9 Ways to Support your Learning at Work

9 Ways to Support your Learning at Work

We all want to be more effective at work right? So how can we do it? One of the best methods is to implement different learning strategies. This makes you a more effective problem solver, helps you to be malleable when it comes to solutions and so much more. Lets have a quick look at some of the ways we can learn at work.

Mentoring

How can mentoring help you learn? Mentoring can help develop leadership skills. Mentoring help to develop your strengths further and address your weaknesses. Mentoring provides you with someone who you can discuss difficult decisions with, and who has experience. Mentoring helps you to connect with a wider range of people and helps you to develop your interpersonal skills.

Role Models

Having an individual to look up to, to base some decisions off and someone to strive up to can only be a good thing. It helps to motivate your learning and development. Good role models influence and motivate us. They are a guide for self-improvement.

Best Practice Learning Strategies

Back to school with this one. What are the most effective practices to utilize when trying to learn? Here’s the low-down:

• Chunk - Break down the learning material into chunks. This makes the material more manageable.
• Taking Breaks - Experts suggest that attention span and concentration last around 45 minutes. Thus take short breaks around the 45 – 60 minute mark, to optimize learning.
• Context Dependent Learning - The best way to learn and remember things is to try and keep the context at time of learning and repetition similar.
• Attention - Try and reduce distractions so you can boost focus.
• Spacing - Break up your practice. Don’t try and learn it all in one block. This isn’t as effective as breaking the learning and placing breaks/spaces between learning phases.
• Multi-faceted approach - Mix up your techniques, material, learning approach and more, to get a balanced strategy when learning.

Emotional Tying

Try and find good emotional reasoning as to why you want to learn. Ask yourself what will it do for you? Why is it needed? Is this the best time for it?

Making Use of your Procrastination Time

What do you do in your procrastination time? Can you mix it up? Can you give some of this time to your new learning? Every little counts, especially when it comes to learning your new skill or knowledge.

Habituate Learning

Integrate your learning into your daily routine. Set realistic aims regularly for your learning. Once acquiring the skill, keep it, and move onto find another skill. Keep on developing and improving. Keep on moving forward.

Stretch Assignments

Every so often its good to stretch yourself. Go beyond your capabilities. A stretch assignment is a task given to employees which is above their experience, knowledge or skill level. It challenges employees by making them uncomfortable. It helps employees to learn, develop and grow. You don’t have to wait for your employers to give you a stretch assignment, stretch yourself!

Ask Questions

‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get’. Ask questions, absorb knowledge. You’re not going to develop unless you ask questions. You’re not going to improve without asking for help. Don’t be afraid of asking silly questions, they all help.

Establish Support Pillars

Find a support pillar. You need someone to get advice from, someone to share your concerns with and someone who has been through it all. They will be the perfect support and mentor for you when learning. Build a good relationship with your pillar and they’ll be there for life.

Do you recognise any of the ways that you learn above? Are there strategies you didn’t think of? Strategies that you are surprised to hear about? Strategies you might consider using? Whatever the answer to these questions it is always useful to know of the different methods used by people. Consider using these strategies in different situations to see if there effective for you.