Learning is directly linked to career growth. You need to learn lots of information to keep yourself up-to-date in your respective field. Otherwise, you face the danger of becoming outdated in a world where knowledge is so dynamic that it keeps multiplying on a daily basis.

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Mentors play an influential role in promoting work-based learning and skill development whereby mentees enhance efficiency and productivity at work. The role of mentors has become crucial in facilitating individual learning and skill development. On the other hand, mentoring can help mentors reinforce or, in fact, double their knowledge base. It boosts their self esteem and gives them increased job satisfaction. Mentoring has benefits for everybody.

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Learning is the art of acquiring new knowledge & skills to enhance our overall development. The process of continuous learning keeps our mind up-to-date and also enriches the quality of our life. Retaining what we learn is quite important in our everyday life as it helps us to be effective at our work place in yielding desired results and outcomes.

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Thinking is as integral to human life as breathing. Thought patterns influence every aspect of life ranging from attitudes, expectations, goals and assumptions to interpretations. Thinking styles differ from person to person and impact the entire spectrum of life right from the personal and interpersonal to the societal.

When thinking styles match, it results in improved communication. Understanding peoples’ learning styles within a framework of understanding thinking styles can make inroads into better communication patterns.

Building rapport is the core of determining five known thinking styles. It is undoubtedly the key to improving communication, building influence and creating trust. The common thinking styles are:

• Rationalism: People who subscribe to this style are intellectual, quantitative, problem-solvers and balanced. Their thinking is both direct and logical.
• Creative: This style of thinking yields conceptual thinkers who are flexible, curious, spontaneous, risk-taking and open-minded. Generally innovators and they tend to think strategically.
• Analysis: Analytical thinkers are practical planners, structured and industrious. They are often determined.
• Pragmatism: Pragmatic people also have traits that are synergistic, expressive and cooperative. They are generally friendly and kindhearted in nature. They respect other people’s feelings and work as very good negotiators.
• Realism: Realists are those who want to know as briefly as possible where the problem lies and how it can be fixed instead of reading reams of printouts and detailed information on the problem.

Once you are able to determine the thinking style of your colleague, customer, client, business partner or boss, it is easier to handle work situations effectively. While one or two thinking styles are predominantly used by most people, there are a sizeable chunk of people who use all five styles equally. Such people are generally easy to work with.

Understanding different thinking styles and being able to find common ground can have a lot of advantages—whether you are a manager, boss, colleague, team member or customer. The effect can be catalytic and can bring about cross-functional changes, while also providing people with a vocabulary that allows for candid discussions of differences in opinions and ideas. This, in turn, is the path that leads to building a foundation of mutual respect and cooperative interaction among colleagues.

Team work can be positively impacted by one’s ability to identify, understand, appreciate and explore patterns of thinking different from their own. Examine contrasting perspectives and target the ones at work in different roles or functions. Being able to clearly understand and identify thinking styles can gear up team members with effective communication skills for both the team and customers. Better ways to design project groups that are functional and efficient and work conceptually will gradually lead to innovation, improved performance and better results.

Do share your thoughts on the same.

This month’s Big Question in The Learning Circuits “WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT LEARNING IN 2009?”

Being a Learning and Training professional, I think it a good time to take stock about our own learning about learning. Reminds me of the adage, “Physician, heal thyself”.

It is in this year that I started to participate in various online forums and social media regularly. I also started to blog on learning and training with special emphasis on learning styles and learning tools.

Year 2009 taught me that you can learn a lot by:

• Asking the right questions
• Keeping your ego at subsistence levels
• Realizing that there is so much to learn from others

I discovered that humility is the best friend of learning. Maybe that is why we learn the most, in the shortest possible time, enjoying every minute of it, when we were children. Children instinctively follow all the three of my discoveries constantly. On the other hand, I have also discovered that our ego is the greatest enemy of learning. Maybe that is why our real learning drops as we become more accomplished in life (in our own eyes).

I have also learnt what Stephen Covey enunciates – you will learn best when you learn in order to teach or teach. Not only have I learnt that I have greatly learnt by using this quality of learning, but also realized that I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process.

The third learning I have learnt about learning is that it happens when you suspend the noise in your head. I always wondered how the great sages achieved ‘nirvana’ (enlightenment) by meditation. Not by reading or discussing, but by keeping silent in the real sense of the word – achieving tranquility outside and inside, though for a short time. I have read somewhere that the human mind contains all the wisdom of this universe and all you have to do is to connect yourself with the ‘Higher Power’ to tap into it. [I think that it is an excellent idea to include a brief period of silence and contemplation in a corporate training session ]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank and salute all my colleagues, real and virtual, in helping me discover these wonderful aspects of learning!

RK Prasad

CEO