Lifelong Learning – An Evergreen Concept - A Tip from The Manager’s Answer Book

“Lifelong learning is fundamental to building strong communities, companies, and economies.” This is a quote from a Harvard Business Review article published in its May-June 2018 issue entitled Why Lifelong Learning Matters More than Ever. In 2018, we could not have foreseen the circumstances under which we’d be managing in just two short years.

The article discusses how life long learning can go a long way toward helping us solve the skills shortage. There are more and more learning possibilities available to our employees, and during the pandemic we currently find ourselves in, everyone is having to get up to speed on technology and doing things virtually. That includes learning. People have been using their time in isolation to brush up on numerous learning opportunities. We’re all learning how to be more effective in virtual meetings. With webinars becoming more frequent events, there’s an opportunity to learn how to be an efficient presenter and an active participant.  

Manager’s Tip:  Life-long learning is a critical issue which we discuss in The Manager’s Answer Book:

Question: “I want to encourage my employees to continue to learn and grow. What can I do to help them see the importance of continuous learning?”

Answer: “Share what you’re learning with your staff. You can do this in a staff meeting by taking a few minutes to share a book, article, or other resource you’ve found to be helpful. If your employees seem receptive, it is a great idea to ask everyone to read a particular article or watch a specific video and then discuss it when you next meet. This is an easy way to get your employees interested in expanding their knowledge or skill base.”

There are so many ways to learn using available technologies, including:

• Webcasts
• Podcasts
• YouTube
• Online articles
• Audio books
• TED Talks

For more on this subject, see page 99 of The Manager’s Answer Book, available from Amazon -- https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz - Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookstore.

Finally, a shoutout to Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The Manager’s Answer Book is a proud 2020 Winner in their Career Book category.  The staff did an excellent job of conducting a virtual awards ceremony last month on Facebook Live. A learning opportunity for them.

Learning and Teaching

I know I’m not alone in being a faithful reader of Seth Godin’s daily blogs (and yes, I still can’t believe he blogs every day and I think once a week is a challenge). Monday, March 23, 2020, his blog ended with this challenge: “What will you learn today? Who will you teach?”

As we’re all living in what seems to be an alternative universe in which we are working from home and keeping our social distance from neighbors and friends, this challenge is perfect.  Seth comments that “we may not be able to anything about external events, but we have control over our actions.”

Like everyone, I’m spending a lot of time on Zoom and conference calls, and I’m learning where to place my laptop so that I’m not focused on how wrinkled my neck is. I hope I am using this time to learn and teach others.

How about you? What will you learn today and who will you teach? Maybe not every day of this period of time, but I hope that more days than not, I learn something new that then I can turn around a share with someone else.

One of my passions is helping people who are considering a job or career change. While this may not be an ideal time to be interviewing, I’m trying to think of other things people can do during this time. It is a great time to update a LinkedIn Profile or reach out to people in their network that they haven’t talked to in a while. No, this is probably not the time to meet for coffee or lunch but why not certainly can do a Zoom call or even an old-fashioned phone call to reconnect?

Another thing I can learn is how to make better use of video technology. I’ve done plenty of webinars over the past few years and am pretty comfortable doing them, but I’m less confident about my ability to use some of the great features of other platforms. Great time to give this a try. 

I’ve always believed that it was a good thing to be a lifelong learner and now, thanks to this pesky virus that has stopped so much of our world, I have the time to do it.  Let’s learn together and make these necessary life changes into something positive. Maybe I can get motivated to blog more often…and then again, maybe not.

Barbara Mitchell