Learning Agility vs Learning Productivity
Recently attended a panel that was titled “The Future of Learning”. I was expecting the panel to share more on how they see learning going forward and how individuals can start preparing themselves for a new learning paradigm or to be more precised, how lifelong learning will be going forward tightly coupled with the technology development. I was disappointed that it was not covered, given that a panelist came from an institution of higher learning dealing with degrees and short courses, while another panelists is from the Learning & Development side of a bank. To be fair, there was still good content shared, just that the person who approved of the title created the mis-matched in expectations.
I still have some takeaways from the fireside chat though. How so? There was this term that was mentioned “Learning Agility”.
My take is the most common understanding of “Learning Agility” is it is learning how to learn different varied skills that requires different faculties of brain (Intuition, Imagination, Perception, Reason, Will and Memory) and being able to keep learning when needed. It is very important that we be agile in learning, being able to pick up varied emerging skills and knowledge, then apply them in real-world situation especially how dynamic the world is.
I do think it is important to keep our learning agility high, but I think most institutions dealing with training, mentoring and coaching might have overlook another factor that is equally important going into the lifelong learning paradigm and that is Learning Productivity.
What is Learning Productivity? I will define it as how fast a person can pick up a certain skills and knowledge with the bare minimum fluency aka, being able to start applying it in real-world situation.
Now I am in my 40s now, while I know I keep on learning, I also find that my learning productivity have slowed too. For instance, reading and understanding an academic paper may need an hour previously, say in my early 30s, will now take about additional thirty minutes more to achieve the same level of understanding. I notice that in my training classes as well, although motivation is high on both sides of the age spectrum, seniors take a longer time to fill up their own cup with water.
The point I want to drive at is this. If we keep saying lifelong learning, and no man left behind, everyone should upskill and take on the next new job role, it is time for us to start planning on how to increase learning agility and take into account the decreasing learning productivity that each and everyone of us will face.
What is your thought on this? Please share in the comments.
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In training or mentoring others, it's hard to remember where I was 10 years. 10,000 hours? I probably have 20,000 and I was creating my own curriculum. I tend to be slower in what I learn now but my thoughts about what I read are more subjective and experiential. Raw memorization of an uninitiated mind was much faster, but maybe not as useful.