Learning to Learn

The ever-increasing pace of change in today’s organizations requires that executives understand and then quickly respond to constant shifts in how their businesses operate and how work must get done.

That means you must resist your innate biases against doing new things in new ways, scan the horizon for growth opportunities, and push yourself to acquire drastically different capabilities—while still doing your existing job.

To succeed, you must be willing to experiment and become a novice over and over again, which for most of us is an extremely uncomfortable proposition.

Learning to Learn: The Premise

People who do succeed at this kind of learning have four well-developed attributes: aspiration, self-awareness, curiosity, and vulnerability.

They have a deep desire to understand and master new skills; they see themselves very clearly; they’re constantly thinking of and asking good questions; and they tolerate their own mistakes as they move up the curve. Here are some fairly simple mental strategies that anyone can use to boost these attributes.

Curiosity

• Curiosity is a powerful drive in children, and great learners retain it.
• Self-talk can help increase curiosity by asking curious questions and changing negative thoughts to positive ones.
• When faced with a new subject, use curious language (How? (Why? I wonder?) to spark interest.
• Even a small spark of curiosity can lead to further learning.

Vulnerability

• Great learners are comfortable being in a beginner state and manage their self-talk.
• A balanced mindset for beginners means acknowledging that they will be bad at something at first but can learn over time.
• Expecting mistakes and learning from them early on can lead to better performance and persistence.
• Acknowledging novice status can relieve discomfort and allow for openness to learning.
• Acquiring new skills and knowledge is important for success in a rapidly changing world.

Aspiration

It’s easy to see aspiration as either there or not: you want to learn a new skill or you don’t; you have ambition and motivation or you lack them. But great learners can raise their aspiration level—and that’s key, because everyone is guilty of sometimes resisting development that is critical to success.

• Most people resist learning something new and focus on the negative aspects.
• Shifting focus from challenges to benefits can increase aspiration to learn.
• Imagining how a skill can personally benefit someone can increase motivation to learn it.
• Example: A CMO was hesitant to learn about big data, but after envisioning the benefits, he became excited and hired a data analytics expert.

Awareness

• Most leaders understand the importance of self-awareness, but their self-assessments can be inaccurate when it comes to their learning needs.
• People who evaluate themselves most accurately accept that their perspective is often biased and strive for greater objectivity.
• Pay attention to how you talk to yourself about yourself and question the validity of that self-talk to achieve greater objectivity.
• When receiving criticism, don’t respond defensively. Instead, question the accuracy of your initial reaction and consider the facts to discover the truth.

A balanced inner voice should report the facts of a situation and serve as a “fair witness” to help you see areas in which you could improve and how to do so

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