The world and workplace are constantly changing with each new generation that takes charge. Each generation has its own values, work ethic, culture and social norms. Each generation creates own ways of working and learning. However, what remains constant, is the value of experience in addition to intelligence and qualifications.
Experience over here does not imply the length of service or advanced age. Here, it simply means, that the way to truly understand and learn something, is by doing it yourself. David Allen Kolb, the renowned American educational theorist developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM), composed of four elements:
1. Concrete experience - The learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience. Keep your mind open and dive into the experience.
2. Observation of and reflection on that experience - The learner must be able to reflect on the experience. Sit back, every now and then and think about what you experienced, how you reacted to a situation and what the results were.
3. Formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection - The learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience. This simply means, that once you have experienced something a few times, you can start to analyse what works or doesn’t and also categorise actions and results in your own mind.
4. Testing the new concepts - The learner must possess decision making and problem-solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience.
A training programme, such as an e-learning course can give you the learning map – that is to say, you will get to know what how something works and what are the concepts you need to know. This will definitely help with Point No. 3 above. A learning programme can help give shape to your ideas and experience by creating bundles of information.
However, everything else above, requires you to live through an experience yourself and most importantly, reflect on it. Real learning takes place in those moments of inactivity where you reflect, or simply put, think about what you went through, how it felt and what worked or didn’t.
So, please make sure to do the following, if you want to learn well and fast:
1. Pick a training programme or course that has been created by practitioners, or professionals who have real experience in the field and can offer real-world insights, not just academic concepts. There are several programmes like the ones offered by KenDhrit.
2. Undertake internships / practical projects that can transform online learning into real-world skill.
About The Author : Harjinder Singh Sidhu | LinkedIn
An XLRI Jamshedpur Alumnus
With over 25 years of cross-sector HR leadership experience, he has led HR teams for global organizations such as Wipro, GE, Genpact, Microsoft, NIIT, and Vedanta. He believes that effective training must be grounded in experiential learning and should reflect the tacit, unspoken actions people naturally perform in the workplace.
