“Stay foolish, but don’t be a fool!” Learning agility becomes one of the most important capabilities for digital professionals to compete for the future.
We live in a world with exponential growth of information and abundant knowledge, learning is not the things you are “done” only in your youth, it has to become a lifestyle, and develop it as a great habit; collectively, as the culture thing. Learning is a lifelong experience, it should make our mind more open to embrace new possibilities and creative to solve problems in alternative ways. Here are a few pieces of insight from Aribian Proverbs on “how to stay foolish, but not being a fool.”
“He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him”：
If specialists think they have all the knowledge beyond their own domain, perhaps they are like the frog underneath the well to watch a small part of the sky, but think they see the whole universe. If generalists believe they can solve all complex problems which often need in-depth domain knowledge, or cross-disciplinary dot connection, often they only fix the symptom, not the real issues. If the business managers ignore the blind spot and make rush decisions, they are all easy to get the trap of being a “fool.”
Self-awareness mind helps you build on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. Knowing oneself comes from the practice of actively and intentionally being present to relate to, and see all the different parts of oneself and how they operate. Not knowing yourselves as best as you can, how can you improve and become a better version of yourself? Or how can you make any change and aim for a progressive change? So, investigate more and more yourself every day, and be authentic and objective, know what you know, also know what you don’t know as well. If you only know two colors - black and white; then perceptions are filtered into one of those two dimensions. You can only know what you know, but there are more dimensions which you don’t know.
It’s no surprise that there is learning or change inertia, a lot of people resist as it takes them outside their comfort zone which generally gives a negative feeling. Digital literacy is not about reading and writing; but more about how skillfully you can swim in the sea of information to update knowledge; how fluently you can connect the interdisciplinary dots to spark creativity, and how effectively you can make sound judgment. Keep learning and become digital fluent.
“He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a student; teach him”:
Without learning, most of us are like a frog in a well. The education or continuous learning, may be, takes us out of the well, Learning agility becomes one of the most important professional characteristics to compete for the future. How deeply your understanding is based on the mindset, logic, knowledge, lenses, and methodology you leverage to interpret things. Learning becomes a knowledge builder and we can define learning through the information it absorbs, the insight being captured, and the capability it builds.
You can only know what you know, but there are more dimensions which you don’t know; there’s known unknown and unknown unknown. you have to be humble to realize there are many things you know you don’t know and perhaps even more which you don't know what you don't know. Until that happens, you will continue in the lives of blindness.
People who are learning agile continuously seek new challenges, solicit direct feedback, self-reflect, cultivate learning habits, and get work done resourcefully. People need to discover their inner strength, build skills by focusing on the learning opportunities offered by assignment, rather than on the status quo that goes with them. A focus on learning and development reduces attrition and has a great quantitative ROI.
“He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep; wake him”:
We live in the era of exponential growth of information and abundant knowledge. There is false information, knowledge becomes outdated sooner than you think. You need to not only assimilate the existing knowledge, more importantly, you also to keep updating knowledge, create new knowledge and become the knowledge value creator. Sometimes, you think you know something, but that knowledge is perhaps outdated long time ago, you need to unlearn and relearn all the time.
Top seasoned persons in life become aware when some of the long-acquired knowledge is no longer applicable in certain situations. They have learned to no longer apply that knowledge in those specific cases. This is unlearning. And then, relearn the updated knowledge for gaining insight on the changing circumstances.
Therefore, regardless of your age, develop a learning mindset, remove outdated concept and let fresh knowledge flow in, make unusual connections to spark creativity. Collectively, an effective team with gifted people, with a range of expertise and disciplines and, most critically, who are still curious, can make a significant difference by “waking” each other, complementing each other’s viewpoint, and do things innovatively.
“He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise; follow him.”
People with learning mind see unique patterns and make fresh connections that others overlook. To embrace mental agility, today’s digital professionals need to become critical and creative thinker at the same time, in order to solve complex business problems effectively. If knowledge is concrete, intelligence is contextual, and then, wisdom is abstract, like the light to guide us through. Wisdom has something to do with making a sound judgment. The wise people demonstrate the wisdom to make sound judgments and effective decisions consistently. They are the ones worth following.
“Stay foolish, but don’t be a fool!” Learning agility becomes one of the most important capabilities for digital professionals to compete for the future. Today’s digital professionals are hard workers, knowledge workers, and creative workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigm proactively in a continuous way.
“Stay foolish, but don’t be a fool!” Learning agility becomes one of the most important capabilities for digital professionals to compete for the future. Today’s digital professionals are hard workers, knowledge workers, and creative workers, who are exploring, innovating and evolving to new digital paradigm proactively in a continuous way.
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