Leading Needs Learning

It should be obvious that leading requires learning. Yet too often, we rarely pause to consider what learning in the workplace actually looks like and how to determine its success.

What does learning look like in the workplace? This has been a topic of interest for me over much of my career. What I have come to find most interesting is the intersection between how people learn as individuals and how to effectively engage individual learning styles into a workplace setting. How people learn, or at least how they are used to being taught, goes back to when they were children.

Working across industries has been a critical component of developing my interest and perspective on this topic. Naturally, we see our colleagues as adults and most of us are rarely curious about the education or learning that each individual experienced as a child. Now, working in the education sector, I have a front row seat to the pedagogy of teaching students during their formative years. Though not a teacher by profession, I am fascinated with the instructional mindset that embodies the day to day activities of those that go about teaching.

Whitman and Kelleher's Neuroteach (2016), a book focused on brain science, neuroplasticity, metacognition, and overall learning, has piqued my curiosity in understanding how the brain learns. How can we incorporate learning interest and activities for the adult professionals that we work with on a regular basis? It seems that this is an avenue to create more well rounded and productive workplaces.

Questions that come to mind that encourage a learning approach to leading and developing team members include: How did my teams learn in their youth? How has that impacted their perspective and approach to learning today? How can I tap into and introduce learning opportunities that suit teams of adult learners so that they can advance their own professional paths?

We learn every day. The approach that we take, the methods that work, the application of learning as it relates to our jobs, and how it fits with our lifestyles are individualized for each person on our teams. Adult learning has specific considerations that start with the practicality of "why." Because adults in the workforce have a purpose other than "learning for the sake of learning," adults must often understand the "why" behind what they are being asked to learn. This is a critical component for most adult education.

Each Tuesday, I have the opportunity to sit with my team for 45 minutes. The group is varied with a range of experience, formal education, and job function. Leaders from finance, HR, technology, and facility services are present. We start with 5-10 minutes of a simple prompt in order to get everyone thinking beyond the daily activities. It's an opportunity to focus on a new thought or experience that allows the team to engage in learning with one another. Since relevance boosts retention, existing knowledge is anchored to new content with real world application for the respective areas of the team. The remainder of the meeting holds the same agenda with project updates, intersection of responsibilities, and sharing and requesting assistance from each other, as appropriate.

Building on this, Jeff Toister offers several practical techniques leaders can use to reinforce adult learning in the workplace:

• Spaced Learning: Deliver small doses of training over time.
• Retrieval Practice: Use scenario-based simulations or quizzes to reinforce knowledge.
• Low-stakes Testing: Provide informal, no-pressure assessments at regular intervals.
• Multisensory Input: Combine audio, visual, and hands-on activities.
• Growth Mindset Language: Frame mistakes as part of learning and continuous improvement.
• Social Learning: Encourage group work and peer feedback loops.

As I move to find and apply the best opportunities for learning across my team, it has been important to challenge myself to understand where each person comes from in terms of their personal way of learning. To develop a team of leaders requires a team of learners and just as no two leaders are the same, neither are their learning styles or preferences. Recognizing this critical element is important in developing the appropriate approach to engage teams, both individually, and as a collective.

Each brain is different. Since reading Neuroteach, I've come to understand more deeply the impact that "genetics and environment play in the development of our brain over time." Every response, situation, experience that you have wires your brain to act in a manner that will not be replicated by someone else. Though brain patterns may be similar in a distinct situation, "each individual brain works differently than any other brain." If every brain is different, then the role of a leader is not to dictate learning, but to design environments where every team member can learn best.