How do your people prefer to learn?

Every manager and leader within an organisation has a certain level of learning that they expect and need their teams to achieve. Development and learning are essentially the same thing as you can’t develop without having learnt something, even if it isn’t always tangible (for example, confidence), and you can’t learn something without having in some sense developed yourself. Development within organisations has increasingly become a permanent, central concern, and therefore, although learning isn’t as commonly referred to as development, it is essentially what we mean when we talk about development and is consequently a crucial focus for organisations today.

A good place to start when considering learning is what we mean by learning and how we learn. In the dictionary learning is described as ‘knowledge gained by studying’, but this is limiting and largely untrue, as we learn via many different means. Although studying is the leading method of learning within the major learning institutions (school, university, college etc.) it is certainly not the dominant form and our experiences throughout life take precedence here.

Experiences are where the majority of our learning comes from, beginning when we are very young before we can study books, and most of us would agree that the most important lessons we’ve learnt in life didn’t come from a teacher or a book! Learning from experience and from living with the daily ups and downs of life can imply a number of different possible encounters, such as, trial and error in the way we do things, praise and acceptance, or criticism and rejection, the influence of others and our environment etc. These all purport to the fact that how and why we learn is based on both the experiences surrounding us and our personal attributes in terms of how we interpret and react to things.

Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles take account of the fact that we all have preferred ways of learning and some benefit from particular learning activities more than others. If we consider this in conjunction with the many possible methods of learning that can be adapted to meet with different styles, and the many effective and ineffective experiences we may encounter that could have a productive or counterproductive impact on us, learning styles are certainly worth bearing in mind when it comes to personal development at work.

The benefits of understanding and making use of learning styles are surely attractive to any leader;

• They enable selection of learning opportunities to practice stronger styles and develop weaker styles.
• A learner can benefit from a number of activities that positively impact their personal development.
• A learner is more likely to want to learn and to learn independently if their learning style is met.
• They enable others to tailor their message for maximum impact and will help learners to feel understood and motivated.
• They can support learners in developing personalised development plans that meet their unique requirements.
• And many more…

To understand more about learning and how it can help you get the most of your people please see the learning styles section of the website.

Happy learning!