Learning is Like Breathing – What are You Breathing?

Image via Wikipedia

I was just reading Brent Schlenker’s latest blog post. He hit it dead on.

• You can’t force learning
• It isn’t about content
• It IS about the individual learning
• Learning Happens

Maybe that is my new mantra: LEARNING HAPPENS.  Just like breathing.  Sometimes we think about breathing (playing Ultimate will get you thinking about breathing, right, B.J.?)  But most of the time we just breath.  It happens.  It is the same with learning – it just happens.

We don’t usually think about it nor do we call it learning, but we ARE ALWAYS LEARNING. Hmmmm.  Maybe we should start caring a bit more about what we are learning (breathing).  Since we are doing it all the time, shouldn’t we care about what we are taking in?  What we take in is directly related to the environment we put ourselves in.

Which is why there are training departments in companies.  “Get them in this environment and they will learn!” THIS IS TRUE!  But WHAT are they learning? That is the real question. Are they learning that they HATE poorly done eLearning or ILT? Maybe that is their biggest take-away (I have lived through that before – haven’t you?).

ATTENTION TRAINING DEPARTMENTS: Spend less time creating a class for the employee to learn.  Instead, create a learning ecosystem around them.  Give them the tools and resources which will allow them to learn for themselves and (heaven forbid) allow them to set their own learning direction.  Sure, give them some guidance as they will not be used to you giving them the learning reins.  There will always be ILT and eLeaning, to be sure.

I retract.  There is already a learning ecosystem around you.  It is time you evaluated yours.  What does it look like?

Tagged as: breathing, ecosystem, ultimate