Are you a Learnatic
- By nat rosasco
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- 01 Jan, 2018
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This week I attended the ATD International Conference here in Denver with over 12,000 colleagues focused on leadership, learning, and developing talent. It was an incredible learning experience with keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and networking with colleagues. I think everyone should attend a big conference like this from time to time to get inspired. I’d love to hear what you think of conferences and which ones you like.
My favorite new word is learnatic… someone who is crazy about learning (not just crazy). “A learnatic knows what to do when they don’t know what to do” (www.themindgym.com). So what does that mean? I bet a typical day for you has a lot of shifting, changing, and adjusting to new challenges and priorities, right? That means you have to figure out new ways to solve new problems all the time. It’s not the knowledge, or the “book learning”, or what you learned in college that helps you. It’s the ability to embrace learning. You have to trust that you can dive in, even when you don’t know what to do, and you’ll figure it out.
It is very clear that companies with learning cultures have more productive employees, more satisfied customers, and higher performance and market leadership overall. I believe for you, an attitude of learnacy brings more confidence, success, and joy in life. I think we all intend to be life long learners, but in our day to day challenges and struggles we forget. The speed at which our lives are passing by makes us want to pull in, keep safe, and minimize the risks we take. It’s in these moments that we need to notice what we’re doing and choose to be brave. We need to choose to be a learnatic instead. It may seem risky, but it’s worth it!
Here are four ways you can be a learnatic today…
GET CURIOUS
Just take a breath… Look around… Ask a question that starts like this… “I wonder what would happen if I…” or “What If…” or “What’s another way of looking at this?”
Keep asking curious questions all day long!
USE YOUR RESOURCES
In the middle of solving a problem or shifting, pause… take a breath… think of all the sources of information and help you have available. Now collaborate, research, and leverage like crazy.
Think like MacGyver!
STICK WITH IT
Stay with your challenge just a little bit longer. Think fail forward rather than fail and done.
Don’t give up!
PROMOTE NOT PROHIBIT
Enable, encourage, and say yes more today. Before you say no, stop and really think about it… is it necessary to say no?
Say YES!
Have a fantastic day being a learnatic! I have a lot more learning from the conference coming your way in the next few
weeks, so more to come.
Barb
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How you handle complexity is critical to job success today. How well are you doing on that scale?
LEVERAGE
The ability to influence a system, or an environment, in a way that multiplies the outcome of one’s efforts without a corresponding increase in the consumption of resources. In other words, leverage is the advantageous condition of having a relatively small amount of cost yield a relatively high level of returns. (Business Dictionary)
To Navigate Complexity you need Leverage
So you can feel it, right? You world just keeps getting more and more unpredictable, overwhelming, complicated, and intense. Unfortunately that is not going to end. We are in the Age of Acceleration. We call it a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, changing, and Ambiguous)
As leaders we need to accept this new age and state of being. There is no longer an EASY BUTTON to push. What that means is we have to learn how to navigate the complexity and surf the chaos rather than stay in a reactive place.
You need Leverage. You need to find ways to navigate that are more efficient and effective without needing more input or energy from you. The way to do that is to start from the inside out. You need to pause and reflect in order to get clear on what matters to you and find your fuel. Your fuel is your multiplier or leverage. You also then need to band together with others and find creative leverage working together.
Some tips…
It might seem counter intuitive, but schedule consistent “white space” reflection time.
Find your Fuel and Fill up your tank
Don’t go it alone.
I just love a good ending. A solid period at the end of the sentence. Here in December, I take the opportunity to pause reflect on the past year so that I can put a good crisp ending on it. When I look back, I look for accomplishments and wins that may have faded off my radar as more pressing priorities and complexities come up. I also own up to challenges and bumps in the road so I can integrate the learning. Most of all, I get really focused on what I can wrap up, leave behind, and let go of. Because, quite frankly, I don’t have the time or the energy to drag things around that really don’t have importance or value anymore.
We are often so overwhelmed by complexity, that we don’t pay attention to endings because we’re already off on the next new thing. You may think you don’t have time, but it’s essential to make time to consciously complete.
So here are some ideas for you to pause, reflect, and complete so you can launch into a new year with a lighter load.
- Look at all your to-do’s, business leads, projects, relationships, and responsibilities. Decide which of these needs to be completed or moved off your active to-do list.
- Reflect on your challenges and mistakes in the last year. Decide what you need to take away and learn from them. Then trust that you don’t need to carry anything but the learning from this.
- Look at any other areas for growth or development and maybe there are some bad habits or behaviors or beliefs that don’t serve you going forward. Write of lists of these things that you say NO to going forward.
I’ve included a great end of year reflection template for you to download and try out. I’d be interested to hear what your end of year completion ritual is.
For some of you, just getting clear on these is enough. For others, you may like a ritual to truly complete. You can write what you’re ending on paper that you throw away or throw in a fire (safely!). You can plan a hike to reflect on what you’re letting go as you walk up. Then when you get to the top, you can leave it up there. you can point towards what you’re creating. Or you can talk to a friend or coach to process through what you’re completing.
However you do this, you’ll be glad you did. You’ll feel clear and lighter as you let go.
Many blessings to you in this season of endings and new beginnings
About the experience of ending: John O’Donohue
Experience has its own secret structuring. Endings are natural. Often what alarm us as ending can in fact be the opening of a new journey – a new beginning that we could never be anticipated; one that engages forgotten parts of the heart. Due to the current overlay of therapy terminology in our language, everyone now seems to wish for “closure.” This word is unfortunate, it is not faithful to the open-ended rhythm of experience. Creatures made of clay with porous skin and porous minds are quite incapable of the hermetic sealing that the strategy of “closure” seems to imply. The word completion is a truer word. … When the person manages to trust experience and be open to it, the experience finds its own way to realization. Though such an ending may be awkward and painful, there is a sense of wholesomeness and authenticity about it. Then the heart will gradually find that this stage has run its course and the ending is substantial and true. Eventually the person emerges with a deeper sense of freedom, certainty and integration.
John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us, “Beyond Endings” p. 157