innovativelearningcycles

Learning is a constant process; the professional workforce today needs to become self-driven, must have the attitude to keep learning, as well as have learning aptitude and intelligence to learn fast and smart.

In face of overwhelming growth of information and increasing pace of changes, learning needs to become a crucial component in professional development, or leadership grooming in order to keep their mind open; make their skills updated and continue to build the dynamic professional competency to compete for the future. In fact, learning agility is the fundamental requirement for all digital professionals. Learning is the key to move forward, address any future potential challenges and issues with more confidence. How to shift from the reactive learning mentality to proactive learning habit, and enhance a few crucial learning-growth-innovation cycles smoothly.

The division between working and learning is replaced by combining and integrating 'working, thinking and learning continuum: In the traditional industrial setting, learning-working is often a linear-step scenario. But to deal with the mix of fresh knowledge and misinformation, people need to keep learning, deepen their understanding of things and people for guiding their actions. By accumulating useful knowledge, people gain the “incremental consciousness” about their own potential, how to develop their professional competencies to get the work done resourcefully, and do the real work by unifying mind, heart, and hands in harmony.

Digital learning is interactive, interdisciplinary, informal, inclusive, and integrated. People continuously seek new challenges, solicit direct feedback, self-motivation and get work done resourcefully. The logic behind learning is to gather the details around the subject under scrutiny by practicing multidimensional thinking and then and only then, can you be selective, to capture invaluable insight to solve problems, and lead progressive changes. The learning styles also become more diversified, rather than “one size fits all,” involving such as self-directing learning, problem-based learning, collaborative learning, or project oriented learning, etc. All of them foster creativity in a structural way by requiring people to break away from the current one-size-fits-all mold and move to more proactive and customized learning.

Leading an innovative cycle of learning-thinking-asking-understanding- sharing-collaborating-creating: Learning is a continuous journey. The goal of learning is to absorb knowledge, generate new knowledge or update old knowledge, for solving problems effectively and innovatively. For improving learning agility, it’s important to be resourceful and objective. Knowledge assets are a blend of resources, not a single asset, learn from the right resource, and integrate knowledge resources to holistic workforce learning solutions. Learning agility is related to managing things such as flexibility, changeability, robustness, sensitivity, comprehensiveness, innovativeness, etc.

Outdated knowledge or “knowing it all” attitude is the burden to explore the new horizon, or turn off the sparkling of your imagination. It's important to make connections between pieces of knowledge. When these connections are structured in a meaningful way, we are better able to retrieve and apply knowledge effectively and powerfully. Also, make learning more fun and interactive, learn by asking to deepen understanding; learn by sharing knowledge to spur creativity and generate new knowledge. A responsible use of knowledge is not an impediment to the imagination. Knowledge can be useful in trying to understand if what's imagined can be achieved. Generative learning allows employees at all levels to be open to new ideas, co-create fresh knowledge, and experiment with alternative ways of doing things. A learning organization is one in which leaders encourage iterative learning-acting-improving, sharing-collaborating-generating business continuum.

Converge the cycle of “learning-delearning-relearning” with the knowledge management cycle of “information-knowledge-insight-wisdom”:

Knowledge cycle is shortened significantly; knowledge is not the same as insight or wisdom. Unlearning and relearning is also a critical part of the learning cycle. Critical thinking and independent thinking are always important to gain insight from static knowledge, people need to continue learning, and master the full cycle of learning-and relearning all the time. By having an active and integral learning, thinking, and knowledge management cycle, over time, digital professionals develop an effective set of filters that help them find new knowledge that interests them and refine them into valuable insight to accomplish their work creatively.

We should be learning all the time as we go, on successes just as much as on failures. The amount we learn is probably closely related to the amount of risk we take, failure or otherwise. We can always learn from success stories either through your past or lessons learned from others. One's own experience teaches more as it generates emotions, good and bad, that can serve as effective mental markers for association. In addition, wisdom is not knowledge; one cannot have wisdom without knowledge or lessons learned. But one cannot substitute wisdom for knowledge as well. If knowledge is gained from learning, insight is captured from re-learning, and then wisdom is a full awareness of the situation and applying it right, as well as a full set of learning, unlearning and relearning.

The rapidly changing business ecosystem makes leaders and professionals feel like they live in the tropical jungle, facing many attacks, in the danger of getting dismissed. Driving digital paradigm shift is not a passive activity, it is a proactive pursuit. Continuous learning is imperative for them to survive and thrive in such a dynamic environment. Learning is a constant process; the professional workforce today needs to become self-driven, must have the attitude to keep learning, as well as have learning aptitude and intelligence to learn fast and smart, and improve their professional competency and maturity.

Posted in: Learning,Talent Master