The Digital Learning Journey: Demonstrate and Adapt

This phase answers how you will apply the skill and demonstrate your comprehension of it, with the key point happening in the middle of this phase.

Now we begin to bring the value of others more into focus.

Phase II: Demonstrate

With each step, the learner is increasing their value. At first, the value a skill has in someone is exclusively with themselves. They are tinkering and experimenting—they are playing with the skill and are finding out what it can do to help them and are learning about themselves at the same time. Then, when they begin to prototype, they are looking at how that skill can start to solve problems. Those problems might be simple, and the solution that is crafted might be rudimentary and be a shell of what is needed, but it is an assembly towards a larger solution that is important. It also is increasing the value of that skill to other people.

In this phase, we are balancing the value that a skill has with ourselves and with others. It is where that key point rests, where the growth of those skills is equal and shift to developing that skill’s value to others. We are able to demonstrate our understanding and application of that skill in projects at varying levels, starting with taking something that is finished, and adapting that to what we need, to building something new from parts that already exists, to wiping the slate clean and build something completely from scratch. Each one of these evolutions demonstrate our understanding of the skill with other people.

While this may be the place where a skill develops for others, it doesn’t mean the skill doesn’t have growing value to ourselves. It just means that what we are learning and how that skill can be used will adjust and change. Confidence might not be as insurmountable of an issue, but reaffirming that skill, and reflecting and appreciating the growth we take will transform you from going “I can do this” to “Look what I can do”.

“What” is the major theme of this phase. You are learning what it takes to complete a project, solve a problem, and deliver value. You already understand “why” the skill exists and “why” you need to learn it to solve the problems in front of you. Now, it’s time to figure out exactly “what” is required.

Step 4: Adapt

When we adapt, we take near complete projects and solutions and mold them to suit our needs and our problems.

One of the biggest skills you can learn is how to leverage what you already have to solve a problem. No—I don’t mean you need to be someone that can defuse a bomb with a gum wrapper, matchstick and toothpaste, but to find how you can get close to an optimal solution without having to get something new to solve the problem. Sometimes, done is better than perfect, and in cases where time is more critical, coming up with a solution that solves for the 90% can be enough of a fix long term, or give you more space and time to find a perfect solution. You learn to adapt.

Taking something you already have and adapt it to work for you is part of the learning journey. Not necessarily from the need to solve something quickly—but because you are still learning how to craft using the skill.

The entire Demonstrate phase I like to illustrate using toy building bricks. If I was to give you a pile of plastic building bricks and say, “Make a house”, you probably would look at me funny if you never had worked with played with them in the past. What kind of house? How many floors? How many rooms? You would have tons of questions and feel a lot of fear looking at the pile of bricks and not know what is expected of you and have no idea to start.

But what if you had a completed house, built with those same bricks, and I said, “Make one of the rooms larger.” You probably would be able to do that without much problem. You have something that is finished and need to find some way to adapt it to solve a problem, using the technology or skill to make that happen.

Adapting in your learning journey requires some creativity. Sometimes, you need to find creative ways to adapt a technology for a purpose that you weren’t taught to do. Being able to make these leaps to see how something could be used in different ways means that you understand more of how the tool or skill generically works, then limiting it to a specific use case.

Ultimately, if you can start with something and adapt it to fit a solution, you can see that tool or skill in a different way. Through trial and error, which you now have the confidence to do easily, you can see which pieces fit together best, and which are less stable. You will find that a lot of building, crafting and development Is based on adapting something that already exists.

Where the values grow

Now that we are in the Demonstrate phase, we are beginning to achieve a balance between the growth of our value to self and to others. We are still proving our skills to ourselves, but in doing so, people on the outside will start to take notice and can see that something is developing and is building inside.

If you’re a learner…

It can be difficult to think of a solution as an adaptation of what you already have, or what someone else might already have created. One key thing about adapting is to change your thinking. Think of how something is working versus what it is doing. Are there processes that are in use that you can use in a different way?

Here’s an example. Let’s say you are creating a shopping list for the grocery store. You probably check the refrigerator, pantry, and cabinets to see what you have, and then formulate a list of what you need based on the meals you want to make. You might even break that list up based on the aisles that are in the store to make navigating the list and the store easier for when you go shopping. While a grocery list is what you did, how you did it can apply to lots of different things, like job hunting, event planning, even software development. So, what you adapt isn’t always “the thing” it is “the how.”

If you’re an advocate…

Learners often don’t have access to things they can adapt for different purposes, or they don’t know where to go to discover them. In your content development, create opportunities to explore finished examples, and invite adaptation for the learner by presenting new scenarios or problems they need to change. Make sure those new scenarios aren’t just a one-to-one mapping to the new scenarios. Create scenarios that adapt different parts of the original example. Perhaps one scenario adapts by adding. Another adapts by extracting sections from two examples into a third. Another could be adapting the algorithm or process that an example uses and puts that into practice with something completely different.

The key here is that you need to provide the source of the adaptation and create connections to how and why these adaptations happen. This will help the learner understand more of the skill and topic from the inside out.

Up next

The next step is the key point in the journey: when we achieve balance. It is where everything comes into focus and we can finally build something new and unique for ourselves, and for others.

Doug Winnie is the Chief Learning Officer at MentorNations a startup focused on fostering digital skills around the globe and Director of Learning Experience and Organizational Effectiveness at H&R Block. Doug previously worked in various digital skills, education and product management roles at Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Adobe. Doug is also a LinkedIn Learning author with multiple courses on digital transformation, product management, and computer science. Doug is also the editor of the LinkedIn newsletter, “Digital Mindset” that publishes weekly on LinkedIn.