Why Keep Learning?

Introduction
Adopting the right mindset begins with recognizing the importance of ongoing learning. The
following story about Charles Darwin serves as a reminder that learning is a survival skill.
In 1831, Charles Darwin embarked on a five-year geological expedition on HMS Beagle around the
world. While we all remember him as he was in his later years—a graying old man with an affinity
for eccentric facial hair—at the time of the voyage he was just a 22-year-old university graduate
who possessed an uncanny natural intelligence, a hunger for adventure, and a desire to see the world
before he settled into his anticipated profession as a parson.
Young Charles was likely not so different from myself or other twenty-something college graduates:
old enough to make his own choices, desperate to spread his wings and start really living, yet still
inexperienced and naïve in ways he couldn't yet understand. In a letter to his friend and mentor,
John Stevens Henslow, the man who would be Charles Darwin shared a thought that most of us can
relate to: “I dare hardly look forward to the future, for I do not know what will become of me.”1
When he wanted to sign up as a volunteer on the voyage of the Beagle to help with the recording of
geological findings, his father said what most of our fathers would likely say if we pitched the idea
of being on a boat in strange waters for half a decade: “Are you out of your mind?”
I am paraphrasing. In his autobiography, Darwin noted that his father “strongly objected” and would
only relent in his objections if someone sensible (read: not Darwin) said the trip was a good idea.
Luckily Darwin's uncle, apparently a sensible man with a vicarious need for adventure, spoke up in
favor of the plan, allowing the young lad to set off and experience what Darwin reflected on later as
“the most important event of my life.”
The voyage also turned out to be one of the most important events in the history of modern science
thanks in part to observations Darwin made while the Beagle was stopped at the wild Galápagos
Islands. Located west of Ecuador, the volcanic archipelago was positively simmering with fresh
deposits of lava and such a diverse array of giant tortoises, iguanas, and unusual vegetation that
Robert FitzRoy, the captain of the ship, deemed the shore “fit for pandemonium.”2

While documenting and recording the diverse array of wildlife on the islands, Darwin noticed the
finches—small, plainly colored, and all-around unimposing birds that occurred in large flocks
across the archipelago. He soon conceded to “inexplicable confusion” over classifying the birds.
Though there seemed to be variations in size and shape and other physical features, they
surprisingly had similar feeding habits and plumage, which led a perplexed Darwin to dub them
“very curious.”3

By the time the Beagle set sail for its next call, Tahiti, Darwin had added six types of finches to his
specimen menagerie. It wasn't until 1837, two years after his visit to the archipelago, that Darwin—
with a little help from some scientist friends—realized his Galápagos finch samples weren't just
different types but entirely different species of bird. Upon further examination he discovered that
these unique species of finches had done something extraordinary: within a few generations, the
beaks of the birds had altered rapidly in both size and shape to accommodate changes in their food
sources and environment. Furthermore, each of the islands in the Galápagos had its own distinct set
of finch species. Darwin theorized that the different species likely came from one common ancestor
yet had all adapted over time to their present environments. In the process, they had become
completely different birds.
This observation planted the seed for his theory of evolution, though it would take Darwin over
twenty more years to fully articulate and present that theory to the world in his 1859 book, On the
Origin of Species. For those of you who skipped out on high school biology, I can recap one of the
book's paradigm-shattering messages in one simple phrase: survival of the fittest.
We've all heard about the survival of the fittest, and I am willing to bet that if asked to summarize it
you would say something like “kill or be killed” or “only the strong will survive.” But the truth is
that through his work with the finches, Darwin understood that “the fittest” were not necessarily the
most aggressive or dominant of any species but those most able to adapt to changes in their
environment.
Nearly two hundred years ago, Darwin's seminal work was informed by the finches' prodigious
ability to adapt. But for us modern professionals, the example they provide—of rapid adaptation
and survival—is more than just a scientific principle: it gives us insight into how to move forward
and succeed in a job market that, right before our eyes, is shifting away from the decades-old nine-
to-five standard into something yet undefined and still forming. The collision of chronically high
unemployment with an expanding global workforce (among other factors) has turned the American
job market into an ongoing survival-of-the-fittest scenario where professionals have a clear choice:
evolve their careers or risk career extinction.

Think Differently about Learning

Introduction
Discover why thinking of yourself as smart can sometimes interfere with learning. Then consider a
number of beliefs and attitudes that contribute to a learning mindset.

Learning and earning

THE ‘I-DIDN’T-GET-WHERE-I-AM-TODAY …’ TRAP
“Smart people don’t learn … because they have too much invested in proving what they
know and avoiding being seen as not knowing.”
PROFESSOR CHRIS ARGYRIS, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL.
In many people’s minds, the concept that they still have things to learn is a sign of weakness – a
suggestion that if they don’t already know everything they cannot be worthy of their current role.
Frankly, this is tosh!
Case study
In the mid 1990s a senior executive, Tom Roberts, was having trouble with his computer. The
technical guy from the IT department came to look at the machine and discovered that several of the
keys were stuck down with a brown sticky deposit. It turned out to be hot chocolate. Tom had put
his cup into ‘the cup-holder’ in the PC tower and it had spilled.

That, however, isn’t the point of the story. The technical support guy explained what the CD-ROM
drive actually was and how it worked and asked Tom why he was unaware of the whole matter.
Tom replied that someone had made his secretary redundant and replaced her with a desktop
computer, but no one had trained him to use it and, since he was a highly paid executive, he hadn’t
felt it appropriate to openly admit that he couldn’t understand what a 17-year-old school-leaver
could understand. So he simply didn’t use the computer for anything he couldn’t already do.
The tech support guy happened to mention this to a friend who was from the HR department. The
company instigated a ‘Training-Needs Amnesty’ for all senior managers to privately and quietly get
brought up to speed with anything they needed to learn.
In her book, Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, Heidi Halvorson notes that one
ingredient of success is the focus on ‘getting better’ rather than on ‘being good’. She claims that
many people seem to believe that their intelligence, personality and physical aptitudes are
immovable – that no matter what they do, they won’t and can’t improve. Consequently, they focus
on what they can achieve now, rather than what they could achieve if they first developed
themselves by acquiring new knowledge and skills.
In reality, this belief in fixed ability is completely wrong; while each of us may have certain natural
aptitudes we can all get better at virtually anything, we can improve ourselves and develop new
knowledge, skills and abilities. People who set themselves goals to improve, take difficulty in their
stride. And they tend to appreciate the journey as much as the destination.
“Learning is not compulsory … neither is survival.” DR W. EDWARDS DEMING, AUTHOR,
PROFESSOR, CONSULTANT AND FATHER OF JAPAN’S POST-WAR INDUSTRIAL
RECOVERY.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE BAD TO GET BETTER
The reality is that we can all learn (and we all do learn) every day, although there are some people
who follow the theory of these great thinkers:
“How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it
pushes some old stuff out of my brain.” HOMER SIMPSON.
“I cannot do with any more education, Jeeves. I was full up years ago!” BERTIE WOOSTER.

But more sensible folk prefer to follow the lead of Mahatma Gandhi:
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

We can learn intuitively or we can learn intentionally.

When we learn intuitively we learn simply by our normal everyday actions, we learn from our
experience – our mistakes and successes and the mistakes and successes of others that we see or
hear about. We learn by reading the paper, watching the television, by talking to others. What we
don’t often do is to notice formally that we are learning, and by this omission we often have to
repeat the lesson several times before the learning actually clicks in and changes our behaviour.
We can learn intentionally in two ways: through experience and through new exposure.
To learn intentionally through experience we follow the same path as intuitive learning, but we stop
after each experience and reflect on what we have learned and how and where it may help us. For
example, imagine that you, as a young fresh recruit, have just been to a meeting with your boss and
several other members of the team. In your judgement, the meeting was a severe waste of your
time; you had to listen to some other people debating at length on a topic that was completely
outside your sphere of interest and even then they didn’t actually get any decisions made. On the
topics that were of relevance to you your boss did listen to your opinion, and the opinion of others,
and a couple of decisions were sort of made. But the decisions were of the ‘we will’ variety and you
came out of the meeting unsure of whether you were waiting for a colleague to do something or
whether they were reliant on you doing it. Neither of you has any idea when it has to be done by.
Let us reflect on what we have learned:
• It is not always necessary for everyone to attend a whole meeting if large parts of the
meeting are to discuss and decide on things that don’t affect them.
• It is a good idea in any meeting to agree beforehand whether there is a need simply to
discuss a topic or whether it is necessary to make decisions. If decisions need to be made
this should be done in the meeting and recorded.
• It is important that responsibilities and action plans are allocated at the end of discussions to
ensure that people know what is expected of them next.
Let us reflect on how and where this may help you:
 • It may help you next time your boss schedules a meeting; you may be able to agree to attend
only part of the meeting, or to hold a separate meeting that is relevant only to you.
• It may help you in meetings to ensure that you ask the right questions to get the information
you need to make you more efficient.
• It may help you when you start chairing meetings to avoid the errors your boss is
making/allowing to be made that make their meetings so unproductive!
We can also learn intentionally from new exposure; in this instance we deliberately expose
ourselves to new knowledge or skill with the deliberate intent of learning from it. We can do this by
an increasing variety of different methods:

a) Read a book on the subject: even with the demise of the lending library and the ability to browse
the shelves, online bookstores (with their search facilities and the capacity to show what others
who looked at a particular title also viewed) are an excellent place for discovering what is in
print about pretty much any topic under the sun.
b Visit a website: the internet is a free and virtually unrestricted resource. There are special-interest
) websites on such a wide variety of topics that it is almost impossible to get bored online (and
which is why the internet can also be such a destructive force!) Many websites have free
downloadable resources, ‘white papers’, PDFs and podcasts, as well as the main text of the site.
c) Subscribe to a special-interest magazine (real or increasingly virtual); there are newsletters,
blogs and features being released daily.
d ‘Follow’ appropriate tweeters on Twitter: yes, there is an awful lot of drivel included in those
) 147-character messages, but there is a lot of interesting and potentially useful information as
well.
e) ‘Take a class’: again you can do this in the real world at your local adult education centre:
Just looking at my local college, they run 138 part-time and evening adult education courses (not
including ‘essential skills’ of Mathematics and English) that range from Wiring Regulations
through Accounting, Photography, Sign Language, Computer Programming, Welding,
Marketing, Human Resource Management, First Aid, Hospitality Management, Counselling,
Teaching, Hairdressing, Fitness Instructing to Website Design.
Or you can do it virtually by either buying (or getting a free download of) an e-learning program,
or you can sign up to a free live webinar and learn from the comfort of your own home. Consider
visiting http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/17/learn-anything-100-places-to-find-free-
webinars-and-tutorials/ where you will find a vast array of links to places where you can get free
online material for learning.
Or you can …
f) … ‘go back to school’.

CASE STUDY
Anita Terry had not done very well in school and had left as soon as possible and joined the Navy.
Sadly, she was soon diagnosed as being partially deaf and was discharged on medical grounds. She
married and had a child but her husband left her when their son was just a toddler. Her ex was not
good at making maintenance payments.
She moved into social housing and got a part-time job as a classroom assistant at the primary school
in which she had enrolled her son.
After a year she decided that she liked teaching and that she had a natural aptitude. She enrolled at
the Open University to study for a degree. She worked hard at the school, and at being a (single)
Mum and at her studies.
As soon as she qualified she signed up for a master’s degree. She still worked hard as a junior
teacher, her son gave her all the parental headaches that children are wont to give their parents, and
she carried on studying.
When she got her master’s she became the best qualified person in the staffroom, but there was no
vacancy in the school for a fully fledged teacher. So she moved to another, larger school in the area.
Within 10 years she became the head teacher of a not-insubstantial primary school, complete with a
significant salary and benefits package, and, most importantly, she was very happy.
The wonderful thing is that the phrase ‘go back to school’ is itself dreadfully outdated. Yes, if you
can afford it you can take the full-time educational route but, as Bill Gates pointed out at the
Techonomy Conference on the 6 August 2010:
Place-based colleges are good for parties, but are becoming less crucial for learning thanks to the
internet.

The Open University has been in business in the UK since January 1971, offering ‘proper’ academic
qualifications (rather than just courses), and many other universities now offer part-time routes to
academic and professional qualifications.

g Find a mentor or mentors: most people are deeply touched to be considered an expert in their
) chosen field, so if you want to learn something and you can find someone who seems to be
something of a guru in the subject, ask them to tell/show/teach you. This is particularly good for
their self-esteem! Don’t be fooled by the ‘wise old owl’ image of a mentor – you can often learn
something from someone less than half your age; and we are not only talking about how to
programme the satellite TV!

“If your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning
opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from
everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited.” CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN,
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL.

There are also ‘communities of practice’ all over the internet, where people post ad hoc learning
needs, ‘How do I …?’, and people with expertise in the subject respond and share their
knowledge. Many of these are services where you need to register, but most are free and in most
cases you can even create a user-name that is an alias so you don’t leave a trail of ignorance
across cyberspace.
h Barter some learning in return for your time: find a voluntary position where you can get some
) relevant training or supervised experience (see Chapter 9 for more details).
j) Step outside your comfort zone/throw yourself in at the deep end: just go and try something that
you have never done before. Within reason, this is a great way to learn from experience, whether
you are doing it at work and volunteering to take on something new (to you) or whether you are
doing it at home and trying a new recipe or DIY project. Yes, you will often find out that there
was a lot that you didn’t know that you didn’t know but, so long as you aren’t trying something
 potentially dangerous (like fitting a new gas cooker or making an omelette out of some
unidentified mushrooms that you found on a walk), it is a wonderful voyage of discovery. Not
only will you learn a new skill but you will learn something about yourself, and other people
may learn something about you as well.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” PABLO
PICASSO, PAINTER & SCULPTOR

THE ULTIMATE REASON TO LEARN – FOR THE LOVE OF LEARNING

RATHER THAN FINANCIAL GAIN
You don’t have to learn something solely for the purpose of furthering your career; you may also
decide to learn a new knowledge or skill:
• to save money: DIY, car maintenance, dressmaking;
• to express your creativity: dressmaking, painting, sculpture, photography, cookery;
• to improve the lot of your family: cookery, budgeting;
• to improve your physical or psychological health: Tai Chi, Yoga, Zumba, cookery, golf,
meditation, anger management;
• to improve your holidays: a language or foreign culture.
• to improve your spare time/just to learn for the sake of learning: the University of the Third
Age (U3A) is an organisation that provides activities and learning for people over the age of
50. It is a relatively informal organisation, with lectures and meetings on subjects ranging
from Mah Jong to digital photography, Russian to military history.

