Sharpen the saw: Learn to improve your craft every day

Carol Dweck’s phenomenal work on “Mindset” identified continuous learning as a core part of “growth orientation” which leads to success. 

The continuous learning mindset views “feedback as constructive”, and “failure as an opportunity to grow” and always believes “I can learn to do anything”. 

Professionals who operate with this mindset firmly believe in sharpening the saw so they devote a considerable amount of time and effort to this. 

You cannot continue to hold your place in your organisation with the same set and level of skills, especially when organisations are changing rapidly and what worked yesterday may be totally irrelevant today.

Indeed, continuous learning is the most enduring mindset or practice all professionals and “knowledge workers” must adopt in the 21st century.
 

Benefits of Continuous Learning

In addition to enabling professionals to stay relevant in a changing world, continuous learning improves the self-esteem of professionals as they gain pride in using new skills and improved abilities. 

Continuous learning also offers health benefits to those who pursue it as it improves memory and keeps the mind active and always engaged. 

This slows down cognitive decline. Once you stop learning, you run out of fuel for a meaningful professional journey.

Staying on the journey of continuous learning provides leverage to explore other opportunities which makes for an interesting career journey over one’s lifetime. 

 
Shifts Required for Continuous Learning

To stay on the path of continuous learning and benefit from its positive impact on your professional success three shifts must happen. First, you must jettison the idea that the employer is responsible for your learning and development. 

Second, you must recognise and quickly seize moments and opportunities available for learning and growth.

Third, you must translate your learning into improved performance when you have gone through a learning moment.

Hence, an individual’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the most important predictor of professional success.

The ability to translate learning into action is what has enabled all of humanity to thrive from the beginning of creation till now.

We have learnt to take ownership of the earth, learnt to improve our circumstances and going forward we need to sharpen our learning abilities even further to thrive in a more complex world. 

The first skill is learning how to learn 

Hence, one of the most important skills professionals can learn is learning to improve their ability to learn.

Making progress on this skill demands a deeper appreciation of the requirements for effective learning. Effective learning requires humility and courage.

It takes humility to admit to gaps in your knowledge and skill before beginning the learning journey because any person who embarks on a learning journey has to momentarily admit to a lack of skill.

Unfortunately, some professionals rather choose to hide and pretend all is well when their skillset begins to lag behind the growing demands of their role until it’s too late.

Saying "I don't know" takes humility and courage but it opens the door to learning and progress.

Continuous learning also requires painstaking effort and discipline.

My view is that it is impossible to separate learning from experience and/or practice. One of my favourite African proverbs says: “You learn to cut down trees by cutting them down”.

What makes learning complete is the learner's continuous experiential engagement with the subject of learning. 

Every learner looks awkward when practising a new skill (hence, the need for humility and courage). However, the continuous investment of effort and discipline (effective practice) puts the learner on the path to perfection.
 

A learning framework for professional growth and success

With a changed mindset towards continuous learning, how do you put in place a learning programme that enables you to stay at the cutting edge of your profession in a time of intense change, complexity and uncertainty? 

I offer the tried and tested 70:20:10 model which has been used by professionals in the learning industry to guide the design of learning for organisations. 

This simple yet effective model asserts that 70 per cent of learning comes from on-the-job experience, 20 per cent from developmental relationships, and 10 per cent from formal learning. You can design your own learning programme based on this model as well. 

70% Learning opportunity: Making the most of your experience on the job 

As professionals, we go through many work situations every day. These become effective learning opportunities when we spend time actively engaging and reflecting on the experiences we are exposed to.

Many professionals ignore the much-needed reflection which completes the learning experience and fall into the delusion of “learning from experience”. 

This is the reason why some professionals keep repeating the same mistakes since they have not taken time to reflect and harvest the lessons from their experiences. 

Opportunities to learn on the job include being asked to lead a meeting discussion, make a presentation on behalf of the company, step in for a colleague from a different department, which allows learning about other departments, take on more challenging roles, etc.

Asking questions, experimenting and learning from these experiments are also great approaches for learning on the job.

It’s safe to say that learning on the job tends to be more effective when professionals are passionate about their organisations and are prepared to exert discretionary effort. 

To learn the most from your on-the-job experiences, take these three steps: 

I. Acknowledge that your role provides learning opportunities and be open to learning.

II. Set a SMART goal regarding what you anticipate to learn from your role, what you intend to practice, or questions you may have for others more experienced in the role.

III. Conduct an after-action review after critical on-the-job experiences to learn what went well, what could be improved next time and what you will do differently going forward.

 
20% Learning opportunity: Developmental relationships 

The 20 per cent of learning opportunities come from developmental relationships with colleagues at work – both senior and junior, mentors and coaches. These individuals can be sources of valuable feedback on your abilities. 

They can also point you to opportunities for improvement. Mentors also provide a rich source of learning as they provide essential insights and background context to current happening in your industry and profession. 

Another great way of benefiting from the wisdom of colleagues is by starting a peer learning group. This can be done virtually or in person with a group of three to 12 professionals. You can start by picking a stimulating book to read together and share insights.

 
10% Learning opportunity: Formal learning

The final 10 per cent of the model relates to formal learning opportunities. You do not necessarily have to be in a classroom to take advantage of this 10%.

What makes this process effective is structure and consistency.

Every knowledge worker must commit to spending at least 30 minutes every day engaged in some form of structured learning either through reading, listening to a podcast, watching a training video, review of past work and journaling, etc. 

Of course, these must be followed by deliberate practice. Subscribing to a couple of journals and top publications in your profession will enable you to stay up-to-date on changing trends and issues affecting your profession and industry. 

Real learning is doing because learning is experiential and is in the moment. Adopt the mindset of continuous learning as a professional and watch your career soar to new heights while brimming with self-confidence and improving your cognitive capabilities. 
 
The writer is a Leadership Development Facilitator, Executive Coach and Strategy Consultant, Founder of the CEO Accelerator Programme, and Chief Learning Strategist at TEMPLE Advisory.

The mission of The Leadership Project is to harvest highly effective leadership practices and share them in a manner that other leaders can easily incorporate into their leadership practice.

If you have got an idea or leadership practice to share, kindly write to programs@thelearningtemple.com. Until you read from us again, keep leading…..from leader to leader, one practice at a time.