The 2020 Calendar in a bag – January, February, Covid-19, December or is it Covidy-December? The year was undoubtedly tough for everyone. Yes, we know some people got lucky, some businesses made more money than they usually did, but on a general note, this year swept us all off our feet.
With every drastic turn of events comes change – a change we are forced to accept and evolve into because one way or the other nothing will wait for us to adapt.
Some say the change is over, and some say it is just beginning, as we went from the pandemic phase to the new normal. From working at the office to working from home. From choosing to ease back into work to choosing to stay home and make it work. From learning in class to learning at home, and from doing things the way we scripted to making things happen the best we could.
It is the end of a very long year, and while we have memories, memes, and methods we may have picked up, any reasonable individual, team or business will sit back and think of what exactly they have learned this year. Knowing is just one thing; we are aiming much higher than that, so let us go to a well-known learning theory for a little understanding.
Blooms Taxonomy draws attention to the processes we experience in learning and helps us see where the intriguing spot of learning any concept is. In just a few stages, the advancement of knowledge is simplified.
The first step is to remember. That is not so difficult when we think of what we’ve been through right? We can recall events, list things, identify how it affected the different aspects of life and work. We all remember; but is it enough to do anything differently? Perhaps not. So, let us take our learning a notch up.
We can try to understand. Understand how we adapted and why we did when we did. We can clarify areas that did not make much sense, and we can think through the processes we adopted again. This does help take the fog away, but also it still does not feel like we are there.
Take it even further and apply. Let us use what we remember and understand a variety of situations. Apply the concepts to deeper aspects of your business you did not consider and strategies to opportunities your business may have missed.
It should be getting hotter in the room – if it is not getting tougher on your team at this stage, something is wrong. Plus we are not even there yet. When you can start to apply the principles you have picked, you’re ready to analyse. Here you are selecting the best, differentiating highs and lows, integrating concepts and deconstructing biases.
Right after this, you will need to evaluate all your actions and judge its efficiency. If you go through this, then you are ready to Create. You are ready to take everything that happened this year and form a coherent whole. You are ready to create a new pattern or structure for your business, and you are ready to leap forward in the new year.
Learning is not just about courses and competencies in subject areas. It is an internalised process, a state of consciousness and a determined effort to stay relevant. Sometimes businesses put learning in a little cubicle, and their strategy sessions are for “thinking” not learning, but I am certain 2020 has taught us all to unlearn and forced us to learn.
A lot of people feel things may go back to the way they were, but should they? Can you take your business forward, reposition and lead with something you learned this year? Can you take learning, to a whole new dimension for your business; and are you confident enough to dance through the holidays knowing you are ready to win?
Here are a few things to help. First, do not think of the year as an accident. Leverage the power of hindsight which is a vital tool in learning and development that uses opportunities to create insight. Second, your business is the best case-study you have. Use your company to tell a story and let your solution start from within. Finally, do not leave learning in the back seat. This year, learning was the most crucial thing in your survival kit, so do not stop now and be sure to start early in the new year so that you can stay on top!
Happy holidays.
Written by:
Feranmi Owolabi-Okojie
Senior Consultant