CASE STUDY
A London couple used to book their holiday each year to a different country and then spend the time
before they went learning the language, either via their local adult education centre or by using a
home-study course. By the time they reached retirement age they could both identify and speak, to a
‘tourist’ level, nine different languages. In retirement they ‘worked’ as troubleshooters for their
local tourist information centre and the police, helping out when visitors to the UK ran into
problems.
Take time to consider what you would like to learn:
• for your current career – technical or managerial skills or knowledge;
• for a future career or career change;
• to save you money or make you a more rounded person;
• for your personal improvement or your health;
• for the sheer joy of learning something.

“Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” WINSTON
CHURCHILL, FORMER PRIME MINISTER

Take time to consider how you would like to learn:

• totally self-managed – via reading, internet searching and study;
 • self-paced but formal learning – distance learning, e-learning course, find a mentor;
• tutor-led – via some sort of volunteering;
• tutor-led – via the local adult education provider;
• tutor-led and leading to a paper qualification – via a college, university or institute;
• ‘experiential’ – by trying it out.

Linked to this, consider when and where you would like to learn:
• during the working day;
• during the evenings;
• at weekends;
• at work;
• at home;
• at a college/university or institute;
• or even …

CASE STUDY
Phil Bennison spent an hour and a half each morning and evening sitting on a train commuting to
and from work. He wanted to get a professional qualification and institute membership in the
discipline he had chosen for his career. He enrolled in a correspondence course with a reputable
provider and spent his travelling time reading the required texts and planning his essays and project
submissions. He wrote the essays during his lunch breaks at his desk at work.
After three years he sat his final exams on one day, which he took as holiday. Five weeks later he
was formally able to add the post-nominal letters for Chartered Membership of the Institute after his
name.
His 2,400 hours of study were completed predominantly during the otherwise brain-dead time of
sitting on a commuter train.

Recognize How You Learn Best

Introduction
Cultivating a learning mindset includes knowing how you learn best. Each person is intelligent and
absorbs information in different ways. Knowing your strongest areas of intelligence and your
preferred learning styles will help you identify what approaches to learning will be most effective
for you.

LEARNING AND INTELLIGENCE

Our approach to learning is very much dependent on what works for us, because every person is
unique. Some people may self limit their potential to learn new things because they feel they lack
intelligence. From my experience, academic qualifications have very little bearing on people’s
ability to learn and sometimes they are weighted far too heavily in the selection process for job
roles.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid.
Albert Einstein
Interestingly enough, a theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard
Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University.
It suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on IQ testing, is far too limited. Instead,
Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential
in children and adults. These intelligences are:

1 Linguistic Intelligence – Words, Spoken or Written

People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words and languages. They are
typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with dates. They tend
to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and discussion and debate.
They are also frequently skilled at explaining, teaching and oration or persuasive speaking. Those
with verbal-linguistic intelligence learn foreign languages very easily as they have high verbal
memory and recall, and an ability to understand and manipulate syntax and structure. This
intelligence is highest in writers, lawyers, philosophers, journalists, politicians, poets, and teachers.

2 Logical-Mathematical Intelligence – Logic, Abstractions,

Reasoning and Numbers
It is often assumed that those with this intelligence naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer
programming and other logical or numerical activities.
A more accurate definition places emphasis on traditional mathematical ability and high reasoning
capabilities, abstract patterns of recognition, scientific thinking and investigation, and the ability to
perform complex calculations. It correlates strongly with traditional concepts of ‘intelligence’ or IQ.
Many scientists, mathematicians, engineers, doctors and economists function on this level of
intelligence.

3 Visual-Spatial Intelligence – Vision and Spatial Judgement

People with strong visual-spatial intelligence are typically very good at visualizing, and mentally
manipulating objects. Those with strong spatial intelligence are often proficient at solving puzzles.
They have a strong visual memory and are often artistically inclined.
Those with visual-spatial intelligence also generally have a very good sense of direction and may
also have very good hand–eye coordination, although this is normally seen as a characteristic of
bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence. Careers that suit those with this intelligence include artists,
engineers and architects.
4 Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence – Bodily Movement
People who have this intelligence usually learn better by getting up and moving around, and are
generally good at physical activities such as sports or dance. They may enjoy acting or performing
and, in general, they are good at building and making things. They often learn best by doing
something physically, rather than reading or hearing about it.
Those with strong bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence seem to use what might be termed ‘muscle
memory’, and they remember things through their body such as verbal memory or images. Careers
that suit those with this intelligence include football players, athletes, dancers, actors, surgeons,
doctors, builders, and soldiers.

5 Musical Intelligence – Rhythm, Music, and Hearing

Those who have a high level of musical-rhythmic intelligence display greater sensitivity to sounds,
rhythms, absolute pitch and music. They normally have good pitch and may be able to sing, play
musical instruments and compose music.
Since there is a strong auditory component to this intelligence, careers that suit those with this
intelligence include instrumentalists, singers, conductors, disc-jockeys, orators, writers and
composers.

6 Interpersonal Intelligence – Interaction with Others

People who have a high interpersonal intelligence tend to be extroverts, characterized by their
sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and their ability to cooperate
in order to work as part of a group.
They communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or
followers. They typically learn best by working with others and often enjoy discussion and debate.
Careers that suit those with this intelligence include politicians, teachers, managers and social
workers.

7 Intrapersonal Intelligence – Introspective and Self-Reflective

Capacities
Those with strong intrapersonal intelligence are usually highly self-aware and capable of
understanding their own emotions, goals and motivations. They often have an affinity for thought-
based pursuits such as philosophy. They learn best when allowed to concentrate on the subject by
themselves.
There is often a high level of perfectionism associated with this intelligence. Careers that suit those
with this intelligence include philosophers, psychologists, theologians, writers and scientists.
8 Naturalist Intelligence – Nature, Nurturing and Relating
Information to One’s Natural Surroundings
Those with it are said to have greater sensitivity to nature and their place within it, the ability to
nurture and grow things, and greater ease in caring for, taming and interacting with animals. They
may also be able to discern changes in the weather or similar fluctuations in their natural
surroundings. Recognizing and classifying things are at the core of a naturalist.
They must connect a new experience with prior knowledge to truly learn something new.
Naturalists learn best when the subject involves collecting and analyzing, or is closely related to
something prominent in nature; they also don’t enjoy learning unfamiliar or seemingly useless
subjects with little or no connections to nature. It is advised that naturalistic learners would learn
more through being outside or working in a kinaesthetic way. Careers that suit those with this
intelligence include vets, environmentalists, scientists, gardeners and farmers.
Dr. Gardner believes that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and
logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture.
However, Dr Gardner says that we should also place equal attention to individuals who show gifts
in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists,
entrepreneurs and others who enrich the world in which we live.

LEARNING STYLES
It is also useful to understand that we are all different and we will learn in different ways. Knowing
and understanding your learning style can make a big difference to how well you learn and at what
speed. There are so many interesting models about learning; however, here is one of my favourite
explanations of the different approaches to learning.
• Auditory or Visual Learners. This indicates the sensory mode you prefer when processing
information. Auditory learners tend to learn more effectively through listening, while visual
learners process information by seeing it in print or other visual modes including film,
picture, or diagrams or videos when available.
• Applied or Conceptual Learners. This describes the types of learning tasks and learning
situations you prefer and find most easy to handle. If you are an applied learner you prefer
tasks that involve real objects and situations. Practical, real-life learning situations are ideal
for you. If you are a conceptual learner, you prefer to work with language and ideas;
practical applications are not necessary for understanding.
• Spatial or Non-spatial Learners. This reveals your ability to work with spatial relationships.
Spatial learners are able to visualize or ‘mentally see’ how things work or how they are
positioned in space. Their strengths may include drawing, assembling things, or repairing.
Non-spatial learners lack skills in positioning things in space. Instead they tend to rely on
verbal or language skills.
• Social or Independent Learners. This reveals your preferred level of interaction with other
people in the learning process. If you are a social learner you prefer to work with others –
both peers and instructors – closely and directly. You tend to be people-oriented and enjoy
 personal interaction. If you are an independent learner, you prefer to work and study alone.
You tend to be self-directed or self-motivated, and often goal-oriented.
• Creative or Pragmatic Learners. This describes the approach you prefer to take toward
learning tasks. Creative learners are imaginative and innovative through discovery or
experimentation. They are comfortable taking risks and following hunches. Pragmatic
learners are practical, logical and systematic. They seek order and are comfortable following
rules.

Cultivate Adaptability
Introduction
In an environment of continuous change and challenge, staying in your comfort zone is not an
option. In today’s workplace, adaptability is critical to the learning mindset you need to succeed in
your job and on behalf of your organization. This lesson helps you understand the barriers to being
adaptable and offers 10 steps you can follow to improve your adaptability skills.

Barriers to being adaptable

Even though we are hard-wired to be adaptable, we are also naturally resistant to change and this
can stand in the way of being open to new experiences and opportunities. We also naturally fear
rejection, so may shy away from doing something new or going out of our comfort zone for fear of
being rejected.

Our mental scripts

Another barrier to being adaptable is to do with the way our brain processes any new information. It
creates what is known as ‘behavioural scripts’ which basically are mental models that automate our
actions.3 An example is building a behavioural script for riding a bike. Through practice, this
behaviour becomes entrenched and automatic until we can do it without thinking. Our brains will
have lots of these scripts, from driving a car, speaking our mother tongue to even cooking a
favourite dish. These scripts extend to other experiences and ways of doing things that we have
learned. The scripts help us to be more efficient. They influence not only our actions but also what
we see and believe.
Adaptability is linked to youth and vitality. As we get older we develop more mental scripts, which
can really challenge our ability to adapt to anything new. So by developing your adaptability skills
you are tapping into agility, youth and new energy!
This efficiency also carries a downside, however, because the mental scripts can cause us to ignore
the reality of a situation and dismiss any signals or new information because our brains already
‘know what to do’. Mental scripts may also result in clinging stubbornly to the notion that ‘this is
how we have always done it’, refusing to understand and accept the realities of a new situation.
Henry Plotkin, a psychologist at University College in London, states that we tend to ‘generalise
into the future what worked in the past’. So, whatever worked in the past, we tend to do it or keep
doing it; whatever didn’t work, we tend to avoid.
Our mental scripts can make us rigid and unresponsive to change, as can work or other stress, which
I’ve mentioned previously. Other barriers include being in competition with others and experiencing
discontent or discomfort with a situation – usually this can also be traced back to fear or our mental
scripts. What’s important is to start to understand how they can impact our behaviour and cause us
to be inflexible and not adaptable at all, however much we like to think that we are!

Lack of opportunity
There are always opportunities for us to test our adaptability skills but some of us may not actively
seek these opportunities, and this in itself can be a barrier. If we have few opportunities growing up,
to travel or try new things, then we may be even more resistant to this later in life. One of the
reasons I want to start taking my five-year-old with me on some of my business trips to far-flung
places, and the reason I’ve strongly encouraged my daughter to travel widely, is because many of
these trips have, quite literally, opened my eyes. I have gone to places I would never have visited on
holiday, or otherwise. I suppose one could also argue that maybe I would not have travelled to so
many places others perceive as being unusual or high-risk, had I not been exposed to much travel
and moving when I was younger. One of the reasons I am so adaptable is because I know I can
adapt, having experienced different schools, different countries and having had to plunge in and
learn a new language and make new friends. It’s created a kind of fearlessness, which I feel very
fortunate to have.
As a society in the West, though, we’ve become far more protective of our children. They are
ferried everywhere by car, do not play in the streets and any travel is likely to be to holiday resorts
far removed from the country’s real culture. In the UK, most of our children do not even learn a
foreign language! And I can remember well other parents’ horror that I actively encouraged my
daughter to navigate her way alone around the London Underground system at the age of 12. It
meant that when she was a teenager, she was the one others relied on for getting around
independently.
Is this over-protectiveness making our kids less adaptable and less equipped for what the world and
life will throw their way? Does it make them less willing to seek out opportunities to stretch their
comfort zones?

Stop and think!

Recently I travelled to Krakow in Poland, taking my husband and young son with me. Exploring the
beautiful salt mines I remarked that just doing something completely out of the day-to-day routine
is incredibly good for you and builds your skills of adaptability. So, whether it’s travel or just taking
a different route to work, if you’re doing this kind of thing consistently you will become more
adaptable.

Rigidity and fear

Fear is probably the biggest barrier to being adaptable. Fear of rejection, of failure, of
circumstances, fear of change. This fear causes stress which creates physical responses that can
actually prevent us from being flexible and open. It’s as if those parts of ourselves simply shut
down. This is why the expansion of our comfort zone is so crucial, because the more we experience
that we can, and do, adapt, the more flexible and open we will be.
Can adaptability be developed?
‘Individuals who cultivate a variety of skills seem brighter, more energetic and more
adaptable than those who know how to do one thing only.’
Robert Shea
By learning how to be more adaptable, we also become better equipped to respond when faced with
a life crisis. Resilient people often use these events as an opportunity to branch out in new
directions.4 While some people may be crushed by abrupt changes, highly resilient individuals are
able to adapt and thrive. So how do we begin to develop this quality in ourselves and how can
educators and trainers develop this in others? How can we make sure this is part of communication
skills training, leadership training, or any kind of soft skills training?

