Self-Designed Learning Journeys: Challenges

By Ashish Arora

Two weeks ago, I discussed how a social enterprise is considering flipping its hierarchical Learning Journeys model for its young fellows working with communities and schools in rural India. The good news is that this organization has indeed started a pilot program with 8 fellows, who are now in their third week of a self-designed learning journey. The challenge they currently face is: many of these young fellows are unfamiliar with the adult-to-adult paradigm, which requires them to collectively own both the initiative and their individual Learning Journeys!

When they first heard about this experiment, they were thrilled—primarily, I believe, because it freed them from the compulsion to attend centrally designed LJ sessions that felt irrelevant or uninteresting to them. Many of them thought it would be a cakewalk to learn what they wish to learn, or maybe just let things be and simply consider what they are already learning as their self-designed module. Some of them, though, tried a bit hard. They made an effort by speaking to Meta AI (via WhatsApp) about their interests and how to deepen their learning. A few are also in regular contact with their assigned coach for guidance, mostly following a parent-child dynamic.

Overall, these young fellows, both individually and collectively, seem to be confronting a major challenge: they don’t know what they don’t know. While their coach and sometimes Meta AI is able to provide some assistance, largely this gap of self-designing the path that they don’t have any exposure, visibility or imagination for is daunting. They are struggling to think beyond their existing habits and patterns.

Other fundamental skills required for self-management in this context include self-discipline, time management, collaboration, a sense of purpose, and intrinsic motivation for growth. It remains to be seen how many of them will develop these abilities along the way.

How have you seen self-designed learning journeys evolve in your context? Have you encountered similar challenges or prerequisites? How have you observed yourself or others ‘getting to know what they don’t know’?

Also, how have you seen teams develop self-discipline, collaboration, enthusiasm, and other qualities while self-managing? In other words, can these prerequisites (as I call them) be developed during the process itself? What would the prerequisites look like in that case? Would we need any prerequisites at all?

Lastly, what would you recommend to these young leaders who are just three weeks into their self-management journey?

Here’s how Greaterthan can help boost your learning journeys:

• Liberating Macrostructure Studio- Participatory practices to energize decisions, agreements, strategy and innovation: First cohort starting November 12, 2024, early bird registrations open
• Liberating Structures Studio- Powerful practices to include and unleash everyone!: Starting January 2025, early bird registrations open
• Thriving Networks- How to grow networks where value, money and resources are in flow: Starting: starting February 6th, 2025, flexible pricing
• The Money Game Experience- Explore your habits and unconscious beliefs around money: November 4th (English) and November 9th (French)

Signing off with love and light from India’s Diwali celebrations,

Ashish, Susan and Greaterthan Team