Continuous Learning Is Key

Marshall Goldsmith has said, “What got you here, won’t get you there,” this message has never been truer than it is in today’s digital age.

Our knowledge acquired through formal education is rapidly becoming obsolete and we can no longer expect to get jobs and newer responsibilities based on our degrees acquired decades back or even five years back.

Today’s organisations are for continuous learners. It is all about the ‘growth mindset’ as explained by Carol Dweck.

Just like cine stars are defined by their latest hits and cannot afford to rest on their past laurels, similarly in today’s organisations - talent is defined by what is the latest knowledge that you have acquired and what has been your latest innovative contribution to your organisation.

How do we acquire this knowledge? This knowledge is all around us. We can start with the age-old method of acquiring knowledge. Reading books in our subject matter. Subject matter magazines and journals are also a great way of acquiring knowledge. Then there is e-learning or virtual learning. One should complete at least one e-learning course every quarter. These are inexpensive and most organisation today offer free subscriptions for employees. Else, we can pay our own subscriptions and enrol into various online courses, because the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs. We need to enthusiastically participate in all opportunities given by our organisations towards classroom learnings. It is significant to emphasise the importance of acquiring digital skills and competencies. Tomorrow’s organisations will be increasingly digital first.

In our journey of reskilling and reinventing ourselves, we need to build a support network around us. How are we including our families and our children too in our learning and development journeys? We can identify bosses, peers and team members who can form our support network to help us in our process of acquiring new skills and competencies. We need to identify external experts, thought leaders who we can learn from through social media connects. We need to regularly challenge ourselves and experiment with our new learning to strengthen our newly acquired skills.

Another important way to learn and develop is to seek continuous feedback. Best in class organisations today are investing disproportionately in 360 degree feedback systems. These are excellent ways to learn about skills and continuous development.