DIY learning

While a global pandemic may have put a stop to many things, our need for learning hasn’t stopped. 

It’s increased!

Even though company budgets have been paused or slashed, we still have a need to learn so we can
🌕 cope with new situations, 
🌕 take on different responsibilities and 
🌕 adapt to new environments. 

If your client or employer has put a pause on learning, what could you do for yourself to keep your development active? 

Podcasts, books, webinars, masterclasses: so much more has become available in these times. 

We have a HUGE opportunity to DIY or design our own learning plan and program. 

Small investments at this time can reap us some mighty big returns in confidence, capability and skills ... which convert into greater career opportunities for what’s ahead. 

Start now on the DIY project that’s your own learning.

Test, don’t judge ideas

Working on something and wondering how it will be received? 

It’s so easy to swing into judgement mode and decide how it’s going to end up. 

That they won’t buy it. 
That they won’t like it. 
That they don’t need it. 
That they won’t understand it. 

And we haven’t even tested it out yet! 

We can spend a lot of energy thinking and rethinking, assessing and judging. But we may not be the best judges of the things we make ourselves. 

Much better to test our ideas out on people... the people who we are working with or targeting with our ideas. 

Otherwise we may think what we’ve done isn’t good enough.

Until we’ve tested it out, it could be better to hold that judgement. As hard as that is. 

If you or your team have got something you’re still thinking about, wondering how it will go ...put it out there and test it. 

Get some valuable insights and feedback - then you can be more objective about your ideas. 

Participants and observers

As well as being participants in times of change, we can also be observers. We can watch what is happening, spot trends, notice change and join the dots of these observations and experiences. 

There is hindsight (working out what happened) and there is foresight (suggesting what might happen in the future). 

We can also be more tuned in to the now. This is the place of insight. 

It’s where and when insights come to us. We can take notice of these cues or let them fly by, remaining oblivious to them. 

Observing and interpreting insights is a vital part of adapting to uncertain and changing times. It’s a part of the capability that is Sensemaking. 

How do we do this observation and Sensemaking thing better? 

-Listen 

-Write things down 

-Reflect and review at the end of a conversation or meeting 

-Review your notes again later on 

-Sleep on it 

-Notice what you think the next day. 

Your brain will have done some incredible sorting, decluttering and rearranging overnight. And that is some of the best Sensemaking we can be doing... without even knowing it! 

Listen, notes, review, sleep on it, response. It can help us make sense of the strangest things. 

Do you see patterns

Spotting trends, seeing patterns, staying observant. These are crucial skills for today’s world of work where things change and uncertainty is high.

It’s easy to get caught up in our own world, deep in the culture of a project or workplace, cycling through our usual activities, routines and habits.

So what would make you take notice of something? And how would you make note of it? Do you know how observant you are?

🔲 Oblivious

or

🔲 Observant?

and

🔲 Forgetful

or

🔲 Insightful?

Our powers of observation are powerful... and insight-full. Don't miss them as they fly by!

Take care not to be:

Departed, nor to Waste great insights, or to arrive at them Unfounded.

Today’s changing world needs us to be observant, noticing things, picking up on trends, spotting patterns and connecting sequences of information. It is indeed 'connecting the dots'. 

We can’t make meaning without first making some sense

Plenty of things don’t make sense in our life, in the world. So it’s not until we get some perspective to look back that we are more able to make sense of it. And then... then we put meaning to it.

‘This happened... and NOW I understand why or what it was all about.'

We can muck about, procrastinating, avoiding action yet still try to make sense of things. But it kind of doesn’t work that way.

The sooner you can get on the other side of something, the better.

Decide. Do. Deliver. Get something done.

You’ll make more sense once you're on the other side of it. And then you can work out what it all means.