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Different
people learn differently.
Different
people create more and more success stories that are satisfying and
fulfilling arising from different learning approaches.
This
article focuses on two different learning approaches that create such
success stories that are satisfying and fulfilling.
The
two learning approaches are 1) Self-Learning, 2) Learning with External
Intervention.
You
will then decide to choose what learning approach best suits you.
Self-Learning
Majority
of the people are self-learners. Most people learn from past experience
and from mistakes made.
We
hear some success stories of self-learners, they can be famous people like
Bill Gates, Jack Welch, from rags to riches characters, or some ordinary
people.
But
majority as self-learners do not go very far. They are forever
“learning” without producing any tangible or satisfying results. They
also become mere floaters in life, earning just sufficient money to buy
bread for survival, or oscillate between success and failure, happiness
and sadness, cumulatively having a net result of zero. Or, they gain on
something, but loose on many other things in life.
Many
of these self-learners, whether eventually having success stories that are
satisfying and fulfilling, may have a few characters as their learning
partners like a coach or mentor, or someone who gives a helping hand in
the success creation, such interaction is normally coincidental,
un-structured or transient.
From
here we discuss more on the other learning approach - Learning with
External Intervention.
Learning
with External Intervention
The
concept of external interventionalist is new in the area of life or
business endeavor, but it is fairly established in the arena of sports.
These are the sport professional coaches for the sportsmen.
The
roles played by external interventionalists in life and or business arenas
can be teacher, facilitator, coach, mentor, consultant, counselor and
learning partner. This external interventionalist will have to blend the
various skill-roles harmoniously to help individuals or team to perform
more effectively to achieve their goals or create their dreams.
Professional
learning interventionalist is equipped with many appropriate theories,
tools, techniques and skills as life and business situations can be very
diverse with challenges, issues, complexities and uncertainties.
When
Individuals, teams or organization engage a professional learning
interventionalist, there is a structured program to go through, with
follow up, reviewing the results or performance intended and creation of
higher goals or challenges with the ultimate desire of self-actualization
of the individuals, teams or organization.
The
Plus and Minus
There
are advantages and disadvantages of either learning approach.
On
the self-learning approach, the advantages can be the person is
independent in the pursuit of learning to create the results he or she
truly desires Once the results are produced, there is much self-pride and
satisfaction. However there can be many more disadvantages. Majority does
not have the discipline and lack the knowledge and skills for this
life-learning journey, or may have to take many years with many avoidable
mistakes. After all it is difficult to see one’s own flawed assumptions
and behavior.. As a result, there is not only little or no accomplishment,
there are more frustrations and stresses in life for the many.
In
the case of engaging external learning interventionalist, the only
negative aspect is the chemistry between the external professional and the
clients that does not work well or the professional still does not have
the competency. However, the advantages are plenty – having an external
observer, teacher, facilitator, coach, consultant, mentor, counselor or
even devil-advocate to help and challenge with the view of increasing your
own capacity and capability to create the results you want.
The
Many Scenarios of Learning Intervention
There
are many scenarios of learning intervention. The following are just a few
to set the scenes for readers to make better choice of engaging an
external learning interventionalist.
a)
Individuals
The
individual may be a person who does not yet have a clear vision or
direction in life to pursue. While struggling with day to day living, the
external learning interventionlist will help the individual to create the
future in today setting.
The
individuals may have a direction with plan and strategies, then external
learning interventionlist could help to be devil-advocate or accelerate
the learning path to produce the intended results.
b)
Teams
The
individuals in most likely case, will have to interact with others and
such interaction and relationship may have impact on him or her,
negatively or positively.
Or,
by design, the individuals have to operate with a team, e.g. business
partners, families, or task-force to accomplish something like a project
or specific tasks.
Or,
a group of people who would like to create more team learning among
themselves with the view of forming a formal group to embark on a project,
create a new business or simply to explore each other strength and
weakness to create synergy.
The
external learning interventionalist will have much roles to play in the
above cases.
c)
Organization
From
individuals or teams, it can be a case of the whole organization, headed
by the upper management committee who wants to accelerate their learning
curve, with specific business results to be achieved.
Then
an external learning interventionalist maybe sought. Traditionally, many
organizations engage external consultants Usually with disappointing
results. This could be because consultants confine their roles to
consulting only, ignoring many other crucial roles like teacher,
facilitator, coach, mentor, counselor.
Remarks
This
is not the intend of this article to illustrate many detailed and diverse
cases of learning interventions. It suffices to note that there are
differences in the learning approach, and the learner is to make a good
choice of what suits him or her best.
Please
email andrew@360q.com if you wish to
engage this QuaSyLaTic service.
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