Plastic brains
Neuroscience suggests that some people may be more adaptable than others. The brain is plastic and
flexible, and now new brain circuits can be developed through parenting, education and training that
nurture adaptability. Such interventions are thought to be more effective at crucial stages of our
development, e.g. adolescence. So at the very stage in life where some of us may be very self-
conscious about moving beyond our comfort zone, being encouraged to do so can have a permanent
impact on how our brain develops, making us adaptable for life! Interestingly, I suppose life events
can also make us more adaptable. For example, I left home completely at the age of 16 and moved
house and school several times before that. My family life was disrupted on a regular basis through
circumstances and factors completely beyond my control as a child and adolescent. Although these
events were stressful in their way and not things that I even wanted, the experience of them at a
time when my brain was still developing has made me lifelong adaptable, which I have always
valued. Many of our young people in the West, growing up in relatively conventional households,
need, therefore, to be given far more opportunities to stretch their comfort zones, whether that is
through adventurous travel, volunteering work, trying out new sports and interests or by training
and courses that increase their self-awareness of their own communication styles, ability to work in
a team and their presenting and performance skills.

Opportunities for being adaptable are all around you

It can be as simple as looking for opportunities to try out new things and being open to new ideas.
In small ways, such as going to the gym, we can exercise our adaptability muscles by changing
plans at short notice, dealing with unexpected demands gracefully and calmly and doing something
new, like singing or learning a new language. Both singing and learning a new language have other
big fringe benefits. For singing: physical awareness, breathing control, presentation skills, listening
skills, working as a team, performance skills and self-expression. For learning a foreign language:
improving memory, protection against dementia, improving brain resilience, cultural awareness,
differentiator at work and helping to understand communication styles.5

Experiential learning
Trainers and educators need to give people maximum opportunities to go out of their comfort zone
through experiential learning, through ‘real-play exercises’ to encourage creativity and problem
solving.6 I think adaptability also needs to be better integrated into our education methods as an
explicit skill. Many training exercises probably create stronger adaptability as an outcome, though
this may not be explicit. We can also think about using comedy improvisation as a tool. I have a
very talented American friend and associate, Jon Wilkerson, who uses the principles of
improvisational theatre to help people move beyond their own mental scripts and barriers. I want to
share with you some of the principles he teaches because they are so valuable to changing
behaviour.
Improvisational theatre is a form of theatre popular in the United States. Instead of actors going on
stage and performing memorised lines from a script, they must create a scene on the spot complete
with fully developed characters, scintillating dialogue and a compelling environment. Life also has
no script, which is why embracing these principles is so important.
To do this well, improvisational actors must be able to make bold choices, but they must also be
quick to understand, accept, and support the choices of others. They must be able take on different
roles with speed and commitment. They must be able to lead and to follow. They must have
tremendous access to their creativity, but also must exercise judgement. They must be able to listen
empathetically, but also to make quick reasoned decisions without second guessing themselves.
They must be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and recover quickly from mistakes – even
seeing them as opportunities. These are the very same principles that allow a person to most
effectively manage their own behaviour and accomplish their life goals. These are also the skills of
being truly adaptable.

Here are the principles; courtesy of Jon Wilkerson:7

• Commitment – means doing something with as much energy and enthusiasm as possible.
When a comedy improvisational actor fails to commit on stage, the scene falls flat. When we
fail to commit in life, our dreams grow dim. Whether we are applying for a job, leading a
team on an important project, walking up to an important lead at a networking meeting, or
asking someone on a romantic date, we need to take the plunge, to gather ourselves and
jump with both feet into the situation with the firm intention to be the best that we can be.
Improvisational actors practise commitment. That’s why they are good at it.
• Listening – the ability to shut off the voices in our head and really pay attention to the
people and environment around us. This can be very difficult to do when we are nervous and
thinking about what we should do and say. However, by really giving attention to what our
client, team member, or boss is saying, we can respond more appropriately than if we are
constantly planning out our next sentence in our minds, or worrying whether we have a
coffee stain on our sleeves!
• Grabbing opportunities – opportunities are fleeting and, if we don’t jump on them fast, they
will leave us behind, kicking ourselves. You know that feeling! I know it too. In
improvisation, this is called ‘accepting offers’ and an ‘offer’ is defined as anything another
actor says or does. That means everything is an opportunity! And if you are trained to do this
you will see opportunities that others won’t even notice.
• Support – a general attitude of helpfulness that all successful improvisational actors carry
with them every moment they are on stage. It is also a common characteristic of anyone who
 is especially effective at his or her job, whether as a waiter or a CEO. These extraordinarily
successful people know that support isn’t just praising co-workers or being able to do what
someone else is already doing. People who are adept at support know that real help is
looking around and noticing what’s not being done, and doing it! It means filling in what’s
missing. So to do this well, you need to be adept at listening, at grabbing opportunities and
at committing.
• Spontaneity – the ability to act without over-thinking everything you do. It is having access
to a sort of instantaneous judgement and being able to follow up on it immediately. It means
not second-guessing all of your decisions. It requires good judgement that is built from
experience, and it requires trust in your ability to recover quickly from bad decisions and
learn from your errors. It is an essential companion to the other principles.
• Fun – what is fun? Fun is just fun! It means having a positive attitude, and leaning towards
what you are doing and not away from it, or resisting it. When we head towards a challenge
not only with a determination to succeed but with an expectation that tackling the challenge
will be rewarding and fun, we run towards that challenge instead of stumbling towards it
reluctantly.

10 steps to adaptability
The following steps can help you improve your adaptability skills and raise your general awareness,
which is where everything must begin. Remember, it really is like exercising a muscle, and requires
work!
1. Open your mind
An open mind allows fresh ideas to come in and can help you with your plans and goals,
because answers, ideas and solutions simply come more quickly to an open mind. It can help
you see opportunities others might miss, discount or neglect. How to have an open mind?
Challenge any limiting beliefs, become more aware of your own ‘mental scripts’ and
challenge your own ‘rut’ thinking – if your way of responding to something is comforting,
inviting and familiar, try changing it and see what happens!
2. Stick at things
Being adaptable doesn’t mean flitting from one thing to the next. Adaptability is closely
linked to resilience, as well as perseverance. And resilient people stick at things. They keep
going, even when the going gets tough. This is about your ability to concentrate, discipline
and motivate yourself to complete a task or project. Strong application is underpinned by a
sense of self-direction or free will, and these in themselves create robustness. As a
consequence you are able to be more adaptable because you cope better with set-backs and
rejection.
3. Travel more
If you can afford to do so, take yourself and your family on an adventure! Even if you can’t
travel abroad, consider visiting different parts of your city or country where you perhaps
would not normally consider going. Or go camping and try cooking and sleeping outdoors.
Travel really does broaden your horizons.
4. Be willing to learn
We never really stop learning. Be willing to learn new methods, procedures and ways of
 doing things. Take on new tasks. Try something different. Draw conclusions from new
information. And how about that foreign language you’ve always wanted to learn or that
choir you’ve always wanted to join? It’s easy to tell yourself you don’t have time. But this is
your life and it’s not a dress rehearsal. Respond with energy to new challenges, the
unfamiliar and the unexpected.
5. Take yourself out of your comfort zone
Look for opportunities to try new things that will keep you learning! You can do this in very
small ways to start with – try learning a new skill, make new friends, try a new type of food,
take the initiative for starting something in your community. As your comfort zone expands,
make it bigger by doing more. Take on new challenges for work and seek them out. Embrace
change, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. Reinvent yourself.
6. Improvise
Don’t over-think and second-guess everything that you do. Practise being spontaneous –
accept that last-minute invitation, change your weekend plans, walk into the presentation
smiling with confidence knowing that you will do well (as long as you’ve put the
preparation in, of course!). Grab that opportunity, it might not come again.
7. Flex those muscles
It’s true that going to the gym will help you be more physically and mentally resilient, and
we know that adaptability and resilience are linked, but I am talking about three types of
flexibility: a) ‘cognitive flexibility’, using different thinking strategies and mental
frameworks; b) ‘emotional flexibility’, varying your approach to dealing with your own
emotions and those of others; and c) ‘dispositional flexibility’, remaining optimistic and at
the same time realistic.8 Look for as many opportunities as you can to exercise these types
of flexibility. The opportunities are all around you in your day-to-day life.
8. Adopt a ‘can do’ positive attitude to change
Even though it is natural to want to resist change, try and build up your ability to adapt and
respond positively by literally changing your behaviour next time you are faced with a
change. Again, start with small steps. You feel disappointed because of a change of plan?
Respond enthusiastically even if you don’t feel like doing so. Couldn’t get tickets for a show
you’ve been wanting to see? Smile and choose something completely different so you can
embrace a new experience. Lost your job? Get upset, yes, but bounce back faster by taking
positive action each and every day.
9. Get creative at problem solving
Research suggests that people who are able to come up with solutions to a problem are better
able to cope with problems than those who can’t. So, whenever you encounter a new
challenge, make a quick list of some of the potential ways you could solve the problem.
Experiment with different strategies and focus on developing a logical way to work through
common problems. By practising these skills on a regular basis, you will be better prepared
to cope when a serious challenge emerges.
10.Have a survivor attitude
Anything can be turned into a crisis or problem, if we want it to. Really, anything! Refuse to
see yourself as a victim in any situation and always look for ways to resolve it. If you’ve
always been quite a reactive person, this may be hard to do at first. Remember that you can
never be in control of your circumstances and external events, you can only be in control of
 your own responses and behaviours. The trick is that if you focus on that, as opposed to the
circumstances, chances are you’ll influence the situation favourably anyway!

Prioritize Learning
Introduction
Continual learning is a critical part of everyone’s development. But sometimes other tasks and
responsibilities get in the way of learning. Discover how to strengthen your learning mindset by
making learning a priority.
Although this selection was written for software developers, the concepts apply to people in every
industry. You will notice a reference to “The Agile Acid Test,” which is a set of characteristics that
define agile software development. For more information on the concept, view the source book.

Time for Learning

Learning takes time. If you are constantly running just to keep up, you won’t have time to learn and
try new ideas. In Chapter 2, “The Importance of Organizational Culture”, we talked about the
significance of nurturing a learning culture so that team members feel they can take time to
research, experiment with new techniques, or just take time to think (See Figure 6-5).
Figure 6-5. Make time for learning

Bernice Niel Ruhland suggests scheduling time for reading or other learning activities when you
have the most energy. For example, if you’re a morning person, try getting up a little earlier.
Bernice allocates some lunch time and Sunday afternoons to reading.
Update Constantly
Mike Talks, a software tester from New Zealand, explains how learning is a constant challenge
that we all should be up for.
Most people’s working life will span at least 40 years. When you look at the field of software
development, and work out how much change happened within that time, it’s obvious that the skills
of any graduate today will feel obsolete come their retirement. Just looking back 10 or 20 years, it’s
like stepping into another world. Smartphones, tablets, broadband internet - things we’ve already
begun to take for granted—these are all recent developments.
When I started out 15 years ago as a programmer, I was told that FORTRAN and C would be all the
languages I would need - and these have since been superseded by Java, C++, and C#.
What this means is that the software professional cannot just coast through their career with their
current skill set. New developments will mean new learning. Holding on to the mantra “we’ve
always done it this way” is not good enough. One way to stay relevant is to find ways to continually
learn and take on new ideas.
What I would really like to go on record as saying, is that learning is itself an agile process. Don’t
look at learning as a “big bang” process; you know nothing, read a book, and two days later you’re
an expert. Learning, like features is something you do in iterations, adding a bit more knowledge at
a time, and then building on it the next iteration. It’s not a race to the finish, and there is always
something more to learn. Often the people who seem to pick it up slower are the ones actually
learning it on a much deeper level.
In my book, The Software Minefield, “Closing Thoughts” talks about channels of learning and is
really like my experience report on learning.
If your team meets the “Agile Acid Test” (Hendrickson, 2010) and delivers software frequently at a
sustainable pace, you should have some free time outside of work for professional growth. Just as
musicians practice their instrument outside of performances, we all need to hone our skills outside
of work. If you love what you do, this is a joy, not a burden. As Steve Rogalsky said to us, learning
more will increase your passion and your joy.

Tips for Lifelong Learning

Introduction
Outside of the work context, remaining receptive and enthusiastic about learning new things every
day can enrich your life in many ways. Apply the following suggestions to reap the benefits.
Lifelong learning is the continued educational experience that we can embrace, perhaps through
non-credit academic courses, travel, new hobbies, reading, listening to others, community service
and volunteerism. It is an essential way to engage the brain fully, heighten physical activity,
maintain healthy social relationships and to continue to grow and develop.
When you recognize the benefits gained from keeping your mind sharp you will realize that
learning is like a health club for your mind. An active mind can stimulate physical activity and keep
your spirits high. It’s a fantastic all-round tool for better health. Lifelong learning helps fully
develop natural abilities. Some of which might not be readily apparent. One advantage of retirement
is that when you are no longer working full time, you will have even more opportunity to fully
explore and develop these abilities.
Learning also opens the mind and promotes the free exchange of ideas and viewpoints. There is
nothing like listening to, or taking part in, stimulating discussions to help us see the other side of an
issue. That give and take opens our minds and brings us to a whole new level of enlightenment.
The more we discover about history, current events, politics or the culture of other countries, the
more we want to learn. There is a big world out there just waiting to be explored. Travel is certainly
a fabulous education and our drive and desire to learn more fuels itself and we keep going,
constantly looking for more things to understand and explore.
Learning also helps us to put our lives in perspective and increases our understanding of the whys
and the whats of previous successes and setbacks, helping us understand ourselves better, thus
improving our self-awareness and understanding of what makes us happy. Lifelong learning also
helps us adapt to change. The world is in a state of constant flux. Often, as we get older, we might
feel like the proverbial ‘old dog that can’t learn new tricks’. That is simply not true, as learning
enables us to keep up with society’s changes – especially the technology which seems to accelerate
at an extraordinary rate these days.
Learning can make the world a better place. Through the community service aspect of lifelong
learning, older learners can give back to their communities and to the world. What we have learnt
during our lifetime can be translated into real value for the improvement of society.
When we discover new things and explore new interests it can helps us make new friends and
establish valuable relationships. No one enjoys loneliness. And through meeting new people,
forging friendships and relationships with others we can enjoy a more active social life. Five years
ago I set up a creative writing group in Cheltenham where I live called The Montpellier’s Writing
Group. I can honestly say this is one my proudest achievements and, through the talent within the
group, I learn so much and feel so enriched as a result.
However we learn new things, whether it is through academic learning, educational adventure,
travel or a renewed sense of volunteerism, we can expand our awareness, embrace self-fulfillment,
and truly create an exciting multidimensional life. How good does that sound?
I have outlined here a few tips that can help you to learn better and more easily.

