Learning your way through life and work - it is all in the head

The HBR article that spoke most to me in the March 2016 issue was one titled 'Managing Yourself - Learning to Learn'. It is an article on 'learning agility', that magical ability to quickly learn from experience and adapt to changing situations. As Arie de Geus and many with him said: "The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage." I've always described myself as a fan of people who are good at what they do, get good and stay good. So naturally I've read what the researchers had to say.

Components of the magic word

'Learning Agility', together with 'innovation' and 'trust' is one of the magic words in business lingo. It means all sorts of things to different people but you can't really work with the term as such. So let's break it down to something we can work with! The researchers have found that quick learners have a couple of attributes that all link to a mindset. I found the reframing of questions a very powerful mechanism. Below my summary:

Attribute	Unsupportive self-talk	Supportive self-talk
Aspiration	I don't need to learn this.	What would my future look like if I did?
Self-awareness	I'm already fine at this.	Am I really? How do I compare with my peers?
Curiosity	This is boring.	I wonder why others find it interesting.
Vulnerability	I'm terrible at this.	I'm making beginner mistakes but I'll get better.

It reminded me of Carol Dweck's growth mindset.

Of course, this model isn't the only one that tries to demystify the magical term 'learning agility'. Researchers of Teacher's College in Columbia found these 4 drivers and 1 derailer:

The only purpose of any of these models is to make the term workable for you. I found the reframing questions useful.