The 5 Stages of Learning & Development

The 5 Stages of Learning & Development - Anupam Rawat

I am a Learning & Development professional with 14 years of L&D Experience and I am also a Learner.

In my journey there were few realizations, which now I put as a ‘2 by 2 matrix‘ to explain as The stages of Learning & Development, where I could see myself as a learner and other Learners evolve.

This Tuesday evening, I have put it together in a format with the intention to share with others and invite views, comments and insights.

So without further ado here are :

The 5 Stages of Learning & Development

Stage I : Beginner : The First stage, is inspired by a realization and that‘s the realization to Learn something for the first time. The Beginner’s mind has a lot of possibilities and has following traits:

• Curiosity – There is a child-like curosity that drives the Beginner’s mindset at a Learning
• Seeking Clarity – There is constant focus on Seeking clarity for a better understanding
• Divine Dissatisfaction – The buring question still remains a Divine Dissatisfaction and hunger to learn more

Many best Leaders choose to remain here at this stage. And as the Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki puts:

“In a beginner’s mind there are many possibilities and in a Master’s mind are few“

Stage II : Learner : The Second stage, comes in the journey when the person learning has stayed with the quest for learning for so long that the seed of learning begins to grow as a small plant. Following are the traits:

• Self-Learning – After 14 years in Learning & Development field and 20 years of Indian Education system; I firmly believe that no one can force anyone to learn anything. Learning is a Self-paced process.
• Internalization – The second trait is of making the internal connections of neurons. The Learning gets internalized and gets imbibed not only in our thoughts but also our body. Its that point in the movie Matrix when Neo says – I know Kung-fu.
• Vibe attracts the tribe – Someone who is learning something seriously for some time will definately have a vibe that will attract a tribe of like minded individuals to her/ him. This is a level of peer-level learning or sharing that happens when we become a learner.

Stage III : Applyer : The Third stage of application, is where the Learner chooses to apply the concepts and chooses to test and experiment ideas. Following are the traits as per me:

• Applies – Learning gets maifested as application of Learning into either results we want or the experience that enriches us
• Radiating possibilities – We not only see the possibility of doing it in one situation; but we generalize the learning to other situations as well
• Aha of Learning – There is a constant Aha-Effect that builds the learning cycle further and helps to lead to the next level

Stage IV : Mastery : The Fourth stage is the stage ,where Learner finds the sharpening of the skill to a level where they can now practice the learning easily and effortlessly. Following are some of the indicators

• Efficient – Efficiency improves and the effort goes down. It is truly a state of minimum effort for maximum results.
• Sharing – Sharing happens and the Learner becomes a coach or a mentor to others
• Systems thinking – They now not only can see an action in isolation of the learning but the entire System or Big Picture of the exosystem as an organism.

While thinking about this model I had the Stage V in mind and when I got into a generative dialogue with one of my friend and coach; we could see the picture that I was trying to see with much clarity.

Stage V : Shunyata (??????? - State of No-mind) – A constant Unlearning Model (Due respect to Mr. Alok Sharma for coining this) – The Master in Stage IV of learning cycle becomes aware of the limitations in the pertinent question:

What is it that you have learnt is stopping you from Learning further?

Becoming aware of the limitations they decide to move to center; which I call where ‘Center of the tornado is‘. Here is where as the Zen philosophers say:

Tree gives birth to fruit and the fruit gives birth to the tree

Following are the tratis exhibited by few people who reach this level in their Learning and Development Journey:

• Mindfulness – They become mindful not ony of the content/ learning, or the audience or the architecture but; they become mindful and aware of the limitless possibilities of learning from the field.
• Field mind – The Field mind or the higher mind operates at this level where the learning becomes free flowing from a higher source of knowledge as either an insight from the group discussion, experience in the learning enviornment or the world as a classroom.
• True move – The Learner then decides to do what is needed instead what is good or percieved in a way. They share and do things effortlessly as a true calling. The training room for the learning can either be a board-room, Class room, Work environment in general or even for that matter a Village.

So, when I am in center I can go in any stage; I can become a Learner or I can also become a Unlearner.

The Learning cycle becomes an Unlearning Cycle; as well at times here; and in Shunyata you are not trapped in systems and archetypes of a particular learning model. (This is where the Learning of some of the oldest texts of India The Vedas was called ‘end of Vedas‘ or Vednant)

You start walking down the moutain when you reach the top of the moutain and have a readiness to unlearn.

This is the epitome of Learning & Development!

And towards the end of this model one must remember:

“Only rule to the learning is that there is no rule to the learning“

Warmest regards,

Anupam Rawat

19 March 2019

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