Essential elements of a lifelong-long learning mindset

Organisations around the world are experiencing rapid, sweeping changes in what they do, how they do it, and even why they do it. A main driver is new technologies which demand new modes of working and talent with new and diverse skills. The other main driver is the continually increasing life expectancy – since 1840 life expectancy has increased three months for every year – meaning that people will stay in the workforce for longer.

To flourish in this new environment, individuals must keep learning new skills. The people who will flourish in this new world will be those who embrace lifelong learning and pursue knowledge for personal and professional reasons throughout their lives – continually increasing their knowledge, skills and competencies.

Building a workforce of lifelong learners is critical for organisations to stay competitive. To ensure they have the required skills and talent, organisations must create a learning-for-all culture in which people are encouraged and inspired to continue to learn new skills.

But even with a learning-for-all culture, it’s up to the individual to seize the opportunity to get ahead. So, what are the essential elements to become a lifelong learner?

A focus on growth

Learning starts and ends with the individual. Many studies have confirmed that it is not intelligence that creates expertise but effort and practice – that is, hard work. The most successful people devote the most hours to deliberate practice, tackling tasks beyond their current level of competence and comfort, observing the results, and making adjustments.

Shifting your mindset

Over the past thirty years, Carol Dwek, a psychologist at Stanford University, has studied learners intensely. She has determined that people generally fall into one of two categories when it comes to how they view their ability to learn: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

If you have a fixed mindset, you believe your learning potential is predetermined by your genes, your socioeconomic background, or the opportunities available to you. You might have thoughts like, “I’m not good at public speaking, so I should avoid it.”

If you have a growth mindset, however, you believe your true potential is unknown because it is impossible to foresee what might happen as a result of passion, effort and practice. You appreciate challenges because you see them as opportunities for personal growth. Ultimately, you may achieve more of your potential than someone with a fixed mindset.

To develop a growth mindset, you can take the following actions:

• Determine whether you have a fixed mindset, and if you do, figure out why.
• Recognise that you have a choice in how you approach and interpret new tasks, ideas, or situations.
• Learn to hear and reject the fixed mindset voice.
• Refocus with a growth mindset.

Become a serial master

Anders Ericsson, a psychologist and researcher out of Florida State University has studied how people learn and grow. He has co-authored a book – Peak – which provides a framework for mastering a new skill or task through deliberate practice.

The crucial insight into Ericsson’s research is not how much you practice. Rather, to master a new skill or task you need to practice differently. It’s what Ericsson calls deliberate practice. This is how you can become a serial master of a new skill or task through deliberate practice:

• Set a stretch goal zeroing in on just one narrow aspect of your overall performance. Rather than focus on what you already do well, you should strive to improve specific weaknesses. Intentionally seek out challenges you can’t yet meet.
• Once you have your stretch goal, provide attention and great effort, to reach this goal.
• The next element is seeking feedback on how you are going. Seek out what you are doing wrong – so you can fix it – rather than what you did right. Then actively process this feedback and adjust accordingly.

Be Gritty

Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, CEO of Character Lab, and who is the author of “Grit”. Grit is about finding your passion and then persevering to reach your long-term goals. Grit isn’t talent. Grit isn’t luck. Grit isn’t how intensely, for the moment, you want something.

The crucial insight into Duckworth’s work is about envisioning goals. Grit is about having what some researchers call an “ultimate concern” – a goal you care about so much that it organises and gives meaning to almost everything you do. And grit is holding steadfast to that goal. Even when you fall down. Even when you screw up. Even when progress toward that goal is halting or slow.

Developing your passion and persevering is powerful stuff, so I would recommend checking out her not-for-profit, Character Lab, for further information.

In a nutshell

For an organisation to say competitive in the future we need to develop a culture of lifelong learning. To become a lifelong learner, you need to believe you have a lifetime of opportunities and unlimited capacity to learn and grow. You need to become a serial master of new skills and tasks by applying deliberate practice. When you fail you need to persevere by being Gritty and shifting your mindset.

References

Angela Duckworth (2016). “Grit – the power of passion and perseverance”, Scribner.

Carol Dwek (2006). “Mindset – the new psychology of success”, Random House.

Nick van Dam (2018). “Elevating learning and development”, McKinsey and Company.

Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin (2017). “Lead yourself first”, Bloomsbury.