What's Learning For?

When I work with companies, and talk to them about their processes for designing learning programs, I am met with essentially the same sequence of events -- demand, needs assessment, program design, or outsourcing, and finally, the delivery.

It's reactive.

As a result, learning within organizations is seen solely as a support function, rather than an integral part of running a business. That's why it can so easily get cut when volatility shakes the market.

Learning has become a gap to fill, rather than a possibility to explore.

Jordan Litman's model on curiosity seems to fit into this quite well. Litman's model puts curiosity into two boxes - interest based curiosity (I-type) and deprivation based curiosity (D-type).

🤔 Interest based curiosity is fueled by wonder, fascination and simple enjoyment of learning something new.

😩 Deprivation based curiosity is fueled by lack, scarcity, and feelings of not being/knowing enough.

I am curious how these two types of curiosity and learning impact how much or how well we learn.

A month ago, I went to Berlin for Level 1 Deep Democracy Training, and when we checked in the first day, we responded to the question, "What's the gossip?"
The facilitator's wanted to know what we had already heard about Deep Democracy.

I loved the question.

I also admitted that I didn't know much. For me, the training wasn't even essential to my facilitation work. It was a side-bar. I went out of curiosity and to be with and learn alongside people that I knew and cared about.

It was 100% interest-based and it blew my mind.
Maximum learning potential.

If I had a manager, and they had told me that I needed to work on my conflict resolution skills, which then prompted me to go, I don't think I would have had the same experience.

Which brings me back to this wondering -- can organizations flip their learning model, so rather than be reactive, it's proactive?

Rather than responding to the downstream, could learning by an upstream, essential component of all organizations?

What do you think?

Originally posted on Substack with comments.

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