In the MIT Sloan Management Review article Learning for a Living [@petriglieriLearningLiving2019], the author stated that ‘learning at work is work, and we must make space for it.’.
It hits home.
For a long time, I struggled with the guilt and unease of spending time at work for learning, even though it was a critical part of my role definition. I spent much time battling the urge and obligation to use all my work hours for project work, emails, and Slack messages. The reason, perhaps, is that I felt I could discuss projects in various progress update reports and status update meetings. On the contrary, it felt impossible to put ‘I have been reading about X’ in my status updates because, in my head, ‘reading about X for Y hours’ is never a valid task that can justify a work day. There was a need to gain approval, feel indispensable and justify my contribution to the team. It was necessary to be seen as valuable for the pack. It also has something to do with how the company is run, the cultural norms, and the established processes.
The author classified learning into two categories: incremental learning and transformative learning. Both are necessary to truly make a difference in our lives.
Incremental Learning
Incremental learning refers to hard skills or task-specific experiences. For example, finance analysts become Excel experts so they can make budget reports more useful, or software engineers read about Kubernetes to be independent of DevOps teams. The old wisdom is that mastery will happen naturally as one’s tuner in a field grows or one follows the career path companies offer to us. However, this is not necessarily true. In today’s workspace, where everyone is expected to own their career growth, not the employer. Studies prove that to become an expert in any field, one needs around ten thousand hours of deliberate practice. Simply doing the same thing over and over again will not make one a master.
Transformative Learning
This type of learning is harder to come by naturally. It has more to do with one’s soft skills and requires a lot of mindful endeavour to get out of one’s comfort zone. The author suggested forgetting about the past wisdom from authorities and simply experiencing the present moments. Learning will come from experiences with mindfulness and intentionality. For example, instead of following the herd under the established structure and organisational culture, one should slow down, ask questions to understand the intention, goal and expected outcome of every action, and be able to challenge the status quo and, therefore, make transformative changes. This mentality is especially important in innovation and strategic management.
References
- Petriglieri, G. (2019) Learning for a Living. 10 December 2019. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/learning-for-a-living/ [Accessed: 14 January 2024].