Work is learning and learning is the work
– Jarche Harold (June 17th, 2012)
When did learning become the work?
This is the network age. Our workplaces, economies and societies are becoming highly networked. The transmission of ideas can be instantaneous. There is no time to pause, go into the back room, and then develop something to address our learning needs. The problem will have changed by then. We need to learn as we work.
Established practices work when the environment is simple. For complex problems (where the relationship between cause and effect can only be seen after the fact) there are no easy answers. We need to engage with the problem and learn by probing. This requires a completely different mind-set from training for defined problems and measurable outcomes. The integration of learning and work is not some ideal, it is a necessity in a complex world.
How to make learning the work?
Businesses need to adapt to life in perpetual Beta. Not just rapid change, but continual change, requires practices that evolve as they are developed. Here is how it all relates:
- Our world is getting more complex as everything gets connected.
- Complex problems require more implicit knowledge for resolution.
- Implicit knowledge can only be shared through conversations and observation.
- Collaborative and distributed work is the norm.
- Knowledge-sharing and narration of work make implicit knowledge more visible.
- Transparent work processes foster innovation.
- Learning is part of work, not separate from it.
Taking care of business means taking care of learning. If learning is everywhere, it should definitely be where the work is getting done.
Around the world, co-working spaces are emerging as the new learning centres. One of the highlights of co-working is the incredible source of knowledge that represents diverse groups of freelancers, remote workers, and other independent professionals working together in a shared communal setting. We might see in future colleges and universities collaborating with co-working spaces or be replaced by them.
Reproduced by permission of Harold Jarche
copyright (c) 2012, Harold Jarche, Work is learning and learning is the work
Our perspective
The agenda for school education is loud and clear – make students lifelong learners!
Learning makes us more interesting. Knowledge enables a different perspective, fascinating conversation and a deeper understanding. It makes us better people; allows us to make better, informed decisions; and assists us in becoming more successful in our careers. In fact, learning makes humans unique as all other life forms come with intelligence bestowed only by genes and remain limited in their abilities, but it’s only humans who have the propensity to learn throughout their lifetime and stretch their abilities to the limitless. Studies have also shown that learning and challenging your brain is a good bet against degenerative diseases and keeps you healthy with age.
Living in the knowledge age means that the ability to apply the right knowledge effectively is an important skill and the cornerstone of success. The new technologies, the pace of technological changes and globalisation makes it imperative to constantly upgrade our skills, knowledge attitudes, behaviours and competencies to stay current in the workplace.
Change is the new constant because we are witnessing unprecedented changes around us in every sphere of our life -social, economic, technological! Learning to adapt is the most important of the survival kits. And learning to learn, while at school, is the crux of what education is all about; it isn’t anymore about what you know but what you can know in the next hour, day, week, month (and there won’t be lot more time to learn new things).
Professional life – careers as employees or as entrepreneurs – will be defined by the ability to learn; work = learning! While you may not be able to know what will be the dominant market forces tomorrow, prepare yourself to be the best learner and you will thrive!
Although on-the-job training is offered by many companies, learning in the knowledge age will not be led by companies but workers will need to learn, seek opportunities, use available resources wisely, and find new resources on their own. Especially, with automation, robots and AI entering into the workplace and replacing human work, the workforce of tomorrow will continually need to keep learning to keep themselves ahead of the competing machines. They will need to be smarter than the computers.
Gazing through the crystal ball
- Be an independent learner (self-learner)
- Command over the ‘two languages’ – math (the language of logic and reasoning) and the language of communication (language of thinking) – is an absolute must to be an independent learner
- Process lifecycles are rapidly shrinking due to continuous innovation across process chains; identifying and defining the change imperatives is becoming critical in organisations. Self-learners hold future of organisations – small as much as large.
- Increasing proportion of personnel in organisations will have to work on managing change; learning will be the significant part of work. Only the best of the self-learners will grow in organisations.
- Not all learning for the job can be completely independent (i.e. self-learnt), learning for work would also mean extensively using the ever enriching resources on the web; get on with cataloguing your preferred learning resources
