Are You Walking on Parallel Tracks?

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of all your learning in life is? Be it in school, or at work, or anywhere for that matter, there’s always something to be learnt, right? Some of us, trump the learning curve like a wizard while some others, ‘heave and ho!’ our way to the finish line while yet some others, trudge unwillingly on the path to enlightenment with ample prodding.  In my own journey of self-realization, I’ve passed through phases where learning to me meant mugging things up whether they made sense or not, to then philosophically agonizing on why I had to study in the first place, to finally having my ‘aha!’ moment of realizing that all my learning became meaningful when I figured out how to ‘apply’ it in practice.  So there you go: “learn & apply”! I'd like to dive into this elusive pair further. 

It is possible that many of us have traveled or are still traveling the path I’ve mentioned from my life’s journey above, where in, the two tracks of learning and application, steadily remain parallel and fail to converge at any point in time thereby leading to a very in-congruent lifestyle between what we know and what we do with that knowledge. A classic example of this in-congruence was revealed earlier this year when the parents of some of the kids I teach Sunday School for, complained that all the knowledge gained by the kids while sitting in Sunday School, seemed to somehow vaporize when they went back to their normal routines for the rest of the week, thereby rendering all their time spent learning, weak and useless.

Well, isn’t this a timeless problem that many of us adults struggle with as well? Think of the workplace. How many of us leaders have dealt with the paradox of investing hours of training on our teams only to see some of them transact on the floor as if all that they had learnt had nothing to do with how they were to apply it on the floor? Not discounting the numerous reasons why one could fail to apply what one has learnt, I choose to narrow my focus down to one main causal area – lack of understanding. When you are unable to wrap your head around what you need to know and why, it is very unlikely that you will know to apply that knowledge correctly with the required presence of mind.

‘Understanding’ therefore, is your convergence creator between learning and applying it successfully. But how do we as parents, leaders, mentors, coaches, etc. facilitate this understanding and the required convergence between learning and application of those under our care? Specific to the workplace, we have many provisions at our disposal such as – induction, training, coaching and mentoring sessions, employee one-on-ones, etc., but how many of us look at these provisions as mere items to be checked-off our task list, versus powerful enablers to assess the level of understanding within our employees and to monitor/influence the required convergence?

As leaders, this is my call to awakening for us! When we fail to leverage what’s at our disposal to facilitate the convergence needed in the lives of others, where does that leave us? Are we not running on the same parallel tracks? Nevertheless, I start the New Year with a fresh burst of hope – let us take a peek within ourselves and with an introspective mindset, build the convergence needed within through renewed levels of understanding so that we can more effectively be the change we want to see! Concluding in the words of Aristotle, “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” Happy New Year!