Learning for Growth - The Growth dynamic
Strategic Revenue Growth Management
Learning for Growth - The Growth dynamic
Creating the opportunity for organisations to grow depends largely on the capability of the resources it has to use. One of these key primary resources are the team members that work within organisations and they are key enablers in the process of optimising growth and expanding overall potential.
Moving from a situation of Comfort to that of Growth
Moving from comfort to a position of growth, can involve a few steps, these being, Comfort, Fear, Learning and Growth. Organisations, like individuals can find themselves facing these situations and therefore recognising key elements of each situation can help achieve the transition to Growth. Some examples of these elements are explained further.
A place of comfort, is where there is a sense of control, being unchallenged, leaning towards low risk, low rewards and potentially low satisfaction.
Fear, is a situation whereby, unknowns are inhibitors, focus is on problems and obstacles (not solutions), avoidance of challenges, excuses are made, frequent complaining is the norm and low self-confidence is evident, thus, limiting growth.
Breaking through the comfort and fear levels starts the process to real progress and this is deemed to be the Learning level. Here, there is action despite fear, challenges are faced up to, opportunities are seen (not problems), new skills are acquired, increased knowledge obtained, objective setting is more focused, confidence develops and improves, curiosity is developing and your comfort level expands.
Developing and achieving a level of Growth is where team members and organisations start to really maximise their potential. At this level, the unknown is embraced, skills acquired are mastered, objectives are conquered, ambitious goals are set, enhanced willingness to learn, more purposeful, greater sense of fulfilment and a heightened curiosity in everything that is done.
Curiosity and learning
Curiosity is the need to know more about something that interests you or your organisation. It involves two main processes: exploration and reward. Exploration is the act of pursuing new information, experiences, or challenges that stimulate your curiosity. Reward is the feeling of satisfaction, pleasure, or accomplishment that you get from exploring. Together, these processes create a positive feedback loop that motivates you to keep learning and growing.
Curiosity has many advantages for learning and motivation. It can enhance your memory and retention by prompting you to pay more attention and process information more deeply. Importantly, it can boost your creativity and problem-solving by encouraging you to generate questions, hypotheses, and possibilities.
Furthermore, it can increase engagement and enjoyment by finding more relevance, value, and fun in your learning, that leads to higher levels of interest, enthusiasm, and persistence.
Improve your level of curiosity by asking questions, challenging assumptions, seeking feedback, seeking out opportunities and your treat learning as a game or adventure, experiment with different methods and tools, and remember to celebrate achievements.
Foundationally, curiosity is about seeking and connecting, for example, connecting with ideas, questions, solutions and most importantly, people. Curiosity is seeking connections and connecting the dots so that you feel you are both contributing as well as being part of the overall organisation.
Research has found a correlation between curiosity and persistence-the more curious we are about something, the more we persist towards exploring it and ultimately add to the overall learning experience both as individuals and teams thus powering the Growth cycle.
Continuous learning
Learning shouldn’t end at onboarding. In fact, it shouldn’t end. Ever.
In an ever-shifting social and economic landscape, a business’ success depends on its people’s ability to adapt to change. The process of recruiting new people to fill each emerging skill gap is not a sustainable solution. So, team member skill sets need to evolve to meet current and longer-term business demands.
Whether it’s a new process or technology, successfully responding to these changes requires people to learn and develop. Without a continual process of learning, changes aren’t adopted and innovation doesn’t happen. Ultimately, businesses and employees lose out.
If organisations and individuals want to remain competitive in a dynamically changing marketplace, they need to develop and grow the skills and knowledge needed to learn, innovate and grow. But this won’t just happen on its own. While one-off training interventions can have an impact, this depreciates over time. Continuous learning, such as e-learning, allows an organisation to reach and maintain higher levels of team and team member knowledge and skills through consistent reinforcement.
In closing there is a succinct quote, although the author is unknown:
“Be a learn it all, not a know it all”
Good luck in your journey from comfort to Growth.