1 Understand How You Learn

The best strategy for improving your learning efficiency is to recognize your learning habits and
styles. As I have already outlined, there are a number of different theories about learning styles,
which can all help you gain a better understanding of how you learn best. Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences – of eight different types of intelligence – can help reveal your individual
strengths.
2 Multi Learn
Focus on learning in more than one way. There are many different ways of learning. For example,
instead of just listening to something which involves auditory learning, find a way to rehearse the
information both verbally and visually. This might involve describing what you have learned to a
friend, taking notes, visualizing it in your mind or making a collage of what you have learnt. By
learning in more than one way, you’re further cementing the knowledge in your mind. The more
regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This cross-
referencing of data means you have learned, rather than just memorized.

3 Improve Your Memory

If our brains were computers, we’d simply add a chip to upgrade our memory. The human brain,
however, is more complex than even the most advanced machine, so improving our memory isn’t
quite so easy.
A strong memory depends on the health and vitality of your brain. Whether you are a student, a
working professional interested in doing all you can to stay mentally sharp, or someone looking to
preserve and enhance the grey matter, there are lots of things you can do to improve your memory
and mental performance.
Working on improving your memory can be a very useful skill to acquire. Basic tips such as
improving focus, avoiding overloading yourself and structuring what you are attempting to learn is
a good place to start. However, there are many more lessons from psychology that can dramatically
improve your learning efficiency. Explore the different techniques that are available. This will take
time and patience, but once these skills are learnt they can help save you lots of time in the long run.

4 Teach Someone Else

One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else. You can apply the same
principle today by sharing your newly learned skills and knowledge with others. Start by translating
the information into your own words. This process alone helps solidify new knowledge in your
brain. Next, find a way to share what you’ve learned. Some ideas include: finding a willing pupil,
writing an article or writing a blog post. Participating in group discussions can be useful too.

5 Put It into Practice

Putting whatever new knowledge or skills or behaviour into practice is one of the best ways to
improve learning. When you are trying to acquire a new skill or ability, focus on gaining practical
experience. Create a plan that helps you to be able to do that. If it is a new sport or athletic skill,
perform the activity on a regular basis. If you are learning a new language then practise speaking
with another person. Whatever it is, do something with it. You might learn a lot of information
about something but if you don’t put it into practice then what is the point?
6 One Thing at a Time
Trying to multitask can make learning less effective. The danger is you lose significant amounts of
time as you switch between multiple tasks and you lose even more time when the tasks became
increasingly complex. By switching from one activity to another, you will learn more slowly,
become less efficient and make more mistakes. A good way to approach this, if you have a lot of
things that you are having to process, is to allocate yourself a predetermined amount of time to
focus your attention on the task at hand. It is also good to try to complete tasks rather than leave too
many things half done as this will create extra mind clutter and make you less able to focus.

7 Help Yourself
Learning is by no means a perfect process. There will be times when we forget the details of things
that we have already learned, which can be frustrating. If you find yourself struggling to recall some
information you are better off simply looking up the correct answer. The longer you spend trying to
remember the answer, the more likely you will be to forget the answer again in the future.
We are very fortunate these days to be able to access the internet to find the answer to something.
However, we also need to be selective because, as useful as the internet can be, it also has a lot of
false information. My advice is: never rely on one source unless you are absolutely sure it is
reliable. It’s amazing how many ‘false facts’ fly about and how the truth can end up becoming
distorted.

WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP LEARNING!

One way to become a more effective learner is to keep learning. If you are learning a new language,
it is important to keep practising the language, otherwise you will lose the momentum. This use-it-
or-lose-it phenomenon involves a brain process known as ‘pruning’. Certain pathways in the brain
are maintained, while others are eliminated. If you want the new information you just learned to
stay put, keep practising and rehearsing it.
It is also important that you enjoy the process and view learning as something that makes you feel
good and not see it as a chore. Sadly, for those who had a poor experience at school or anywhere in
education system, the term ‘learning’ may well not inspire. However, as you get older, you have the
luxury of choosing more of the things you want to learn about. It opens the door to a whole host of
opportunities and life benefits.
Every day we will learn something new, something that could make a profound difference to our
lives, something that can make us feel really happy. We need to let any past negative experiences
go, be open-minded, receptive and enthusiastic about learning new things every single day of our
lives.

Take a moment to reflect

The lessons in this subject focus on how to cultivate a learning mindset.
What action step could you take to reinforce your learning mindset? For instance, you could look
for opportunities—big or small—to try new things, such as learning a new skill, trying a new type
of food, or studying a new language.

Assess the Skills You Need

Introduction
What types of skills do you really need in order to make progress in your job and career? How can
you determine your strengths and weaknesses in those critical skill areas? To find out, review the
lesson that follows, and complete the included exercise.
You will notice a reference to “Emotional Intelligence,” a cluster of “soft skills” that includes
awareness of your own and others’ emotions and the ability to use that awareness to guide your
behavior.
You will also see a reference to “Millie,” who appears in an example presented earlier in the source
text. To learn more about Millie’s experience with assessing her own skills, read the complete
chapter from which this excerpt was taken.

Two Kinds of Skills

Hard Skills
Have you ever wished you were an astronaut? What if your wish came true, and you were to be the
lead pilot of a space shuttle mission six months from now? What would you do today? Most likely,
you would seek out pilot training, study graphics depicting the control panels, and try your best over
the next six months to learn as much as you could about which buttons to push, when, and why.
What you seek, of course, are the skills you need to survive. More specifically, you are seeking
"hard skills."
Hard skills consist of objective information that does not vary between the people using it.
Hard skills typically relate to a specific topic. They can consist of abstract, theoretical knowledge,
or of practical, concrete methods of action (see Table 8-1). Either way, they do not change
depending on who is learning them. As a result, hard skills are usually easy to conceptualize and
discuss.
Table 8-1. Categories of Hard Skills with Examples
It is easy to list the hard skill requirements for a job and to see when an individual's skills don't
match the list. ("Ralph doesn't know how to use the copy machine.") Whether via classroom
instruction or on-the-job training, most workplaces provide at least basic hard skill training.
Otherwise employees would not be able to do anything! If that training is delivered ineffectively or
is not readily available, the situation can certainly contribute to job pain. But hard skill issues are
not usually the major factor causing job dread. Because the issues can be identified and discussed
easily, they are often resolved quickly.

Soft Skills
Soft skills are a different story. Imagine that you are told to fax a letter to your company's CEO
requesting funding to solve a problem. There is a big difference between knowing how to send a fax
and knowing how to write a letter! Faxing is objective; the steps are the same for everyone who
uses the machine. But effective writing is another story. Soft skills, in this case "written
communication," are implemented differently for different people. Two people might both exhibit
skilled writing, yet produce very different letters. And two readers might disagree over whether the
same letter is, in fact, "well written." It is a lot easier for someone else to determine whether you
"know how to" use the fax machine than whether you "know how to" write an effective letter.
Soft skills consist of subjective abilities which vary in implementation between different people.
In the last ten years, work in the field of "Emotional Intelligence" has highlighted a wide variety of
such soft skills.[2] Soft skills, like hard skills, can consist of abstract knowledge or of concrete
actions. But unlike hard skills, soft skills do not apply to specific topic areas. Instead, they apply
more generally to tasks (what gets done), to people (who does it), or to processes (how they do it).
As a result, soft skills are more generally applicable, but more difficult to conceptualize and discuss.
Though difficult, discussion of soft skills is worthwhile. Many studies have shown that the presence
or absence of soft skills drives a host of workplace issues, including satisfaction, morale, and
productivity.[3] Anyone who has experienced a manager with poor interactive skills or a senior
executive with poor leadership skills knows this; such scenarios ruin both productivity and joy
almost immediately.
Although we can benefit from skills in all of the categories shown in Table 8-2, we will tend to
"like" some categories more than others. Why? Depending on our preferences for behavior,
motivation, and task balance, we will tend to preferentially develop certain skills. Someone who is
outgoing and motivated to help other people, for example, will naturally become adept at
Interaction and Relationship skills. He or she will gravitate toward situations that require them, and
practice makes perfect! Similarly, someone who is more detail-oriented and motivated to discover
the truth will be more likely to hone the capacities involved in Understanding Problems. But
whatever our preferences may be, our jobs often require us to stretch beyond our comfort zones.
Table 8-2. Categories of Soft Skills with Examples
The alert reader will have noticed that this book itself teaches soft skills. The ability to take the
third-person position, analyze a situation, and respond to it based on that information is in itself a
soft skill. The ability to do so when an interaction is emotionally charged is an even more
challenging one. And the capacity to adjust our own actions out of our comfort zone to meet the
needs of someone else is a skill whose mastery can take a lifetime. The effort is well worth it,
though; this can help with job dread and lead to positive results in many other areas.

Seeing "Skills"
Henry David Thoreau said that "it is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning
around." While his words apply to much of this book, they are most appropriate to the perspective
of skills. Few things are more difficult than taking an objective look at our own strengths and
weaknesses. For starters, our self-perception is shaped by our unique experiences; it gets clouded by
our preconceived notions, egos, and insecurities. All of these block our perception of our own
abilities.
Even if we avoid our biases, we still are faced with the simple problem that we might not know
what we don't know. How could Millie have realized that she needed to learn about "influencing
other people" when she didn't even know that such a skill existed?
The answer, predictably, has to do with perspective.

The Eyes of Others

If our own perspective does not allow us to see our strengths and weaknesses, then one way to see
them is by using someone else's. In Millie's case, "someone else" was a coworker who recognized
her struggle as a supervisor and risked offering to help.
The prevalence of "peer feedback" and "360-degree feedback" in many companies is based on the
same notion. Formal processes take many forms but share a consistent basis: seeing ourselves
through the eyes of "others." To be effective, these systems must ask for the right information from
the right source. They must ask useful questions that will encourage the right people to share what
they know. Peer feedback systems that do this can be quite valuable; those that do not will
invariably produce useless results.
Of course, you can solicit peer feedback without a structured system. This requires a high degree of
trust between you and the person giving the feedback, a low amount of defensiveness on your part,
and a forum in which it is safe and appropriate to have the conversation. It also requires a peer who
is willing (and able) to identify (and share) useful information in a way that you can understand
(and act on) it. Finding a situation that contains all of these elements is extremely useful but can be
quite difficult.

Change Your Own View: An Exercise

By now it should be clear that you can change your perspective all by yourself. The next exercise
will help you to separate yourself from your usual way of seeing your own skill needs. Again, we
strongly suggest that you resist the temptation to skip over parts of this activity. Though aspects of it
might seem tedious or silly, rest assured that all of the steps work together to change your
perspective.
Think of one or two difficult situations you are facing at work. Perhaps you have tried to solve these
problems with the perspectives of previous chapters, but without success. Write your problems
down on a clean sheet of paper, leaving some blank space between them.
Now think of a person outside of work that you care about, a friend or loved one. At the top of your
list, write "What Makes [Your Friend's Name] Miserable." Make sure that your own name doesn't
appear anywhere on the page. Imagine your friend has come to you with this list, and that he or she
is experiencing dread and pain at work because of the items on it. Your fondest wish is to see your
friend happy, so you want to help him or her to resolve these issues. You have come across similar
problems in your own work, so you have some experience on which to base your advice. Below
each item on the list, complete the following sentence: "One thing that might help is if you could
learn to..."
Remember that you are giving your friend advice, and try to give the most useful and specific
advice you can give, without overanalyzing. Some of your ideas might sound good immediately,
like "Learn to speak more slowly to your employees." Others might seem to be naïve platitudes, like
"Learn to ignore your boss' yelling." Don't worry about that at this stage. Just try hard to make each
suggestion an active one, in which your friend learns to do something rather than learning not to do
something. Your advice might be "the answer," or it might just be an idea to get your friend going in
the right direction.
When you have finished writing, underline the part of each sentence after "learn to..." Imagine that
each of these highlighted skills is going to be the basis for a class. Write a one sentence "course
description" for each class, so that prospective students know which ones to take. For example, if
one of your items is "Learn to ignore your boss' yelling," you could generalize that to "Separating
Yourself from the Emotional Outbursts of Others" or perhaps "Dealing with Toxic Interactions."
Record your "course descriptions" on a new, blank page.
At the top of your new page, write the phrase "Skills that Might Help Me." This final list is yours
again. You have just seen your job through the eyes of your own advisor! If you were able to
develop your skills in the areas on your list, they could significantly reduce the biggest pain factors
at your job.
Notice that this process focuses entirely on what you can learn. Certainly, there are things that other
people could do to make your situation better, but you can only control your own approach.
Develop New Skills
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a number of practical tips for how to develop the new skills you have
identified.
You will see a reference to “Millie,” who appears in an example presented earlier in the source text.
To learn more about Millie’s experience with assessing her own skills, read the complete chapter
from which this excerpt was taken.

Developing "Skills"
Making the list, of course, is only half of the story. There is little chance that this new information
will lead to any changes in your experience unless you take some action. But how can you develop
skills whose titles you just finished inventing?
The answer depends not on the items on your list, but on what kinds of skills they represent.
Although the number of possible skills is nearly infinite, the types of skills are not. By using the
framework in this chapter, you can hone in on the developmental activities that are most likely to
help. Like every other model in this book, this one cannot tell you exactly what to do, but it can
help you to decide for yourself.

Developing Hard Skills

If your list contains hard skills, figuring out how to improve them is relatively straightforward. The
best alternatives for hard skill development include formal or informal training using coworkers,
classes, reading material, teachers, mentors, or research. If what you need are facts, then you need
only to find out where they are and to go and get them. Whether or not this is possible is a different
story, but at least you have identified the avenue toward improving your skills.

