7 ways to learn and get ahead with no money
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler
We are continuously being reminded that those who are successful in life continually learn. A couple examples are:
- Michael Simmons wrote the blog the 5 hour rule supporting the need to be learning a minimum of 5 hours per week
- Shane Parish’s podcast with Naval Ravikant who reads for about 2 hours a day
- The book Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella has continually stories of the leader listening and learning from colleagues, competitors, thought leaders and entrepreneurs.
- Writers like Arianna Huffington wrote Thrive to share her lessons in life
- Academics and consultants create reflective and informative books to share their knowledge and also allow them to have clarity in their own work like Daniel Pink ‘When’, Will Dean ‘It Takes a Tribe’, Edgar H Schein Humble Inquiry, Daniel Coyle The Culture Code, Adam Grant Originals
Content is everywhere and you dont have to pay for it
Here are 7 ways to approach learning free within your community
- Create communities of SMEs
Whether a small medium sized Enterprise / business, independent consultant or a large corporate we belong to communities that have large amounts of knowledge. Meet ups, Linkedin groups, communities of managers and teams all have and already share ideas, ask questions and build a structure of support. Much of this is on an informal basis however this can also be put together for a more formal learning opportunity.
My experience of this was whilst working for a large technology company where different communities of engineers, managers and leaders had webinars which they were invited to. Careful questioning with the stakeholders affecting these communities meant we had an idea of the audience needs. Successful Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were identified and voluntarily created content, practiced and refined the presentation with the team and then delivered for a maximum of an hour.
2. Give Kudos to the volunteers that act as SMEs
Success comes from saying thank you
Human nature and research has shown that money isnt the highest driver why people come to work. Successful people are busy and organised but also know the value of giving and sharing. In my experience they are willing to give organise (i.e. make a choice) time to support a community.
To accelerate the success happens when a small thank you takes place. Not just directly to the person privately, on the webinar (or interaction), send an email of thanks to their manager and also to the stakeholder who has requested the learning opportunity.
3. Work closely with business leaders to establish need
Its amazing how easily to capture what you think is needed by a feeling and listening to the odd person. It is only when you create trusting relationships with people in and stakeholders affected by the community you can get a real feel of what is needed.
At the Learning Technologies in London I joined a small group on the Towards Maturity stand to discuss something topical. What struck me was the speed to which like minded people built up an element of trust. However one quote which sticks with me is what Laura Overton said “Act like a journalist” and you will have the curiosity that you need to get to the hub of the matter.
4. Allow your audience to share their performance, productivity and prosperity (wellbeing) needs
Its not just the business leaders who have a perception of need and say in the matter but its key you involve the very audience you will be working with. Our own assumptions and beliefs mean that we will filter what we see in a certain way. Ask three questions to your audience and listen:
What is your challenge?
How would you best overcome this challenge?
What are the best interventions to allow you to overcome your challenge?
5. Allow your audience to share how best they like to generate success
Its great to have successes and just like kudos #2 provides a great foundation. We all know the power of a great story. Creating personal, team and community stories pulls the enthusiasm and people are then keen to part of the successful journey. However that is my experience and not necessarily right for your context.
What options would your community choose to share successes of learning and development?
6. Set up mentoring networks to share successes and learnings
There is a whole debate in the sporting and business community what mentoring is and I wont go into here.
Running the EMEA mentoring program for a large technology company we regularly saw the benefits from innovation, creativity, career development, problems solving, business opportunities and learning from more junior members.
Making the most effective connections in the first place can be the hardest thing. Start with understanding the longer term need (dont get drawn into a quick win) then guide mentor and mentee together. Have an initial ‘Chemistry’ session to check the match is right and leave the rest to them. Success can increase through having great mentoring skills. Skills and communication around the following helps: both mentor and mentee understand their role, the mentor knowing what a great mentor looks like (and having a mentor themselves) plus the skills like questioning.
7. Listen and adjust your next steps from your own learnings and data
No program, event or intervention is perfect. I love and have followed the philosophy of Kaizen (Japanese approach following a continuous improvement theme) for many years for myself, teams and businesses I have worked for.
Listen, keeping an eye on the goal and future goals and getting feedback based on this can help you to adjust making the next intervention have a little bit more impact each time.
So what is stopping you?
Start your learning journey today with these 6 easy steps
- Write down what your goal is for yourself / team / orgaanisation
- Find the best no cost intervention for the community by asking them
- Find someone you admire and is a success in the area that you would like to improve and ask them to support you in starting a community
- Market the first intervention / number of events (and see if you can find some free giveaways)
- Listen. Learn from the event and evolve
- Choose to make time for this by allocating a weekly event in your diary and commit with your colleagues that this is what you are doing
Looking forward to hearing about your success stories. If you want to have a discussion about what starting and or improving where you are at don’t hesitate getting in touch. Happy learning!
Lizzie Rhodes James is a Performance Coach and Facilitator who specialises in helping teams and individuals exceed their potential at work and in life. Having successfully transitioned from a successful Army career into the Corporate world, Lizzie brings an exceptional and distinctive blend of discipline, focus and agility into her practice. Lizzie is also passionate about health and wellness, and adds a depth of thinking to align body and mind, enhancing overall performance and encouraging clients to transcend their limits.
