Nonprofit Congress
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Elizabeth
Ann
Audrey
Tim
bethaldrich
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Flickr photo: pbo31
Michele Martin, one of my favorite bloggers, is hosting the Working/Learning Carnival over at her dojo, the Bamboo Project Blog. She left the topic for this month’s carnival pretty open with the suggestion that people discuss how they “keep learning at work…How do you keep challenging yourself to learn? What do you do if you hit a sort of learning lull?” It’s a great topic and one that I’ve been interested in for a while as I continue to advance in my nonprofit career. In the last couple of years, I’ve found a couple of tools and actions that motivate me to learn on a consistent basis as well as some things that have forcibly kicked me in the pants to learn.
Social media and blogs in particular have really helped me to learn on a day to day basis ever since I ‘discovered’ them a couple of years ago. I love to read just about anything, so discovering that I could read articles and opinions on just about any topic on the internet, any time of day was great (yes, I know I came to the party a little bit late…I missed the technology revolution by virtue of being born a couple years too early and not having access to computers at home). As I’ve shifted job roles and responsibilities, I’ve continued to update my feeds and access a continual stream of knowledge that often helps in my work. It also sparks a desire to learn more as well as great conversations on- and off-line.
I also try to be proactive about learning by continually taking on new tasks in the office. This is certainly a scarier proposition than reading blogs: there is always a chance for failure or at least looking like a dork in front of your colleagues. However, you can learn more and much faster by looking for those ‘stretch assignments‘. In our small office in particular, it’s easy to find new and different things to do: develop a budget, set up an action alert, edit the website, fix the copier, etc. Plus, once you take on something, you become the ‘expert’ in it; of course, that means that you’re then responsible for seeing that task gets done, but people also come to you for your knowledge and insights.
I’ll be completely honest: one of the main reasons I like to learn is the ego factor, plain and simple. I like to know more than other people and I like it when they come to me to ask questions. If that makes me selfish, so be it – it also keeps me employed. So when no one is coming to me with questions and I’m not able to offer any insight to a conversation (translation: when I’m no longer learning or there is nothing left to learn), I know it‘s time to go. Of course, that realization and the subsequent job search can take many months and leave you feeling very vulnerable, which is why it’s so painful; see my comment above regarding kicks in the pants.
After a couple of those situations, I’ve become more adept at continually reevaluating myself to make sure I’m still gaining skills and contributing to the work. I don’t want to waste my time or my employer’s if there is nothing more than I can learn or give back to my work. That is why I’m happy to report that after almost a year and a half at NCNA, the learning, movin’, and shakin’ continues. I intend to keep that trend going.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: leadership
Elisa: glad to have you as part of this month’s carnival.
You may be right about the ego factor, though learning may just be a passion. That’s not all that new — when Chaucer described the clerk from Oxford, six hundred years ago, it was by saying, “Gladly wold he lerne, and gladly teche.”
Learning does involve getting out of the completely comfortable, as you suggest, and probably involves being willing to abandon old frameworks for new. I used to say I wouldn’t have a blog because I don’t have a Great Thought of the week, let alone of the day.
But then I created two blogs for personal interests within a month of each other. More to the point, I listened to what Harold Jarche was saying on his own blog, and decided that I’d have a professional one just do do some thinking out loud.
Sure, I like have exchanges with people, but the goal of trying to make a post each day on my whiteboard nudges me toward active reading and reflecting. What catches my attention? why do I think it does? Where might I go with that?
Sort of like the advice from the pre-blogger, Hillel (probably you’ve seen it in more than one place in the nonprofit world):
If not for myself, who is for me?
If for myself alone, who am I?
If not now, when?
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your comment.
I think you’re right that learning is sometimes just a passion. I do have a passion for learning and thankfully, the ego part feeds into that passion and vice versa. I have to admit though, that passion hasn’t yet been strong enough to lead me back to structured higher education. I guess for now I’m content to learn on my own.
Your point about ‘thinking out loud’ is one of the reasons I love blogs and blogging so much – both as a writer and a reader/commenter. It is endlessly fascinating to ‘watch’ the wheels turning in someone’s head as they work through a tough question. Of course, its also a great way to learn.
Elisa
[...] Learning to learn at work [...]
I could not agree with you more. Building a habit of learning is one of the stepping stones this nation can take to solving many of the social, educational and economic issues facing the country.
Focusing learning on certain issues is a role of intermediaries. If we create knowledge hubs, like the Non Profit Congress site, we can point learners to information and networks that others have created, making it easier to find information, and people who will help put that information to use.
I focus on volunteer-based tutoring and mentoring thus the information at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com and http://www.tutormentorconnection.org is knowledge anyone can use to build their own understanding and involvement in these types of programs.
The links on my site point to other knowledge hubs related to the issues I focus on, thus as people browse the T/MC site they find links to education blogs, fund raising blogs, and workforce development web sites.
This is a journey, not a race. Thus the longer someone spends learning from this information (years, not days), the more they know and the more they become a resource for others.
I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, so have accumulated much information along the way that I put to work in my own efforts. If we can help kids and adults build similar habits, it can be a benefit to all.