Developing Soft Skills

One vice president in a major corporation went back to school for a degree in psychology. This part-
time program cost him time and money, but he was willing to make the sacrifice even though his
position did not require the formal degree. Why? "The problems I face are all people problems," he
explained. "When I think about the skills I need to solve them, it seems like a psychology degree is
my best bet!"
Like the vice president's "skills needed" list, yours is probably comprised mostly of soft skills. If
any group of skills can help you to like your job more, most likely it will be soft skills. They
address people issues, and people issues are often the driving factor behind negative job
experiences.[4] The good news is that your list of skills is a lot shorter than the curriculum for an
advanced degree in psychology!
Finding a Model
Whatever skill you are struggling to develop, someone else has probably struggled with a similar
need. If you can find a way to learn from their experience, you can avoid "reinventing the wheel"
yourself.
One great resource is reference materials. If you wish to improve your goal setting, for example,
you might find a book that presents a pattern for creating useful goals. Your book might teach you
"three steps to create actionable goals," thereby giving you a new way to think about your own goal
setting.
Reference materials are not limited to ink on paper. Books-on-tape, video programs, and web-based
formats abound. In fact, some of the most effective soft-skill development aids come in the form of
audio CDs and computer activities.[5] Often, the problem is not finding a book on your topic of
interest, but narrowing down to only one such book. By starting from your list, rather than browsing
the local bookstore for topics of interest, you can make sure that you spend time and energy
developing what you need most.

Practicing
Arguably, the most important tool for developing soft skills is practice. As with anything else we
learn, mastery requires that we go beyond just thinking about our new skill and actually put it into
action.
Practicing a soft skill is basically the same as practicing anything else. It requires a goal, a plan,
effort, evaluation, and repetition. Because soft skills are somewhat nebulous, it is often too easy to
"lose track of" portions of our practice. If that happens, the practice becomes less effective and
might even cease completely.
To aid you in structuring practice for your soft skills, Table 8-3 shows the parallels between soft
skill practice and a more common type of practice with which most of us are familiar.
Table 8-3. Practicing Bicycle-Riding Versus Practicing Goal-Setting

This table illustrates why soft skill practice in our adult lives is so much harder to execute than the
more traditional skill practice of our childhood. First, the goal is not obvious; if it is not carefully
decided up front, determination of "success" is much harder. Second, the timeline for evaluation is
longer, and the criteria are more complex; we are more likely to forget to check back or to
incorrectly evaluate our results. Finally, we might fail to repeat the process. The child on the bicycle
will try again whether he or she succeeds or fails. Adults, on the other hand, are prone to view either
outcome as a reason not to try again: Either we don't want to repeat a failure, or we feel as though
we "got it" and can move on to something else. Both of these instincts defeat the purpose of
practice.
By clarifying the five components of practice in advance, you are more likely to practice your soft
skills in a way that is productive.

Finding a Mentor
Without the help of her coworker, Millie might have spent more time struggling in her new position.
There is nothing more effective than learning from someone who already knows what we want to
learn. A willing mentor is a direct route to the development you seek. Such an arrangement might be
easier to find than it sounds; many talented individuals are willing to play the role of mentor, either
to hone their own skills or to "give back" to those around them.
Mentors can come from anywhere: your company, your community, or your network of friends. The
arrangement can be formal or informal. The only requirements are that you have some clear
agreement up front about the purpose of the relationship, and that you connect with some frequency
as you are developing your skills. If you are able to arrange for a mentor for even one of the skills
on your list, you might find a very high payoff.

What If I Can't Get It?

"If you can get to where you like your job just four days out of the week, you are doing well."
That's one executive's advice to his organization: Don't let the seeming impossibility of perfection
dissuade you from making real improvements in your work life.
It is possible that the path toward developing one or more of your new hard or soft skills is not
available. Perhaps you need training that your employer is unwilling to pay for, a mentor that does
not exist, or there is simply no time to practice. Although this is not the answer you hope for, the
information it provides can be just as useful.
First, you must consider whether there is another way to develop what you need. Could you wait for
funding, work toward influencing a superior to approve a class, or join an outside organization to
receive additional support? Before you "give up" completely, take time to investigate alternatives.
Skill development need not happen instantaneously. A slower path to your goal might work as well
as a quick one.
Next, consider the worst-case scenario. What if you simply are not able to develop one or more
items on your list? How important are those items to your overall job satisfaction and performance?
Consider which areas of job pain are most affected by the skills in question. Are there other ways to
address those issues? Are there other issues that are more important?
Liking your work is not about perfection or fixing every last concern. As the executive suggests, it
is about making useful changes to improve work life. Every single item need not be addressed. The
question is not "How can I get everything that I want?" but "How can I make an improvement?"
Using Your New Perspective
Author Martha Grimes said that "We don't know who we are until we see what we can do." The
perspective of skills brings us more than just a way to perform better at work; it gives us a new view
of ourselves.

Beware of Bias
We are subject to our invisible biases in all that we perceive; when we turn our perceptions inward,
the detrimental effect of those biases can be particularly powerful. Our assessment of our own skills
is subject to distortion by many of our self-perceptions.
While it is difficult to perceive these biases in action, there are some visible hints that a bias might
be at play. Table 8-4 lists these hints.
Table 8-4. Potential Biases and Clues

"Mind Your Own...Skills"

While the rest of this book focused on reading both yourself and others, so far this chapter has been
exclusively about your own skills. While the strengths and weaknesses of others might be apparent,
they might also be misleading. Moreover, unless you are in a direct supervisory role, chances are
you have little control over the skill development of those around you. We focus on our own skills
in this chapter because that is where the leverage lies; your best chance to use the perspective of
skills to improve your situation is to use it on yourself. Avoid the temptation of advising others as to
what skills to develop.

Silently Notice the Skills of Others

That being said, it can be useful to cultivate an awareness of your perceptions of the skill levels of
those around you. If you suspect that a coworker has strong influencing skills, for example, you
might solicit that person's help in deciding how to ask your management for something that you
need. By the same token, if you have reason to believe that someone lacks analytical skill, then you
might rightly hesitate to rely on his or her calculations in critical situations.
Your ability to accurately assess the skills of others can help you negotiate the daily needs of your
work. And because "assessing the skills of others" is in itself a soft skill, the more you practice, the
better you will get. The key is to stay aware, use the third-person position, and be open to new
information, considering that your initial assessments might not be correct.

Avoid Judgment and Certainty

In cultivating awareness of your skills and the skills of those around you, it is important to avoid
attaching either judgment or certainty to your perceptions. We have spoken many times in previous
chapters about the dangers of using your new perspectives to be judgmental; it is a guaranteed way
to fail if your goal is to enjoy your job. Attributing certainty to your assessments of skills is equally
dangerous. True skill levels can be disguised by circumstances; people often seem more or less
capable than they really are due simply to the requirements placed on them by jobs and managers.
Steer clear of making skill assessments—especially of other people—in emotional situations. If you
perceive a skill deficiency in someone else (or yourself) in an emotional situation, other issues are
probably at play. That, after all, is why it is an emotional situation: Your invisible "buttons" are
being pushed! Step away from the perspective of skills and try some of the other tools in this book.
Examine the situation from the perspective of behavior, motivation, and task balance, and wait for
the emotional "smoke to clear." Then return to the perspective of skills and see what it can tell you.

The Easy-View Summary

You have now read about the basics of the perspective of skills and the conclusions you can draw
based on what it shows you. The next table contains a summary of the different skill areas. Use the
easy-view summary of skills to answer the two questions.
• Where are my strengths?
• Where are my development areas?

Reminders:
1. Remember the Tips for the Journey (see Chapter 1, "The Trouble with Work").
2. Beware of bias.
3. "Mind your own...skills!"
4. Silently notice the skills of others.
5. Avoid judgment and certainty.
Secret 4: The Perspective of Skills
Learning what we need to succeed
Table 8-5. Your New Perspective: Skills
Homework: Before, During, and After
Before Work

Before taking your new perspective to work, be sure that you have fully completed the exercise in
this chapter to assess what skills you might want to develop. After you have done so, reflect on or
write about the following questions:
1. Which (if any) skills on your development list did you already know you needed to develop?
Which (if any) were new information?
2. How does your workplace support the development of new skills? How can you access this
support system?
3. How does your workplace discourage the development of new skills? How can you avoid
these pitfalls?
4. Which one skill on your list would help you the most in making your job more enjoyable?

During Work
While you are at work, do your best to observe your skills and those of others from a neutral
perspective. If you find you are feeling strong emotions related to your assessment of skills, tap
your finger on your palm as in previous chapters and imagine yourself viewing the situation
(including yourself) through a window or on a video camera.
While you are at work, try to complete the following assignments:

Level 1
• Notice your strongest hard and soft skills. How do your strengths help you in your job?
• Take note whenever one of the skills on your development list would help you. How often
does this happen? How much would the skill help?
• Which of the needed skills from your list come up most often? How has simply thinking
about them helped you to begin developing them?

Level 2
• Choose a coworker you work with often. Try to come up with one or two skill strengths that
he or she has and one or two skill weaknesses. Don't share these with the other person.
• Observe throughout the day to see if your initial perceptions about that other person change.

Extra Credit/Expert
• Find someone who is an expert at the soft or hard skills that you would like to learn. Ask if
he or she will meet with you regularly and share secrets of success for those skills. See if the
person will agree to hold you accountable and provide feedback in no more than two to three
skill development areas. Be sure to use the practice model described in Table 8-3.
• If a difficult situation or conflict emerges, look at it through all of the other perspectives first
and then consider the soft skills of the people involved. How would a specific soft skill on
someone else's part have helped the interaction go more smoothly? More importantly, how
could your own soft skills have helped?

After Work

After spending the workday using your new perspective, write about or reflect on the following
topics:
1. What hard skills seem to be most important to your job?
2. What soft skills seem to be most important to your job? Are they related to tasks, people, or
processes? Are they concrete or abstract?
3. What strengths of yours are helping you the most at work? How might you utilize those
strengths even more often?
4. What development areas would improve your job satisfaction the most? How might you
develop those skills?
Set Learning Goals
Introduction
Once you’ve reviewed your skills and determined how to develop ones you may be missing, it’s
time to use that knowledge to set goals. In this lesson, you’ll learn the elements of meaningful
personal and job-related goals and discover a technique for increasing your commitment to them.
In his book Getting Promoted: Real Strategies for Advancing Your Career, Harry Chambers defines
goal-setting as a positive statement that proclaims your expectations of growth and achievement.
You want your goals to motivate you rather than discourage you, so they shouldn’t be too
ambitious. Instead, make them just tough enough so that you’ll stay involved, constantly putting
forth effort and reaching for that brass ring. Devise meaningful career goals by considering the
following:
What you’re going to do.
Why you want to do it and how it furthers your personal agenda.
When you’re going to do it.
How you’ll know when you’ve done it, and how you’ll measure your success.
For example, a few years ago, I set the following goal for leveraging my present job responsibilities
to further my big-picture agenda:
Current Role: Work with Web conferencing company to coordinate weekly conference calls
between the New York and UK offices
Big-Picture Agenda: Serve as the lead on a global PR account team
Goal: Master protocol for conducting global account team status calls
What I’m going to do: In addition to setting up the calls, ask the VP for permission to listen and
take notes.
Why I want to do it: By observing how global team account management is done, I will be
better equipped to do it myself in the future.
When I’m going to do it: Talk to the VP on Monday and arrange to participate in calls starting
next week.
How I’ll measure my success: After I’ve listened to several calls, ask the VP if I can create an
agenda for, and give project status on, an upcoming call.
Increase your commitment to your goals by writing them down in a list, and then sit down with
your boss to review it and ask for his feedback. Do your personal goals align closely with your
company’s goals or the goals your boss has set for you? Are your boss’s expectations practical given
your level of experience and expertise? Are your own expectations reasonable? For example, does
your boss concur with your goal to manage a client relationship self-sufficiently within six months,
or does he feel that you’ll require an additional year of mentoring before you’ll be ready to take on
that responsibility? Don’t leave this initial meeting until you and your boss have agreed on your
goals leading up to your first scheduled performance review. He will be impressed with your
conscientiousness, and voilá—you’ll be on the path to that promotion months sooner than if you’d
waited for the formal review process.
Types of goals vary, depending on the specific job. Every twenty-something should aim to build a
wide range of transferable skills (such as public speaking, client relations, sales, marketing, project
management, and finance) that will add value in any job and that are not likely to become obsolete.
Use your time on the job and your company’s resources to achieve goals related to transferable
skills, even if such goals are not directly related to your daily job responsibilities. My friend Joanne
wanted to move from her position as a research coordinator to that of a sales representative, and
provided the following example.
Transferable Skill: Public speaking.
Goal: Improve presentation ability.
What I’m going to do: Teach three internal training courses on blog monitoring.
Why I want to do it: I want to practice speaking in front of a group so that when I move to a
sales rep position next fall, I will be qualified to conduct client presentations without supervision.
When I’m going to do it: Throughout the course of one training semester (six months).
How I’ll measure my success: I’ll work with the training coordinator to compare my evaluation
sheets from the first and third courses. I’ll know that I was successful if my scores improve.

Capitalize on Mistakes
Introduction
Mistakes are often the best teachers. Discover how mistakes can be transformed into positive
growth experiences. Learn how to use mistakes to identify ways to improve your skills, deepen your
ability to collaborate, and reveal new opportunities for contributing to your career growth and your
organization’s success.

