Learning Velocity
Your competitive advantage is the accuracy of how you see, sense and interpret your environment. It is my belief that you will get a more accurate read if you practice resilience, responsiveness and reflection — Jennifer Sertl. #a3r
I was lucky enough to attend the Social Innovation Summit earlier this month and be inspired by so many fabulous social innovators and you can follow the community I have curated in my Twitter list and track my experience in my feed. Shout out in particular to Zeev Klein, Mel Ochoa and Olivia Brooks Allan who with their team at Landmark Ventures have been furthering the conversation of well being and social impact for over a decade.
Of all the speakers, the conversation that hit me the hardest in terms of insight was will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. He mentioned that it is easier for him to get funding to make machines smarter than to get funding to help young people learn. I encourage you to experience the entire conversation so you gain even more context. The idea of investing in people, though, stuck. How will we reset and adapt to all the new integrated technology unless we are able to have time to read, learn, make mistakes, ask questions, experiment . . . Our culture doesn’t invest in learning and seems to only celebrate experts. The journey from novice to competence is filled with lots of clumsy, lots of error and unfortunately lots of fear.
It is up to us to model the way. As you increase your learning velocity and create personal capacity models for growth and learning, you will notice your pace may feel like it is not “keeping up.” I encourage you to stand tight in your own process and know that you are more capably than you know and you have to tolerate feeling uncomfortable and maybe even being judged. Learners always win. It just takes a lot of courage.
It is also up to us to work on the digital divide. We need to take people with us and look for those who might fall through the cracks. Talk about AI at the dinner table. Ask people what they are reading and if they are not reading anything invite them to read what you are reading. Take a look on Coursera and see if you can challenge yourself to one to two classes per year.
I want to leave you with resources that inspire my thinking and help me be a more adaptable learner and leader.
I learned about Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal’s The Human Element on one of my favorite podcasts The Hidden Brain.
The Human Element outlines four frictions that get in the way of individual adopting new ideas — even when those ideas are within the best interest of the person. I wish this were required reading for all startups because the insights really inform strategy. Regardless of how good your technology or idea is, it is only as good as the adoption and the understanding of the primary users.
I grew up loving Ray Bradbury. I was first introduced to him while I was in eight grade and had to read All Summer in A Day. I identified immediately to the main character Margot and learned at that moment that literature is mirror and a place to feel less alone. Bradbury used to say, “ I write about the future to prevent the future.” When he stopped writing the future arrived. Thankfully, we now have Kazuo Ishiguro who asks very provocative questions about our relationship with machine learning, cloning, and fascination with technology.
At the same time, what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom,” ―Klara and the Sun
Learning to unlearn is perhaps the hardest learning there is. There is an article that I read at least once per month that continues to refresh and reboot my thinking both a as a learner and as a leader- Chris Argyris’ Teaching Smart People How to Learn.
Put simply, because many professionals are almost always successful at what they do, they rarely experience failure. And because they have rarely failed, they have never learned how to learn from failure. So whenever their single-loop learning strategies go wrong, they become defensive, screen out criticism, and put the “blame” on anyone and everyone but themselves. In short, their ability to learn shuts down precisely at the moment they need it the most. — Chris Argyris’ Teaching Smart People How To Learn
Finally, I have shared many times my love and appreciation for Celine Schillinger’s Dare to Un-Lead. She recently ask me to share my experience as a corporate culture leader to discuss my beliefs about how teams can create cohesion, belonging and a sense of purpose. I hope you enjoy our conversation and let me know if there is a way I can contribute your growth strategy both as an individual and also as a leadership on your team.
A significant part of my business portfolio includes my role as Director of Marketing for Circle Optics. I want to share our 360° Monthly Pulse:
- Our Technology Road Map
- Wefunder Investor Q & A
- New Hires Supporting our Contribution to #GreaterROC as #entrepreneurship hub
Cheers to your learning and un-learning velocity!
Jennifer #a3r
