What a timely blog by Seth Godin! Coming on the heels of my blog post yesterday comes his piece on learning vs. doing. What a difference there is.
If you read my post from yesterday, you’ll see where I call out the difference between checking the boxes of a change management program versus what it takes to actually enact change. This is it!
Education is necessary. It provides us with the knowledge we need to be able to perform our function. But learning comes by doing. We have to take that education, apply it and then assess and LEARN from what we did. This is what makes it stick. And, it’s that assessment that helps us understand where we need to course correct from past experiences and where there are new opportunities for creativity (art) to do something even better.
I’m a big fan of Prosci, and more specifically their Change Management practitioner training. But going to training and getting certified does not make one a proficient change manager (contrary to what many seem to think). It’s a great first step and it may credentialize a person that they have the tools, but it’s what we do with those tools that makes a difference.
This is also a reason I’ve always been a fan of performance evaluations. Yes, they are usually a pain to do, on top of everything else we have to do. But, it’s where learning takes place! We intentionally take time to pause, step back and assess. What went well? What didn’t? What could we do differently? The more seriously we take these and the more time and thought we invest, the more we get out of them. I’ve always been a proponent that we learn more on the job than in any classroom.
So, let’s be sure not to confuse education with learning. Moreover, let’s be intentional about learning by doing. When you start that project, identify where you want to grow and then seek out opportunities to do that. After a project, take a moment to step back and assess. You’ll be glad you did.