LEARNABILITY 23 May

After an intense month of World Championship Snooker, birthdays, Mother's Day, and Eurovision, I have a few weeks of breathing space until the summer season begins. I wonder what I'll get up to?

In the meantime, let's get straight on with my Learnability nuggets for this month.

?? Professional Development

Quantum skills

In science, "quantum" refers to the smallest discrete unit of a physical property, such as energy or matter.

So regarding performance, I use the term 'Quantum Skills' to refer to the simplest subskills that form the basis for our more complex abilities like problem-solving or leadership.

Understanding subskills within a larger skill set is important for identifying potential areas of improvement. For example, by breaking down leadership into its quantum skills, such as active listening, weighing alternatives, and self-awareness, a manager can identify where to target their learning and practice, increasing their proficiency.

One of my clients identified 32 key subskills, 7 of which she identified as 'areas for improvement' which included giving feedback, providing clear instructions, and recognising negative assumptions. She then created a set of short-term goals to start strengthening these weaknesses.

Thus, over time, this approach paves the way for constant incremental progress, as you track your improvement in each subskill.

Of course, overlooking subskills can be a barrier to our learnabillity. Without focussing on individual quantum skills, you risk accumulating skill gaps.

Attempting to tackle any challenge without breaking it down can lead to frustration, a lack of progress and, potentially, an acceptance of incompetency.

So what quantum skills are key to your success? Self-discipline? Diplomacy? Assertiveness?

Why not try making your own list and see what you discover?

?? Productivity

The 8-a-day challenge

If you like productivity hacks, here's one that one of my Learning Club members shared with me recently: the 8-a-day challenge.

The "8-a-day" challenge is a simple productivity strategy aimed at increasing efficiency and focus by prioritising (and hopefully completing) eight selected tasks each day. Here's a simple outline of how it works:

1. Daily Task List: Each day, write down eight tasks that you want to accomplish. These tasks can be a mix of personal and professional short-term goals - anything you need to do to keep moving forwards.
2. Focus: Now, make sure you complete these eight tasks before taking on any additional ones. This helps you avoid getting distracted by shiny new tasks and thus prevents you from getting overwhelmed.
3. Flexibility: While you should aim to complete all eight tasks, stay reasonably flexible and adjust as needed. If you consistently find eight tasks too many or too few, you can adjust the number accordingly. I don't think there is anything magical about 8.
4. Reflect and feel good: At the end of the day, go over what you’ve accomplished. Reflect on what worked well and what didn’t to improve your productivity strategy over time. This should be a rewarding exercise and help you feel good about your progress for the day.

The "8-a-day" method works because it encourages daily goal-setting and keeps you focussed on completing a manageable number of tasks, reducing the likelihood of procrastination and task overload.

What would be your 8 tasks for tomorrow?

?? Lifelong Learner

Beginner vs Master

Here I'm plugging again the great work by Pejman Milani

I especially like this illustration because of the way it gets across the idea that failing is part of the path to mastery.

It visually highlights a key part of learnability - the importance of persistence over success. By showing that the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried, it encourages us not to be put off by failures and to keep trying.

It is pointing out that these failures are actually stepping stones to gaining expertise and achieving success.

This mindset helps to cultivate resilience, a willingness to experiment, and continual learning, which are all vital for personal and professional development.

Essentially, this illustration shows us that success comes from learning from numerous attempts and failures, rather than immediate perfection.

So what are you going to try and fail at today?!

?? Learning Cultures

Learning Agility: Relearn, Reskill, and Reinvent

I know I recommended 5 books last month, but here's one hot off the press that I'm quite excited about from my friend and podcast guest - Wendy Tan Siew Inn Ph.D. . And I'm excited about it because it's all about Learnability - or Learning Agility, as she puts it.

In 'Learning Agility: Relearn, Reskill, and Reinvent' Wendy distills extensive research and insights from 360 professionals into actionable strategies to help you navigate unknowns by learning anew,?accelerate upskilling and reskilling, and even build a better learning culture.

Key takeaways:

• What the top 20% of learners do differently to accelerate their learning
• Ideas to design your learning process to gain mastery faster with less effort
• Strategies to create an empowered learning culture in your team, amplifying collective results

Furthermore, if you order your edition on Kindle before 9th June, you can get it for 99 cents - and of course, if you could leave her a nice review in exchange, I'm sure it would be much appreciated.

Get Kindle version here

Or if you prefer paperback

?? Learning Club

Staying Focussed

We've already mentioned why staying focussed is important for learnability.

If you're running your own group, it's a good idea to bear in mind how your group helps keep members focussed and, consequently, helps accelerate their professional growth.

1. More engaged

Learning Clubs are designed to address the individual learning needs and goals of each member. This personalised approach allows members to concentrate on acquiring skills directly relevant to their current job roles and future career aspirations. By focussing on relevant skills, members are more engaged and can better apply what they learn directly to their work, making the learning process both efficient and effective.

2. Peer Pressure

In a Learning Club, members are held accountable by having to present a report of their successes, failures and learnings. Just being aware that a member has to present what they have achieved helps keep them focussed and keeps their learning goal a priority during their working day.

3. Supportive Community

A successful Learning Club is a supportive community where members motivate each other and collaborate across functions. This sense of community helps sustain focus and drive, as members are not learning in isolation but are part of a dynamic group facing similar challenges and chasing similar goals. The collaborative aspect of Learning Clubs also broadens perspectives, helping members understand broader business contexts and innovate more effectively.

So, whether you're looking to deepen specific skills or broaden your professional network, participating in a Learning Club can keep you focussed and provide the structure and support needed to achieve these goals efficiently.

What I'm Doing This Month

As you may have gathered from the opening of this newsletter, it's been a busy month for several reasons, including two solid weeks of World Championship Snooker, birthdays, and Eurovision (yes, we hold a party every year - sad, but true!). But apart from those, here are a few highlights:

• JOBarcelona: It was a pleasure to get to speak twice at the Youth Talent Acquisition event in Bar?a's Palau Blaugrana. My main learning experience was the importance of having a clear and relevant talk description. The relevance of "Learnability: What it is and why it's important" just isn't clear enough to teenagers.
• Learning Clubs: As my programs run for 5 months, my first Learning Clubs of 2024 are coming to an end.
• New business, new website: I'm now in the process of creating the first version of my new business's website which I hope to unveil next month.
• Learnability Talk: I'll be giving a talk in Barcelona on 6th June with the ICAEW. Thank you to Jeff Singer for inviting me.
• Short Videos: My marketing advisor has gently threatened me to increase my profile by creating short video posts. This is well out of my comfort zone. But I have to accept it... this is part of the Learnability process. So expect more videos. All feedback welcome.
• Summer Challenge: I know it's a bit early, but as current projects finish, I'm looking for learning challenges over the summer. Hopefully, something fun and different. All suggestions welcome.

?? "People don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses". If you could benefit from running an executive performance accelerator group in your company, DM me now.

?? If you want your attendees to get more value from your next event, invite me to speak about Learnability.

?? If you have found any part of this newsletter useful, please forward it to someone else who might find it useful, too.

Thank you for your time and keep learning ??