a high
value on success and cringe at failure, it is not easy to learn when we fail.
We are already quite critical of ourselves for failing, so when the trusted
colleague or confidant is also critical about something we failed to do or
learn, it very becomes difficult to look at learning and/or failure
positively. Here compassion is extremely critical to help people like me believe
that it is okay to fail and that one can learn from failure. Compassion
provides the encouragement we need to keep learning in spite of failure instead
of giving up. It is also possible at times that for whatever reason, I may not
be able to immediately grasp what my colleague or confidant is trying to
communicate or "teach" and in times such as these, a little
compassion will go a long way so that they don't give up on me, but more
importantly, it will also ensure that I don't give up on myself!
Note: Images have been sourced from Google Images and have been used for educational purposes only.
