Skip to main content

Into the mindset of a Learning Professional

We are lucky. We have as careers, this amazing job, and passion of being in the learning world.

Our jobs (and passion) involve designing learning experiences for people. Children, adults, teams, professionals - whatever our audiences - our jobs are to make learning experiences amazing. (And just what does that mean - topic for another post).

(Conundrum: On the one hand if you have passion, you will learn, however, wherever - think Ekalavya - but on the other hand, a beautifully designed learning experience will take the learner to heights faster and might even light a fire of passion in them.)

What does it take for a person to be in this profession? What do you know about? What do you care about? How do you do that? Here are some of my thoughts:

Oodles of passion for one. If you are not passionate, you cannot be in the learning business. Unless you wake up excited each day imagining the possibilities of learning, this is not for you. What are you passionate about, ask them. And ask for an answer other than their job.

A lot of knowledge for another. And yet, an ability to step out of the traps of carefully laid learning paths that claim superiority of all other paths. (Holds true for much of life as well).

An open mind. Imagine a learning professional, who seeks to open minds, having a closed mindset herself.

Curiosity. A desire to experiment. After all this is human minds one is talking about. And unless you have those basic instincts how do you build those into your learning experiences.

A reasonable knowledge of behavior. Theoretical or Practical, this is very very important. Many of our experiences seek to reinforce or redirect behavior, so yes, a knowledge of behavior is invaluable.

A great understanding of what your customer wants. Stated. Unstated. Real. Imagined. Problem behind the problem. And so on and so forth. What they say and what they mean. So, knowledge of the behavior of those who enlist your help as well.

A learning attitude. Isn't that simple enough?

And once you have all of this, you want the person to know science, arts, commerce, engineering, medicine, psychology, technology, philospophy, dance, music, sports and then some. Ok, atleast a few of them. And there you have it, a complete learning professional.

Yes, each one of us is a learning professional, but there is no right definition. They come in many shapes and sizes, but yes, all of those listed above are good guiding principles. Has worked for me. YMMV. 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why does elearning exist?

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...
Post a Comment
Read more