Leverage Your Learning

• Have you ever needed to learn a skill FAST?
• Have you ever worked with people who always seem to know what to do?
• Have you ever wondered how people know when to start learning?
• Have you ever managed a team and wanted to make the most of their skills?

If you've answered YES to any of the above, this e-zine is for you!

There are many models of learning and many ways of helping people to learn.

Here is one model of learning (Maslow) that is simple to apply in the work environment; in fact you can apply it in any learning environment.

Unconsciously unskilled

You may have heard the saying, "ignorance is bliss". While this may not always be true, it does describe an environment where people are operating happily with what they know and the skills they have. As a leader sometimes it will be your role to challenge the status quo, to show people that there are skills they need to develop and learn.

How do you do this? How do you help someone become conscious of skills they don't yet have?

• Create a ‘safe’ learning environment. Make it OK for people to say ‘I don't know’.
• Make links between what they do know and the skills they need to develop. Analogies or similes are great for this (‘it's like this’, ‘it's sort of like that …’)
• Create the need to know – show people the benefits in learning the skill.
• Explore with them the consequences of not having the skill.
• Ask questions – people may never have considered this knowledge or skill before.

How else have you created awareness in your learners? We'd love to hear your ideas bron@bclearning.com.au

Consciously unskilled

This is usually the stage of learning where we commonly think, ‘Aha! I want to/need to learn this!’. Awareness is the first step. For people to effectively learn and master the skill they also need to be motivated to learn. They need to WANT to learn the skill. That is why it is beneficial for you to create the context and ask questions in the first stage of learning.

So how else might you motivate someone to want to learn?

• Give them lots of reasons why they would want to learn the skill.
• Show them the benefits – to themselves, to their team and to the organisation.
• Tell them what they will be learning (some people like to know the details before they begin).
• Show them how you will help them develop the skill (some people need to be confident in the process before they begin).
• Share with them examples of success for other people who have learned the skill.

What other strategies have you used? We'd love to hear them bron@bclearning.com.au

Consciously skilled

This is where we learn the skill. It requires practice, coaching, practice, feedback, practice and more practice. At this stage of learning it is useful to enlist the help of our friend ‘the little voice’. This is the little voice that is in your head and usually provides constant commentary as you're learning a new skill.

The little voice can be practical and informative, saying things like:

• ‘Next you follow the procedure for step 2. That's right, refer to the manual.’
• ‘Remember to include the ideas you heard from your manager yesterday.’
• ‘The reasons for learning this skill are important, let's concentrate.’

The little voice can be a great friend at times, helping to keep you motivated and focused:

• ‘Well done, you're doing well, keep going.’
• ‘You know it just takes practice, you're learning really quickly’
• ‘Congratulations, you're beginning to get the hang of this.’

Sometimes, however, the little voice can be distracting, and not particularly useful as a support for learning. If your little voice has a grumbling tone, or starts to whinge, and says things like …

• ‘What's the point of this? I can't be bothered.’
• ‘I'm stupid and I'll never learn how to do this.’
• ‘I don't want to be here and this is boring.’

these are the times when you might like to ignore the voice, or decide to bring in reinforcements from the positive "little voice" camp.

It may also be useful to talk with other people – especially if they can give you more information about why you're learning the skills, or ways it might be easier for you to learn them. Or it might just be time to take a break, and that's fine too!

Unconsciously skilled

You've made it! For you the skill is easy. You've learned it, mastered it and can do it with your eyes closed. This is great when you need to jump right in and get things done.

At other times, you may be asked to help other people learn that skill. This is the time when remembering this learning ladder can be especially useful. It will help you keep ‘top of mind’ the stages that people go through to learn a skill. 

And it will remind you that people need time and support to progress. If you can coach them and help them progress between each of the stages, they will have the best chance of becoming unconsciously skilled like you.