Craig chats about Learning at Work Week and the importance of being connected to your learning.
This year’s Learning at Work Week theme, ‘Get Connected’, caused me to reflect on my own personal continuous journey of learning. I’ve noticed that when I take ownership of my learning, it resonates with me the most, has a larger impact on my life and becomes memorable.
I remember many years ago, when I was fresh-faced in the working world, I had applied for a management training programme at Dixons. This meant explaining to senior leaders the impact this programme would have on me, the business and our customers. This made me feel so accountable, inspired and connected to the learning journey, as I was already learning what owning my learning journey meant for me. Some of the programme was module-based, whilst some of it required me to go away and find my own answers, forcing me to learn in different ways.
This programme was way before the days of the internet, so I was making connections, talking to people I didn’t know, growing my network and learning all at the same time. I chose a mindset of being curious, which connected me not only to my learning, but also my motivations as to why I wanted to do something, which was so much bigger than just completing the management training programme. For me, the connection to my learning:
- gave me a crystal-clear purpose. I wanted to delight my customers and be known for this, work my way up to manage the flagship Dixons store and create an environment where my team could thrive
- offered me autonomy. Nobody had told me exactly what I needed to do, or that I had the control over how I wanted to continue my learning outside of the modules or how I applied it
- has stuck with me throughout my life, which I now strive to get better at and master. I improved as a manager back in the day, and now it focuses me on the qualities I can keep crafting to be a good leader that positively impacts others around me
Interestingly, this all links to the modern-day motivation theory by Dan Pink in ‘Drive’, where he talks about purpose, autonomy and mastery. This thinking fits in with my learning journey at Dixons, and beyond.
For me, this all goes back to feeling connected to my learning, the people around me and the relationships the learning journey has helped me grow and carve out my career. During this journey, what has stayed with me is the importance of sharing my learnings with others, helping others to learn, grow and feel connected to their development journey. I love that we do this all the time at Rambutan, within our pow-wows (where consultants share learnings and top tips) and our main meetings (where the whole bunch get together to develop). It’s inspiring to then watch others take these learnings, master it themselves and have their own connections with it.
At Rambutan, I can feel the connectivity we have as a bunch when we’re learning together. It can feel like an electric energy, especially when we’re dissecting something, or challenging our minds and coming up with new, innovative solutions. A wonderful example of this is the creation of our behavioural drivers model, ‘Why people do what they do’. The process of developing the model connected us to each other, to the learning journey we each personally took, and to the impact we wanted to create, by working with and sharing our behaviours model with others.
One of my favourite ways to connect and learn from others is through conversations and feedback, whether it’s positive or developmental. It’s another amazing opportunity to share learnings with others. Offering and receiving feedback can feel quite challenging, yet we should nudge and remind ourselves to do it often, as it helps us and others to stretch and grow.
Another way to connect to your learning is by attending learning opportunities, such as forums, workshops, webinars or networking events, where there’s a cohort of like-minded (or different) people. These are great places to form a community, whilst learning from different views and perspectives.
Whatever you choose to do, find how you can connect with your learning, the journey it’ll take you on, and what you can share afterwards, so others benefit from your experience.
So, what will you do to help yourself and others connect with their learning journey?