Hey, You Screwed Up Again!: Transforming Mistakes

I have a confession. A few weeks ago, I made a mistake—a real honest-to-goodness screw-up. I told
a client that, based on my recent experiences on a similar project, an important piece of equipment
that is needed for their project would require a nine-month lead time, putting its delivery well
beyond the project deadline. Based on this advice, the client became very concerned, passed my
information to his boss, and we began to look for other options that could meet their goals. A week
later, though, I received a call from the general contractor, who told me that he researched the issue
and found that this piece of equipment can actually be delivered in four months, well within the
project schedule. This was good for the project, but frustrating for the client, and personally
embarrassing for me.
I don’t know about you, but when I make a mistake, whether it’s at work (like the preceding
example), at home, at sports, or, I must admit, practically anywhere, my first reaction is often to be
very harsh on myself. “You screwed up again!” that inner voice yells. “You should have known
better! How could you have done that?” In the words of the great late-twentieth century existential
philosopher, Britney Spears:
Oops, I did it again!
Another great philosopher addressed this issue 3,000 years earlier in The Book of Ecclesiastes,
when the author—traditionally identified as King Solomon—says,
No one is so perfect that he has never sinned.
This seems to be a very obvious statement (any perfect people here?), but this is a necessary starting
point as an acknowledgment of the basic truth that we all know: Everyone makes mistakes.
But wait a minute, the text says “sin,” not “mistake.” Isn’t there a big difference between these
words? The word sin often carries the connotation of a deliberate religious or spiritual
transgression, whereas mistake is a mundane term that refers to everyday unintentional human error.
This is only an English distinction, however, because in Hebrew—the language of Ecclesiastes—
the word for sin, chait (the “ch” is pronounced as an “h” sound from the back of the throat), literally
means missing the mark. In other words, a sin occurs when we do not aim our intentions and actions
at the right target, or when we do want to aim correctly but are off target in what we do and say. The
original intention of the word “sin” is actually very close in meaning to a mistake, or a wrong
action.
What mark or take, though, are we missing? Is the mark perfection? Ecclesiastes emphatically
answers “no.” As human beings, we will inevitably make mistakes. The target is the acceptance of
our basic humanness; that although we are fallible, we were given the ability to grow through the
conscious choices that we make, and that we are created in the image of the Divine, capable of
grace, kindness, compassion, and the experience of transcendence.
What do we do, then, when a mistake occurs? Are mistakes simply inevitable nuisances that must
be accepted and endured? With experience and guidance, we discover that mistakes can, in fact,
often be turned around and transformed into a positive growth experiences. When properly handled,
mistakes provide a means to identify areas that need attention, improve our skills, deepen our
relationships, and open new avenues that may have otherwise remained hidden. There are many
famous examples of such turn-arounds, from Columbus accidentally discovering the New World
while searching for a trade route to the East, to Edison’s discovery of the correct light bulb filament
after thousands of “mistakes.”
While recently watching a TV show on the History Channel, I learned of a wonderful mistake that
resulted in a product that almost everyone will know. In 1943, Richard James, a naval engineer, was
conducting an experiment to create tension springs to absorb equipment impact in ships. His spring
was a failure and buckled under the machine stress. During one experiment, though, the spring
jumped from the table, fell to the floor, sprung to a nearby stair, and to James’s amazement, it began
to “walk” down the stair by itself. James showed this to his wife, who immediately recognized an
idea for a toy in her husband’s failed tension spring. The toy debuted in 1945 at Gimbel’s
Department Store in Philadelphia. Since then, more than 300 million of James’s failed naval tension
springs, the iconic Slinky, have sold worldwide.
With experience and guidance, we discover that mistakes can, in fact, often be turned around and
transformed into a positive growth experience.
So instead of yelling at ourselves, “Hey, you screwed up again!” we can see a mistake as an
opportunity for growth. Most wisdom traditions and effective business practices, not to mention
common sense, have a system for facilitating this transformation. Buddhists call this process,
“turning arrows in to flower petals,” or “turning poison into good food.” Judaism calls this process
t’shuvah, which literally means “returning;” returning to the awareness of who we are through re-
aiming at the right target. This process begins with an essential first step: Take responsibility!
Recognize and admit that a mistake has been made, and avoid attempting to hide it, deny it, or
blame others. Without this essential first step, the process stalls, and we close ourselves off to any
growth potential.
After taking this crucial internal first step—accepting responsibility without self-blame and without
blaming others—the next step is a very physical one: We must fix the mistake. This may require
anything from a simple apology, to monetary compensation, or a dramatic change in our behavior.
After this, we must determine to learn from the mistake and not repeat it in the future. When this
process is followed, the inevitable mistake can be embraced and even viewed as a positive
experience. To drive home the point, here are a few famous quotes about the nature of mistakes:
Oscar Wilde: Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi: Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make
mistakes.
Albert Einstein: Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
George Bernard Shaw: While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy
making mistakes and becoming superior.
By now, you may be wondering: How did my mistake turn out? After deciding to stop beating
myself up for having made a mistake, I called the contractor, and we met to review the information
he found. We then developed a joint approach to inform the client, who was actually very relieved
and grateful that we found an answer to his problem. He also said that he appreciated that we were
working as a team and that we candidly identified a problem and fixed it. Now, my relationship is
stronger with the contractor, the owner has seen a problem-solving process in action, and you can
be sure that before mentioning lead times in this volatile equipment market, I will more thoroughly
research the issue in advance.
In retrospect, this was a very small mistake—a minor sin—(I’ve made bigger mistakes, of course,
but my boss might be reading this) but the process worked. Now, of course, we should try to avoid
mistakes whenever possible. But when the inevitable mistake does occur, instead of shouting to
ourselves, “You screwed up again!” or, conversely, telling ourselves that this is not our fault, or
someone else is to blame, and that there is nothing to be done to fix it, we can use this simple
process to repair the damage, learn from it, and move forward. Imagine taking this process into your
most difficult business deals, your most intimate personal relationships, or perhaps even with the
stranger on the train, on whose toe you inadvertently stepped.

Receive Feedback Constructively

Introduction
Whether you actively seek out feedback or the feedback is offered to you, you’ll learn the most
when you welcome it as a great opportunity to improve your performance. Review the most useful
behaviors to adopt when responding to feedback.

Receiving feedback constructively and

gracefully
The way you respond to feedback, both in the short term (during the conversation and immediately
after it) and the longer term (how you adapt your behavior) sends a powerful message to other
people about your self-confidence, professionalism, interpersonal skills, and commitment to
improvement. Some situations will be more challenging than others depending on the skill of the
person giving the feedback, your relationship with them, whether you've requested feedback or
whether it's unsolicited, and of course, the sort of mood you're in at that particular time. We all have
days when we feel more self-assured and upbeat and others where we are more sensitive and self-
critical. These tips will serve you particularly well if you're feeling less than "bombproof" when you
get feedback.
Whatever the circumstances, following these steps will allow you to create a positive impression
and learn about yourself and the other person. If, for some reason, you have made a mistake or have
misjudged or overlooked something, handling feedback well can do a lot to rectify your reputation.
Remember how our perceptions of people can be turned around if a problem or misunderstanding is
swiftly and artfully handled and resolved.
Here is a suggested approach and an outline of the most helpful behaviors to use:

Listening calmly, neutrally, and attentively

Consciously relax your posture by lowering your shoulders and breathing steadily and slowly.
Tilting your head to one side slightly indicates to the other person that you are listening, as does
nodding, but don't get carried away nodding and appear to immediately agree to everything that is
being said. Maintain a neutral facial expression as far as you can. Screwing up your face and
frowning can be powerful non-verbal signals that show that you don't agree with what is being said.
Maintain eye contact, but make sure that it's natural and that you do move your eyes if you want to,
especially when you're thinking and processing information. Rolling your eyes, however, is not
helpful (unless your aim is to look like a stroppy teen rather than a professional woman). Taking
notes can be a useful strategy to show that you are listening and can also be a handy distraction if
you feel yourself getting upset.
At this point, stay quiet and try not to make any assumptions or jump to any conclusions. Aim to
cultivate a state of curiosity and learning. Listening means just that, so put your focus on the other
person rather than on what you are going to say next; refrain from interrupting, making excuses, or
providing justifications. Really listening is not the same as waiting for an opportunity to jump in or
interrupt. This can be very challenging if you do not have a high opinion of the person giving the
feedback or if you fundamentally disagree with the way they see things or what they think is
important, but these are often the times you can gain a really key insight or learn something new
about yourself and the effect you have on others.
Train yourself to reserve judgment and not immediately to discount information that seems contrary
to your interpretations of the way things are. In the wise words of Stephen Covey:
"Seek first to understand and then to be understood."

It may take a while to get comfortable with this approach as you will need to resist the automatic
fight or flight response that is activated in the face of any threat or criticism (however constructive
it might be). Keep control of your emotions by breathing slowly or counting to 10 if you need to.
Remember you can choose a calm, considered reaction instead of just jumping to your own defense
or trying to justify your actions or intentions.
By practicing self-control in these situations, you will develop the critical ability to be responsible
for your own feelings.

Asking questions and reflecting back what you've heard

Once you have heard what the other person has to offer, asking questions is a powerful way to show
that you are interested and listening and helps you to ensure that you have really understood the
message.
Reflecting back is a great technique for testing your understanding and letting the other person
know that you are listening, for example:
"What I'm hearing is that you liked my presentation, but you felt that I left too quickly
and didn't take advantage of the networking opportunities afterwards—is that right?"

"Can I just check that I've understood what you're saying? You think that I put too much
emphasis on our smaller customers at the expense of our larger, more profitable ones.
Have I understood you correctly?"

Once you are confident that you have understood the key message, you can also ask questions to
establish the facts, the potential consequences of your behavior (why it matters), and to get ideas as
to how you might improve or what you could do differently. Asking well-formed questions can help
you to turn even badly prepared or vague feedback into something you can work with.
Regardless of whether or not you initially agree with the feedback, remember that this is a valuable
opportunity to understand how others see you, how your actions are perceived, and at the very least,
how other people might see things differently from you.
Questions to establish facts
Closed questions requiring yes/no or quite specific answers work well here:
"Was I definitely invited to the networking event?"

"Can I just establish whom our smaller customers are to make sure we are on the same
page?"

Questions to establish consequences or why something matters

Using more open questions will allow you to find out more about someone's views or opinions:
"What would you have liked me to achieve at the networking event?"

"What is the strategy for developing our smaller customers?"

Questions to identify what you need to do to improve

Probe by asking for more detailed or specific information on how you can improve:
"Can you give me some advice as to how to get the most from networking?"

"Can you tell me how I might be able to deal more quickly with some of the smaller,
more demanding customers, or where I might be spending too much time?"

"Please can you help me understand what I could do differently in the future?"

"Do you have any ideas as to how I can improve my skills/behavior to become more
effective in this area?"

Asking questions like these will help you get more out of any feedback you receive; it will also
ensure that you are not left feeling confused or as though something has not been sufficiently
explained. Even if you are the one who is receiving feedback, you can still take control of it and
make it work for you.

Taking time to process what you have heard

Do not feel under pressure to respond straight away. It is fine to say so if you need some time to
take the information in and reflect on it, especially if you do not necessarily agree with what you've
heard. Some useful phrases could be:
"Thanks for bringing that to my attention; I'd just like to take some time to think about
what you've said and then perhaps we can meet again to follow up."

"I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about this, and once I've had a think
about your feedback, I'd like to get back together so I can discuss this further."

If the feedback is a real shock, buy yourself some time. Keep calm and say something like:
 "Thank you, I am surprised to hear that and I'm not sure I agree with you, but please
give me some time to think about what it might mean. I'll get back to you in a couple of
days once I have thought this through properly as I'd like to explore it further."

Tip
Be aware of your body language and the non-verbal messages you are giving at all times. Keep your
arms by your sides rather than crossing them and remember to maintain a neutral facial expression
and to keep breathing!
When you are processing feedback, keep it in perspective, particularly if it upset or annoyed you.
Feedback is just someone else's view. It's not factual, right, or wrong; it merely represents what is
true for them. You always have the power to choose whether to accept their views, reject them, or
continue to consider that they might hold something that you can learn from.
You might want to discuss the feedback with a trusted friend, colleague, or coach to work through
your feelings and make more sense of what you have heard. You do not need to take all feedback on
board. Some of it will be inaccurate, irrelevant, or obsolete, so make sure that you give yourself
permission to evaluate the feedback as objectively as you can and then decide what is valuable and
what you want to work with. If the feedback is very disappointing or feels like a rejection, for
instance, if you are passed up for a job, a promotion, or a pay rise, it may be quite painful at first,
but using the strategies outlined and giving it a bit of time will also help you to regain a sense of
perspective.

Saying thank you

You know yourself that giving feedback can be quite challenging, so make sure that you show your
appreciation for someone giving you their time, perspective, and opinion as well as for their
honesty. If you want the feedback to keep coming, you need to recognize and reward the right
behaviors and make it easy for people to give.

Tool: Assess Your Openness to Feedback

Introduction
Each time you receive feedback, use this list after the session to review your responses. The more
open you are to feedback, the more likely you are to benefit from it.
The next time you receive feedback, review your response against this list. Did you react in any of
the following ways:
1. Get defensive? Don’t shut down. You want to be open to feedback. Look at the person making
the comments. Don’t frown or cross your arms. Remember, no one is perfect. We all make mistakes.
Think of criticism as an opportunity to grow.
2. Listen to the person? Let the individual complete his or her thoughts. And, hard as it may be, do
not interrupt or argue. You really need to hear what the person has to say.
3. Ask yourself: Who is giving you the feedback? If the feedback is from a customer, you need to
consider the suggestions and implement them, if appropriate. If the feedback is from your boss,
generally it’s advisable to make the suggested changes.
4. Learn as much as you could? If the person is not specific, you can ask him or her to explain the
comments. Responses like “What exactly do you mean by ‘unprofessional’?” or “Why did you say
the report was terrible?” not only help you gain information but also buy you some time to calm
down, if necessary, and collect your thoughts. You could also add “Tell me more,” which lets the
person know you are open to feedback.
5. Engage in the discussion? Paraphrase what you have heard. Saying something like “You’re
suggesting that . . .” will ensure that you have grasped the person’s points. You also may want to
explain, without making an excuse. For example, people occasionally will correct what they believe
is an error in something I have written. If I am sure that I am correct, I will respond, politely, that
their comments reflect only one way of writing. Rules may differ depending upon the style manual
used, and we are most likely using different manuals.
6. Acknowledge or fix the problem? Sometimes you can acknowledge the mistake by saying,
“You’re right. It won’t happen again.” This usually ends the discussion. In other situations, you may
want to let the person know what you will be doing differently in the future. This can be done on the
spot or at a later time. One woman wrote to her client: “Thanks for the feedback. I have already
implemented the changes we discussed, and I look forward to working with you in the future.”
7. Thank the person? Receiving feedback is an opportunity to improve your skills or your business
and to maintain your relationship with the person. Whether your critic’s comments are positive or
negative, at the end of the conversation, make sure you say “Thank you” or “Thanks for sharing
your thoughts. I appreciate it.”
POINT TO PONDER
Do you perceive a pattern in the feedback you get about your work? A solitary criticism or
observation may be just one person’s opinion, but if you notice a lot of similar comments, chances
are there is some truth to the feedback—positive or negative.

