As a leader in any organization or business, one of your greatest challenges is figuring out how to help your people learn and grow so that they will be more effective and add to your bottom line. The problem is that our own experience and education does not prepare us for the modern world of adult learning. The examples we saw in high school and maybe even in college don't really apply integral world where we have to compete with the job, stress, families, leisure time in order to make a difference in our people's lives. What can a manager do to solve this problem?
Fortunately, there is plenty of excellent research in the area of adult learning that can be put to immediate use by practical manager. Although they're a many different theories there is some common principles upon which they all agree, by focusing on these core principles you will definitely be able to help yourself and your people learn and grow and move along the path to success.
The mainstream theory tells us that adult learning is based on the following principles:
1.Reciprocity: this means that there's a direct link between the learning and the students goals.
2.Experience: adults look for practical evidence that what you're teaching has real value in their world.
3.Problem-solving orientation: let's face it, most of our work in the real world involves solving practical, difficult problems. To be successful we need to know how to solve these. If you can show them the way that all you have to do is get out of their way and they will learn.
4. Individualized and self directed: people have their own strengths and their own preferred ways of learning and you need to find ways to tap into that individuality and let them work at their own pace. If you can do that they'll take care of most of the learning themselves.
5. Integrates learning and living: you need to be sensitive to the competing demands your students have. By accommodating their needs and working with them you'll find that this will increase their commitment to the education you offer an improved their chances for success.
6.Application: book learning will only carry you so far. What you're adult students are looking for are practical ways to solve hands-on problems and so each of your educational sessions should include technical problems and give them a chance to work out their solutions in a controlled, supportive setting.
By finding creative ways to leverage these principles, you will be able to develop education and training programs that are well-suited for your adult workers and learners to develop themselves with your support. As a manager your people will be immediately more productive and loyal to you and your business. This will add directly to your bottom line. As an individual adult learner yourself, you can evaluate different programs using these principles to determine which one is best suited for you and your needs.
Ken Long, Chief of Research, Tortoise Capital Management http://www.tortoisecapital.com
Adding value through independent research, combining technical analysis and human behavioral psychology
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