So, how do you get started and join in the fun? Here are ten easy to implement suggestions for encouraging learning in your workplace:-
* Ask a colleague for 30 minutes coaching on something you've
been meaning to learn for the past few months.
* Get down to Waterstone's and browse for a practical book
on a topic where you know you are out-of-date.
* Post an offer to act as a mentor as your company's bulletin
board, noticeboard or learning centre.
* Make sure that 'Learning at Work' is on this week's agenda
for this week's team / departmental meeting
* Take five minutes to jot down a learning log about a recent
experience: what happened? what did you learn from it?
how does this connect to other learning? how can you use it
in future?
* Organise with colleagues to hold a practice review session
around a current piece of work
* Get out of your normal workplace and visit another one - find
something which they do that would improve your work.
* Take ten minutes to pull out a professional journal from the
bottom of your in-tray and discover something new
* Make out a learning plan with goals and proposals for the
next six months.
* Do something (anything!) different ... a different kind of
lunch, a different route home, a different relaxation ...
PS. A LearningWire wrote recently to say he had become a converted lifelong learner ten years ago and now had a log with 1,068 entries. "I started it because I recognised I was an unskilled learner and that as a 19 scoring Activist in Honey and Mumford terms, I needed structure and discipline to get me to reflect. My method is simple: one sheet of A4 broken into headings of significant experience, what happened?; conclusions; actions, and when?"
So, 'What have you learned today?'