Engage in On-the-Job Experiences

Introduction
Research demonstrates that the most potent contributions to your development come from on-the-
job experiences. Understand what types of experiences have the most impact on your development.
Also discover the roles a boss, mentor, or coach can play in accelerating your development.
What People Learn from Job Experiences
Over the course of 30 years, significant research has been done, by the Center for Creative
Leadership and by others, to better understand how people learn, grow, and change over the course
of their careers. Through a series of studies—beginning in the United States and now including
interviews with senior managers in China and India, public- and private-sector leaders in Singapore,
and male and female senior executives who attend the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership
at the Peak program from all sectors of the economy—it has become clear that job experiences can
both deepen and broaden an individual’s overall learning and development. Certain experiences are
key to workplace learning. Here, I discuss three types of non-classroom-based learning experiences:
work assignments, developmental relationships, and work-related mistakes and setbacks. These are
among the most frequently cited events that lead to workplace learning.
Work Assignments
When we think about learning on the job, work assignments probably first come to mind as sources
of opportunity, and in fact research bears that out. We often think of assignment-based learning as
“development in place,” because learning from the challenges encountered in one’s day-to-day
work often does not require a major job shift or moving to a new organization to learn (McCauley
2006). Instead, one can learn from challenges that arise in the context of a current job, when the
context for the work changes in some way or because new elements are added to the job. Among
the assignments most frequently described as developmental across many studies (McCall,
Lombardo, and Morrison 1988; Morrison, White, and Van Velsor 1992; Douglas 2006; Yip and
Wilson 2010) are the following:
• an increase in scope of responsibilities
• an assignment in which the individual is responsible for creating change
• a significant project or cross-functional team
• an international assignment.

Although some of these assignments signify a job change, others are experiences that can come in
the context of one’s current role. We also know that there is a great similarity across cultures in the
kinds of job assignments that people see as developmental, but there are also some differences (Yip
and Wilson 2010). For example, one of the most frequently reported learning experiences in a
recent study conducted in China was an event called “organizational reform,” usually referencing a
powerful learning experience Chinese managers had been working in an organization under
transformation from a state-run entity to a private-sector firm (Zhang, Chandrasekar, and Wei
2009).
People tend to learn a variety of lessons from events like these. Table 15-1 illustrates some of the
many lessons people report learning from the events listed above. Tables 15-2 and 15-3 provide
useful tools for (1) assessing the developmental quality of a job or job enlargement and (2)
facilitating learning from a developmental assignment.
Developmental Relationships
Learning can also come from engagement in job-based developmental relationships that challenge
and support a person. These can be in the form of good relationships with a helpful boss, a mentor,
or a formal or informal coaching arrangement. Bosses, mentors, and coaches can play many roles.
Though many think of relationships mainly as ways to gain support (and they certainly are), the best
developmental relationships also provide challenges in the forms of ongoing feedback, evaluation
of strategies for change, standards for self-evaluation, perspectives different from one’s own,
pressure to fulfill commitments to learning, and serving as an example of competence in one’s
desired area of development.
Table 15-1. Key Lessons from Four Types of Job Assignments

From an increase in scope:

• To manage and motivate subordinates
• To develop others
• What it means to be an effective manager and leader
• The technical aspects of running a business
• How to build relationships with superiors and peers
• Operational execution
• Team management

From responsibilities for creating change:

• Confidence
• To be innovative and entrepreneurial
• To manage change
• Strategic skills
• Communication skills
• Enhanced self-awareness

From a significant project or cross-organizational team:

• To manage those who report directly to a manager
• (with project management)
• Technical skills
• Project management skills
• How to influence without authority

From an international assignment:

• Cultural adaptability
• Strategic skills
• Valuing diversity

McCauley and Douglas (2004) describe several strategies for using developmental relationships to
enhance job learning, including
• regarding the boss as a partner in development
• seeking out multiple relationships for development
 • figuring out which roles are needed to help with current learning goals (for example,
feedback provider, sounding board, assignment broker, cheerleader) and finding the right
people to meet these needs
• making full use of lateral, subordinate, and external relationships
• not assuming relationships need to be long term or intense to be helpful
• being especially aware of the need for help during times of transition.

Tool: Can I Learn from This Assignment?

Introduction
You’ve just learned how valuable developmental assignments can be to your professional growth.
Now use the following list of questions to ensure you get the most benefit from such assignments.
Table 15-3. Questions to Ask to Facilitate Learning from a Developmental Assignment

About yourself:
• What strengths do I bring to this job? What will help me?
• What are my development needs? What might hinder me from being successful?
• What aspects of this job might be particularly challenging for me? For example, is the role
clear or ambiguous? Will I have the authority I need? How might I overcome any obstacles?
• What can I learn from this job? What do I want to learn?
• What might make it difficult for me to learn?
• What kind of help or advice am I likely to need?
• What are my career goals? How does this job relate to those?

About the assignment:

• What are the organization’s goals for me in this job?
• What are my own goals in this job?
• How does this job fit with the organization’s mission, values, and goals?
• What do I know about the tasks, responsibilities, and challenges of this job?
• What are the people reporting directly to me, my boss, and my peers like?
• Am I likely to encounter any resistance? How might I overcome that?
• Who can help me and provide support?
• What other resources do I have available?
• Is there anything I would change about this assignment?

During and after the assignment:

• How can I monitor my learning? For example, will I keep a journal, find a learning partner,
seek feedback?
• What am I learning? Anything I did not expect?
 • What am I not learning that I had hoped I would? Why?
• How will I know I have learned what I wanted and needed to learn?
• What was the most challenging part of this assignment for me?
• What did I do when I felt particularly challenged? How did I behave? What was the result?
• What will I do differently if faced with a similar situation in the future?
• What mistakes have I made? What have I learned from them?
• What was my greatest success? What contributed to it? What did it teach me?
• What are my next steps? How can I take better advantage of the learning opportunities in my
next assignment?
Source: Adapted from Ohlott (2004).
Of course, a constructive boss is most frequently cited as a developmental relationship on the job.
From good bosses, people report learning things like how to effectively manage those who report
directly to them, strategic skills, and guiding principles for facing the challenges of leadership. The
impact of a good boss is evident across cultures as well, and may be particularly strong in countries
where superiors garner more respect and authority. In India and Singapore, for example,
constructive bosses are seen as playing a significant role in helping subordinates learn from job
assignments (Yip and Wilson 2010).

Find Role Models

Introduction
Whatever your job or level of expertise, you’ll encounter people who perform at a higher level than
you do. Such role models are not only inspiring; they can provide practical guidance for enhancing
your performance. Identify specific actions you can take to capitalize on the developmental
opportunities role models can offer.

LUCK FACTOR 7 – MODELLING YOUR LEARNING

‘If that’s what the best do, then I am an idiot for not taking their advice.’ MO
Up to the age of 20 you may have been forced to perform in environments where others – perhaps
almost everyone – seemed better than you in academic or sporting challenges. In school sports you
may have been acutely aware of this if you were one of the last to be chosen in a sports team after
the best players had been shared between the two team captains. Or perhaps in mathematics there
always seemed to be a ‘boffin’ in the subject who made you very aware that you were not one. At
worst this can be a humiliating experience.
At school perhaps you were not able to choose your arenas of performance and so you then resolved
to ‘find your own place’. Maybe you assumed that this place was among people of the same
perceived levels of ability to yourself (the word ‘perceived’ is key here). To give the very best
performance you are capable of, it is important to ‘unlearn’ this negative mindset. We often
rationalise our capability levels in the following way: ‘John is brilliant at mathematics because he is
very intelligent. I am not brilliant at maths and therefore I am not very intelligent.’
There are two things to consider here:
• There is always the ‘one best’. But this person is only the ‘one best’ at that moment.
• What does it matter anyway? For all but the most hyper-competitive, it is much more useful
to think in terms of being the best you can be (which could be almost limitless).
Instead of living in this damaging mindset, you may find it more valuable to ask what you can learn
from the best. You want to get better at tennis? Play against players who are better than you. The
areas where you need to improve most will be magnified because your opponent will find them for
you. These vulnerabilities may be hidden against lesser players because they won’t find them. And
against better players you will get more opportunities to strengthen those vulnerabilities because
you will get lots of practice. In the same way, if you want to be a better presenter at team meetings,
watch someone who does it well and make a note of what they do that helps them be good. And
then practise.
The point is that you can choose to see the success and achievements of others as something that
amplifies what you perceive to be your lesser achievements or ability. Or you can use their
achievements as your own spur.
This ‘modelling’ comes in two forms and combines two things that appear regularly in this book –
the head and the heart. To appeal to the heart, inspiration from others can be sought – someone has
done this, has shown what’s possible. To appeal to the head you need to know the practical tools
that will help you to improve. This combination of the inspirational and practical provides a very
powerful dynamic that can fuel your own development.

Inspiration – what’s possible?

‘When I was 12 years old Martin Cross came in to talk to the school. Martin had just
won a rowing gold medal at the ’84 Olympics. It made a big impression. Someone made
something possible. I just thought “Here’s an ordinary guy who did an extraordinary
thing”. He made the best of what he had. It’s not about heroic figures for me, but role
models are very important.’ GREG
Pioneers are able to demonstrate the art of the possible. They do things that haven’t been achieved
before. That’s one kind of inspirational figure. Another kind do things that have been done, but do it
in such a way that it resonates with you – through force of personality, with humour, or with an
idiosyncratic approach.
Greg got his role model at school although he’s clear that, for him, the heroic, inspirational figure is
not so important. In fact lots of us get role models and inspirational figures at school. The teacher
you remember best may not be remembered for anything in particular they said, but for a feeling
they stirred in you that history or books or science or sport or music could be interesting.
This is not just an age/school thing. A friend of mine, Helene, started singing lessons at the age of
67 and has ended up in the London Philharmonic Choir travelling all over the world. When I tell
this story to audiences I can feel a huge sense of the art of the possible suddenly entering the room.
I’m sure you can think of someone in your life who has done something that inspires you.
It’s tough to write about sources of inspiration because it’s just so unique and personal to each of us,
but here are three things to think about:
• Helene wasn’t ‘lucky’. Nor was Greg Searle or Martin Cross. They did many things to create
luck. When you look a bit deeper at those who seem to have all the luck, it was because they
took some very specific actions to kick-start the whole process – they were active players in
their own lives rather than passives waiting for the luck to happen to them. If you think
people create much of their luck then you have taken a step in using the success of others to
create an inspirational base for yourself.
• Inspiration often comes from those who maintain deeply held values and live through them,
for example, Nelson Mandela or Aung San Suu Kyi. As I suggested in Luck Factor 1, your
values provide a strong compass, moral or otherwise, for the direction you choose to take.
Taking inspiration from almost seemingly untouchable figures can help because they again
show what’s possible.
• It does help not to paint inspirational figures into gods. As someone once said: ‘Never meet
your heroes!’ You’re not necessarily using their whole life as an inspirational base, but rather
what they specifically do. We all have vulnerabilities, so do cut them some slack – whether
they are role models or heroes.

Practical tools
‘I went to lots of gigs and made a conscious effort to see the very best. I noticed even
then that some of my contemporaries were giving up. They would say “I am never
going to be that good, I give up”. I would say “No, I want to be like that” and I would
go off and practise. I would constantly model my learning on what the best could do.’
MO

The practical element to modelling means using your head to identify the specific actions you need
to take to develop your knowledge and skills. This might come formally when being coached or
mentored, for example, or less formally through your own observations of others. Here are some
tips:
• A willingness to learn from others always starts with a self-admission of your own
vulnerability:
• ‘I don’t know this and I need to.’
• ‘I don’t and can’t know everything.’
• ‘That didn’t go well, I need to be honest and admit I just don’t know how to do it.’

(There is more of this admission of vulnerability at the end of this section.)

• You also need to build on success:
• ‘Right, I have got so far by myself, I now need to start looking more at what others
do.’
• ‘That went really well, the next step is to take some lessons.’
• Listen to what’s said with an open mind. You are not necessarily seeking the perfect piece of
advice to copy – you are getting insight from someone else who has experienced similar
things to you.
• Pay attention to feelings. Don’t just look at the specific things role models do, but look at the
way they express the feelings they have about the problems they have had:
• ‘This can be very frustrating.’
• ‘It took me hours to get this bit right.’
• ‘It just didn’t feel natural at first.’

Sometimes it’s just good to know that you are not the only person in the world who has your
challenges.
• Sometimes role models plant seeds rather than hand over the mighty oak. Learn to nurture
the seed – and create your version of their mighty oak. It will be different.
• If you are learning through observation or through formal coaching, take the chance to
practise what you have seen as soon as you can afterwards. This reinforces learning. In more
formal settings trainers say that up to 80 per cent of learning is lost within seven days if
course participants don’t reinforce the learning themselves.
• If you are being formally coached, you need to understand the style of your coach. Some
like the spark of more heated discussion – the throwing back and forth of ideas – while
others prefer the opposite. Learn to adapt.
• When you are being formally coached, be an active part of the coaching session – ask
questions and say how you feel:
• ‘I found this bit tough.’
• ‘Can you show me that again?’
• ‘I’m struggling to get the hang of this.’
• Show humility in your source of inspiration and learning. Musician Neil Young
acknowledges how much he learnt from Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, just by listening
to the way he plucks the chords and his guitar ‘styling’. In fact he still learns from him now,
40 years on. (You probably haven’t heard of Bert Jansch, who died in 2011. He had a
relatively uncommercial sound that rewards patient, persistent listening.) This is a great
example of an internationally renowned musician seeking out interesting and challenging
places and people and being open-minded enough to see how they can help develop their
own skills. Performance improvement never stops and neither does the search from whom
and from where we can develop our own skills. If you see someone doing something well,
ask yourself, ‘What do they do that I don’t do or know how to do?’ It doesn’t matter who
they are.
• Remember: role models – yes; intimidation – no. There is a subtle difference between
‘modelling’ and blindly following. Writer and social commentator J.B. Priestley, in a long-
forgotten but excellent book Over The Long High Wall, reminded us that too often we find
ourselves, as he puts it: ‘Submitting to the rules of the ambitious (whose motivation is
themselves) rather than the rules of the wise.’ Politics is an obvious example of this, but it is
also common in professional life. Indeed, no matter what environment it is in which you
operate, you have probably come across these ambitious types. Sometimes you have to play
musical chairs a little to keep them at bay. But don’t play their tune.
Help Others Learn
Introduction
Learning is not necessarily a solo journey. One of the best ways to learn is to collaborate with others
to promote everyone’s learning. Discover through the following case examples how members of a
team can work together to foster team learning.
One of the examples comes from a scrum team. Scrum teams use a simple framework for effective
collaboration during agile software development projects. For more information about agile
concepts, link to the source book or the Agile Project Management tutorial.

