Tag: Learning

Collaboration, communication, Learning, Personality

What are you passionate about?

marcusdegerman

 But what if science isn’t your world? I admit, I don’t know whether people outside of my social sphere would care about this at all. I’ve spent my entire adult life embedded with scientists and the people who love them. I take it for granted that this sort of knowledge is cherished, is yearned for. And I am keenly aware that in order to tell you what we found, it required a thousand words of explanation before I could get to the crux.

by Becky Chambers – To Be Taught, if Fortunate

What are you passionate about? What have spent so much time thinking/working/reading/playing with that you know “everything” about it? I love to watch someone talk about their passions and what they find interesting. You can see how excited they get, and how they feel more alive. It’s amazing to see how a person or a group of people can get stuck in the small details that for outsiders feel completely irrelevant but for the people who care is the most important thing in the world.

It also has its downsides. If you are new to a group and just getting started. It can be hard to get in. You don’t have the history, the knowledge nor the language to fully take part in the discussions. This means that the group needs to work extra hard on how to include them. Let them make mistakes or say the wrong things without getting ridiculed. We all need to start somewhere. I think the language is especially important to teach to new people. Words have a history and a special meaning in organisations and they might not mean what you think when you get started. 

Failing, Learning

Learning requires failure

marcusdegerman

“It might not be dangerous with this spell, but it’s a good habit to get into for future spell designs. Start with a fraction of the power needed to activate it and then work your way up slowly. Once you’re sure the construct is stable, you can test it at full strength.” “You knew that would happen, didn’t you?” accused Will. “It was a fair bet, but this was a safe spell for accidents, and accidents are the best way to learn.”

By Michael G. Manning –  Secrets and Spellcraft

In many cases it is better to let people learn from their own mistakes than to fix them before they happen. What we have to watch out for is how big the consequence is of the failure and if there is time to fix it. As a father when watching my kids jump, climb and play I often see them on they way to hurting themselves. If I feel they might break a bone then I will stop them but if it will cause some pain or a bruise it is better that they learn consequences and assessing risks. 

It is the same at work. As a leader or coworker you shouldn’t always stop someone from failing. Sometimes it is the best way to learn, both from what they did wrong but also from dealing and fixing the outcome of the failure. And if they can’t fix it themselves then they will have to practice asking for help.