Why learning faster can improve profitability

In this modern age where businesses seek to improve, the only constant is change and there is always something to learn. When consultants deliver a solution, they focus on the current business issues and spend time finding solutions. The more problems resolved, the better the fit and more likely the chances of a return on investment. 

The problem is, we all look at problems and deliver different solutions, resulting in non-standard delivery. What if you could learn from other peoples’ experiences and by using the knowledge learned either resolve the problem in the same manner, or improve upon it? In this piece Phil Kirkham, Sales Director of Hydra Management

• explores the ‘Zero to Hero’ phenomenon; and
• explains how it is possible for consultants and projects managers to learn six times faster by gaining 'Artificial Experience'.

To start he delves into an interesting article about the speed of learning and how with a shorter learning curve you can reduce the time it takes to start generating income from your consultants. 

“In 1879, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus created 2,300 three-letter nonsense words for an experiment. Each word he listed was in a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (e.g. sif, ral, kat), avoiding common words that might be easier to remember. Ebbinghaus then recorded how often and to what degree he could recall them after specific time intervals. One of his conclusions was that when you increase the amount of material you need to learn, the amount of time it takes to learn it usually increases.

It makes perfect sense, right? But what made his findings notable was that he was the first to use the term "learning curve." Today, it's a familiar phrase and especially relevant to people who pursue a life in which they "never stop learning."

The length of your learning curve plays a key role in determining how fast you'll be able to deliver a project when you start a new role. Project Managers get better with age, they know more and so they can offer more value in negotiating resolutions to different problems, alongside deploying strategies to minimise risk to a project or scenario. What’s often missing is the experience of how to navigate the business and locate relevant resources. 

To increase the gradient of the learning curve, I've put together 10 Tips that will help organisations deliver effective knowledge transfer and contextualise information as 'Artificial Experience'.