Helping Others Learn

All team members, including testers, can use their coaching and leadership skills to help their
teammates learn.
Gaining Confidence
Aldo Rall, a test manager in South Africa, told us how he helped new team members gain
confidence.
New testers on our team were too afraid to participate in the normal collaborative mechanisms of
working in agile teams. They also had some cultural disadvantages which made them reticent to
question or challenge the team’s current thinking or process.
The organization was also not very well educated about what testing entailed. I implemented a lot
of ongoing education for the clients, the business analysts, the programmers and the project
manager to open their minds to different ways of doing things and raise awareness of alternative
approaches to development.
As a result of our training efforts, the testers started acting as a community of practice. Testers
shared problems with each other, and debated best solutions for their respective projects within this
community of practice.
Loads more exploratory testing occurred. The testers were no longer afraid to speak their minds to
their project teams. The testers were accepted as valued, contributing, cooperating and collaborating
team members. The programmers took advice from testers about releases into production seriously.
Production incidents went down to a trickle. What is more, the testers developed a very important
attribute: they had confidence in their ability to do testing.
Getting people over their fear of the unknown is a giant step towards empowering them to take
control of their own professional development. As Aldo says, training and support for learning also
helps people reach out and collaborate with other team members.
Learning is often an important side effect of trying a series of small experiments to solve a problem
that’s holding up the team. What you learn may be more valuable than overcoming the original
obstacle!
Surprise Learning
Claire Moss shares her story of how she led her team through a series of small experiments to
solve a problem. It generated unexpected opportunities for the team to improve communication and
learn to collectively own testing activities.
As the tester on a cross-functional Scrum team, I knew about defects. Being a visual thinker, I put
sticky notes on a small whiteboard by my desk. Since I’d never used a board like this before, I tried
a few different categories to better prepare for talking to my product team members about testing
results. Although other people could see the board, I always thought of it as keeping things straight
in my own head. Figure 6-6 shows my initial attempt.
Figure 6-6. Initial bug board
One day, I walked into the office and found that my teammates had rearranged my sticky notes,
engaging with my board. I was fascinated that they found my personal record-keeping interesting
and useful. By prioritizing my defect backlog, my product owner team revealed their desire for
more information about testing. I seized the opportunity to use this big visible chart as a means to
the end of better shared understanding.
I paid careful attention to the changes my colleagues made and did some research to see how other
agile teams were using big visible charts. Thus began my series of experiments.
The most common question about defects seemed to be, “How bad is it?” so I tried rearranging the
bugs based on severity (i.e. impact on the user). Since my developers scrupulously resolved the
worst problems quickly, we ended up with large buckets of low impact problems. Although our
communication definitely improved, we still needed to represent the business’s judgment about
priority. Not all bugs of a given severity are equally detrimental in the eyes of the business.
To satisfy this need, I tried another way of looking at the problem. Although I wanted to provide
deeper information about the sources of bugs, initially I reported the user-facing symptoms. By co-
opting the site map I’d made for test planning, I showed the bigger picture of where bugs were
surfacing. The team could literally take a step back to see clusters of problems that might indicate a
need for UX redesign or code refactoring. See Figure 6-7 for an example. That worked for a while
as well.
Figure 6-7. Bug board - clustered
All this time our team was learning to talk more comfortably about each others’ work. Each of us
became more T-shaped, broadening our understanding of areas outside our specialization. We
realized that the disconnection between the bug backlog and the user story backlog was a problem
we created for ourselves. So we removed the impediment.
We began pulling bugs into sprint backlogs based on priority, which included analysis of user
impact.
We pulled related bugs into our stories to give us more context in which to execute the user stories
we had planned. We disposed of the bugs during a story, either fixing them or delaying them as we
deemed appropriate. Having this deliberate decision in place helped us to focus on the whole
product backlog so that we no longer needed or valued a separate bug board.
Representing all the team’s development work as a single backlog was a step in the right direction.
We adapted our big visible charts after conversations about the value they provided. However, all of
these iterations focused on understanding defect reporting, which had been the most visible part of
the testing activities. Our team was well on the way to a whole team testing approach, but we still
needed to delve deeper, beyond defects. Our big visible charts helped us to find the path and opened
up team communication to encourage collective ownership of testing.
If you see someone you can help, take the initiative. Make a big visible chart as Claire did, start a
testing community of practice, or perhaps a testing journal or book club. Sometimes, it is as simple
as seeing, and seizing, the opportunity.

Leverage Information Sources

Introduction
When you are an agile learner, you look for information that can broaden your knowledge. Become
familiar with a range of learning resources that can help you sharpen your skills.
This selection was written for software developers, but the tips it shares can be useful for people in
every industry. Note that it refers to “Lisa” and “Janet,” who are the authors of the book the
selection comes from.

Learning Resources
Seek out places to sharpen your skills. You may find good resources online, in your local
community, or farther afield. Let’s look at some examples of good learning opportunities. See the
Part II bibliography section on courses, conferences, online communities and podcasts for links to
the activities mentioned in this section.

Conferences, Courses, Meet-ups and Collaborating

A good conference can provide a variety of takeaways, ranging from specific techniques you can try
right away, to groundbreaking new ideas or technologies you can continue to research. Most
importantly, you’ll meet practitioners and thought leaders with whom you can form a lasting
network, a constant source of inspiration and ideas.
Consider different types of conferences. Testing conferences are an obvious choice for testers, but
consider others, such as those that help you work on specific skills such as scripting languages. If
your employer can’t afford to send you to a conference and you can’t afford to pay your own way,
consider proposing a paper or session to a testing or software development conference. This may
earn a free or discounted conference registration. And remember, teaching a skill to someone else is
the best way to learn it yourself. Find out if the conferences need volunteers, or if you qualify for
grants or discounts. If you can’t travel to attend a conference, consider virtual conferences which
are becoming more popular, or sign up for webinars.
Conferences aren’t only for learning specific testing and technical skills. Many software
conferences have sessions and tracks on collaboration, organizational culture, learning, coaching,
working with customers, and mentoring. Janet has even attended sessions by Portia Tung on the
“Power of Play”. Figure 6-3 shows people learning and playing together.
Figure 6-3. Collaborative learning and play
The most important learning at conferences often takes place at break times and in the hallways and
dining areas, as you meet new people who become part of your network.
Most metropolitan areas have testing and development user groups and meet-ups, which convene
regularly. These can be a great resource of free training and information, as well as a place to meet
people who have tried different tools and techniques. Make the most of these networking
opportunities.
If you want to improve your teaching and coaching skills, consider a coaching retreat such as Agile
Coach Camp, Agile games gatherings such as Play4Agile, are a great place to get ideas for
participatory learning and building trust in teams. Portia Tung (Tung 2011) says that play breaks
down barriers between people and opens the mind to enable learning.
There are workshops and courses designed to help you learn leadership and relationship skills such
as Problem Solving Leadership and those offered by Satir Global
To get better at almost anything, we need to practice. Musicians, athletes, and video game players
all spend time practicing. At Code Retreats, programmers practice repeatedly writing code that
they’ll throw away. Lisa finds code retreats are a great learning experience even if you’re not much
of a coder. She learned lessons about problem-solving and practicing one’s craft. There are good
ways to practice testing skills too; attend a testing dojo, or organize your own.
Groups such as Weekend Testing give you the opportunity to practice testing techniques real-time
with testers around your continent, or around the world. If you have a spare hour and want to
practice a specific skill, get someone to pair with you. Lisa recently reached out to her Twitter
contacts and several volunteered to pair with her virtually to practice Ruby koans. Your own
teammates may be ready and willing to help you practice.
You may be able to find courses offered in subjects that interest you. Many of these are on a specific
topic such as UI test automation. Some organizations will bring instructors in to teach the whole
team at once so everyone has a shared common understanding of the subject. Look for classes that
teach the skills you want to learn.
Online courses, screencasts, webinars and tutorials offer convenient learning opportunities for all
aspects of testing and agile development, as well as the non-technical thinking skills. Some online
training is free or inexpensive, though more sophisticated courses, or those which include time
online with the instructor, can cost more. You can usually work through them at your own pace.
Janet’s Story
I recently took a course on personal kanban through www.udemy.com. I could take my time with it
and work through the course anywhere I travelled and at my own pace; both were really important
to me. I used what I learned to help me focus on tasks that were highest priority and not get side-
tracked on tasks that were less important at the current time.
If there’s a specific skill you want to acquire, look for online videos from conference sessions, user
group meetings, and training courses.

Publications, Podcasts, and Online Communities

Information about all aspects of software testing is available both in book form and on the Internet.
We’re fortunate to have many good books available about all aspects of software testing. You’ll find
references to books, articles and blog posts throughout this book, and the bibliography has a
complete list.
Podcasts are a convenient way to learn. You can listen to interviews with experts, training sessions
on specific topics, conference keynotes, webinars and panel discussions.
Podcasts Changed my Life
Steve Rogalsky, an agilist at Protegra, shares his story about podcast learning.
My wife likes to tell the story of when I came home from work and announced, “Podcasts have
changed my life.” Her natural response was: “What? Podcasts? Not me, not our children, but
podcasts?” I persisted with my original assertion. “Yes, podcasts. They’ve changed my life.”
Up until that time I had been largely relying on the organizations I worked for to do the hard work
of identifying what I needed to learn next and how. When a friend commented several years ago
that he listened to podcasts on the way to work I decided to give it a try. After only a few episodes I
was hooked. I looked forward to my time in the car where I could explore what other people were
discovering about software development, testing, management, and other topics. On many
occasions I would hear a new term, tool, or acronym in a meeting, download a related podcast
before leaving work, and return the next day knowledgeable enough to apply the information at
work.
I had discovered a way of learning that I enjoyed, that fit into my existing schedule, and that made
my job more enjoyable. Through podcasts I was introduced to many new people and ideas that have
made my work experience more successful and rewarding. Yes - by giving me a vehicle to own my
personal learning, podcasts changed my life.
Look to the global testing and software development community for more people with whom you
can exchange ideas and experiences. For example, the agile-testing mailing list is a good place to
ask if someone has had the same problem you’re facing and how they solved it. Online
communities such as Software Testing Club are a great place to learn by participating in forum
discussions and by blogging your own experiences. Mailing lists and social networks such as
Twitter can introduce you to articles and blog posts on topics that interest you.
Open-source projects can be a good place to practice your skills, especially if you want some
coding experience. You can refine other skills as you contribute to open source projects, such as
testing, writing help documentation and providing training courses. (See the Part II bibliography
section on courses, conferences, online communities and podcasts for links to the activities
mentioned in this section.)
If your company has testers integrated into software delivery teams, a testing community of practice
(CoP) is a good place to learn and share experiences with others interested in testing. Lunch and
learn sessions and book groups within an organization are another effective learning mechanism.
For example, several teams have read our previous book together, reading a different chapter each
week. They spend a lunchtime or meeting discussing what they have read and how it applies to their
situation. (Ruhland, 2013). An added bonus of leading your team’s journal club effort is honing
your own facilitation skills!
Pair with your fellow team members (See Figure 6-4). Pair with people outside your development
team. The marketing and sales people know a lot about your customers, as do your user experience
(UX) designers. People in other departments such as Human Resources (HR) or accounting would
be a great “fresh set of eyes” on your product. There’s a lot you can learn from your own co-
workers, and a lot you can teach them.
Figure 6-4. Pairing – a great way to learn

Lisa’s Story
I was part of a team that decided we would pair on every coding and testing task. When I paired
with a programmer to automate UI acceptance tests that would guide coding, I noticed how
naturally the programmer found duplication in the test code and immediately extract it out into our
library of macros. I sharpened my automated test design skills considerably as a result.

Stay Abreast of Industry Trends

Introduction
A key element of learning agility is to stay abreast of rapidly changing trends in your industry.
Review the following strategies for gaining more information about the latest developments in your
industry as well as broader trends that affect the business landscape.
You can also keep abreast of industry changes by speaking with the leaders of your company to see
what is new and exciting to them. Perhaps you could incorporate a “specialist” in your regular
meetings who will report on fresh news of interest in your industry, including your competition and
the businesses that are major revenue contributors to your company and to your rivals.
Another popular training tactic is to bring company leaders or outside professionals to your
workforce to speak about an area of your industry, new research, or trends that might affect your
business. This broadens scope and creates beyondthe-norm thinking. I once created a speaker’s
series and it was very well received, even among the people that felt burdened by the longer form
training. The meetings were held monthly on Friday mornings and included topics that the
workforce wanted covered.
Occasional adult education courses can broaden your horizons and keep you up to date in a fast-
changing world. New knowledge will serve to refresh your passions and make you the “get.”
Although these courses might be at your own expense, consider that your career potential is worth
the investment.
Read trade journals and network within your industry by joining associations and mentor groups.
Some associations will have different task forces, which you can join or at least learn about. This is
another opportunity to meet people within your industry that could grow into future liaisons. This
can sound like a lot on top of your heavy workload, but networking functions and classes are not
necessarily constant, and they can be an ongoing source of refreshment and growth for you.

Take a moment to reflect

The lessons in this subject focus on a variety of learning strategies that can enhance your
development.

What action step could you take to apply one of the learning strategies in this subject? For instance,
you could identify people in your organization who could be good sources of information about
current industry trends and the competitive environment. You could also make a point of reading
trade journals.
Congratulations,
You've Completed Learning Agility