By Olanrewaju Adekeye
Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught. Ambrose et al also defined it as a process that leads to change, which occurs because of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning.
There are different ways in which we learn namely: auditive learning (by listening and speaking), visual learning (through the eyes — by reading, writing, and watching), haptic learning (by touching and feeling), and learning through intellect.
This background is essential, so you do not reduce learning to just taking online courses — which is an equally important way to learn. As the famous quote goes, learning never exhausts the mind — so, it is a lifelong experience.
How do you improve the learning culture in an organisation?
1. Discover your learning style
It is germane to identify what learning style best suits you and the best way to utilise it. If you learn better by listening, audiobooks and educative podcasts will help a great deal.
This would not be the same for someone whose best learning style is reading or visualisation. For visualizers, books or videos with many illustrations are the way to go. You can convert personal readings into maps, drawings or charts.
It might be difficult to determine what learning style works best for you, but the secret is to try them all at intervals to identify the best.
2. Identify your learning goal
It is important to have a learning goal. It can be a weekly, monthly, or yearly learning goal. This means that you must identify what it is that you want to learn for any chosen period.
You can select a course that aligns with the skills you want to improve on. Break the course into achievable milestones, and then use your suitable learning style to achieve this goal.
3. Have Learning Partners
They could be your peers at work, friends outside work, or your manager. If you want to learn from a manager, you can do that in two ways depending on what it is you want to learn from them.
You can learn by imitation (that is, you watch what they do and how they do it. This works if what you want to learn can be done passively). You can also inform them explicitly about your learning goal so they can actively take you under their tutelage. The same also applies to your colleagues or friends.
4. Take breaks
Breaks are very important to avoid burnout. This can be in the form of team bonding events, team games, and others to improve productivity and team spirit. Also, celebrate learning wins. You can buy yourself a smoothie with extra fruit toppings, or reward yourself with a vacation, or spa treat, for completing a course. So, while making your learning goals, ensure that you include rest time and rewards.
5. Apply what you learn
This is usually the most challenging part, but it is also the most important, otherwise, the first four steps would have been for nothing. Whatever your learning goal is, ensure that you put what you’ve learned into action.
For instance, if you have just completed a course on emailing automation, download any recommended automation tools to try what you have learnt.
Remember, learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought after with ardour and attended to with diligence.
Worthy of note, HumanManager Learning Management system powered by Tangerine is in the pipeline. Visit www.humanmanager.net to see our unique HR and Payroll services or email support@humanmanager.net for more information.