Global education sabotaged your understanding of learning.
Due to the way most of the world’s education processes are delivered, we tend to have the view that any sort of education and learning is complete in the form of a one time event.
Such as a classroom course, book or completing an exam.
This couldn’t be further from reality, and is actually harmful to our continued ability to grow.
It’s all the time, not one-time
The process of learning something is not confined to a one time event.
No one attends an event or gets any certification and becomes the all knowing god of a subject. Instead, these events are part of a continuous flow of learning moments.
The mistake is quite often made by many people that their one time degree, exam pass or one time attendance to an event on human skills now means it’s job done and one knows everything there is to know on the topic.
This is a traditional trap of a fixed mindset that so many of us fall into.
But it’s expected when our systems are designed as pass and fail mechanisms, not ones of continuous growth.
No matter if you’re the everyday human looking to adapt and keep pace with our changing world or an organisation that wants to ensure they have the most highly skilled talent to deliver.
The philosophy they didn’t teach you
A philosophy of one time events only to educate and look at as singular learning moments will never help you personally, or collectively as an organisation, grow.
What we should recognise is that learning is an everyday behaviour.
One that you’re most likely engaging in more often than you think but don’t class as “learning” because it’s not built as a one time event surrounded by others in 4 walls while someone gives you a Ted Talk style speech.
This is the key to long term growth, adaptability and being able to navigate not only careers today but the way the world works too.
If you look at one time events as the only time when you “learn” then you are sadly mistaken.
Our daily interactions are all moments of learning and growth. From asking a colleague “how do I do this” or “how does this work” – that’s learning. Or, when someone shares a story with you to illustrate how they overcame something, that’s learning.
Stories are the oldest and most original form of education we have as a society.
Performance doesn’t come in a box
As you can see, none of these are predefined events one would class as learning.
It’s the mistake a lot of us make.
We either feel we have learnt everything there is to know because we completed this course or achieved that certificate or we feel we don’t know anything because we didn’t do any of these things but chose another way instead.
In reality, these are not finite conclusions.
They’re another moment of learning in the continued journey which we are all on. This enables us to continually improve our skills and capacity to navigate the world today.
In sum:
If you want personal peak performance or high performing humans in your organisation:
- STOP treating education/learning/growth as one time events.
- Recognise that A) learning is an everyday behaviour
- B) We have continuous moments of learning that lead to growth, they are not tied to one time events only.
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