A New Way to Learn

As I am about to start with 2nd Innings of my blog: A Thinking Mind, which I hope was well received among all of you in the last season, new possibilities and responsibilities have been seen and experienced by my soul in the span between end of last innings and afresh in front of us.

To start with it is always something new which is welcomed across the globe, be it then good or bad. Like a child newly born will be welcomed across all the religions, cultures, rituals, and whatever present under the sun, but, the same child over a period of years will be judged by globe based on the thoughts and actions carried over by the very mind, heart, and shoulders of the same child.

So, for a new start, was just thinking of the way, by which, over the period of years we are made to ingrain thought process, and which build up our actions to shape the world around us and in overall totality.

It was a fine afternoon sometime in 2011, when I was nearing the end of my academic career in Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, had a very good conversation with one of my very close friends: Bharat Pande, on the various ways implemented by us to learn every other day through our experiences.

Did I say: Nearing the end of my academic career? Yes, then I made a mistake.

Grace Llewellyn, an Educator, Author, and Publisher, says: Your life, time, and brain should belong to you, not to an institution.

This I personally feel applies to every one of you reading this blog, and to everyone else to whom I am unable to reach through my blog, cause of my limitations of not knowing the whole world. So, if all the 3 elements mentioned above belong to you, then why after passing out from an institution we are unable to grasp new things and unearth new knowledge from the old database.

For 1st part of learning new things, I feel relates mostly to the Attitude of a person, which determines the readiness to learn.

For 2nd part of unearthing new knowledge from the old database, this relates to thinking out of the box or having a new perspective for the same old thing learnt. This requires quite a lot effort, as it involves brain storming to understand something new from the one which we feel is ingrained in our thought process, and nothing else is required to be learned from the same.

In one of the articles, Learn How to Think Different(ly), on my favorite blog: Harvard Business Review, Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen effectively reason this ability of ours lacking to innovate:

If thinking different can make such a positive difference, why don't more people spend more time doing it? Researchers at Harvard Medical School opened our eyes to one compelling answer. Sixty to eighty percent of adults find the task of thinking different uncomfortable and some even find it exhausting. When adults must connect the unconnected through associational thinking, it wears them out. Why? Because most adults have lost the skills they once had (just watch almost every four-year old who relishes the chance to think different. And all of us were once four-year olds). We don't lose this skill because genetic coding automatically shuts it down on our twenty-first birthday. Instead, most of us grew up in a world where thinking different was punished instead of praised (at home or school). So while roughly one-third of anyone's innovation capacity comes from their genetic endowment, two-thirds of it is still driven by the environment.

*http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/begin_to_think_differently.html

Going back to that wonderful afternoon in Room No. 433 at Nalanda Boy’s Hostel, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, after refreshing myself with intellectual ability and oratory skills of Bharat, I was pondering upon a video which we saw during the discussion.

Nothing special as such this video was of. It showed the same age old story of: Hare and Tortoise, with same old moral: Slow and Steady Wins the Race. And I think it is the only way we are learning and will be teaching again to our next generation.

But, wait a minute. This moral is from the perspective of: Tortoise. Did we ever give it a point to think about the moral, which can be relevant in today’s competitive world, from the little sweet Rabbit’s point of view? The one which I came up with was something like this, and felt like sharing the same with all of you:

Don’t let yourself grip into the fancies of Rest/Leisure/Lethargic until and unless you achieve your goal/dream of life. Have No Mediocrity in your dream quest. Be Passionate, Sincere about the goal. Have Perseverance, Patience for until and unless it is achieved as per your own desire.

Alvin Toffler, a Writer, and Futurist, says: The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but, those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

So, it is this unlearning and relearning part which seems to be a herculean task.

I sincerely feel if we want to feel great and proud about ourselves, which is a natural human tendency for every human being, then this thought of legendary Chinese Teacher, Editor, Politician, and Philosopher: Confucius would be of great help:

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

It is this noble cause of Reflection which can make us realize the potential residing inside us to think over the wisdom learned over past decades, and reinventing the same for renewed learning.

To have an another example of different knowledge extracted from the same old age story, let us get back to the one which over and over again imbibes in us the moral of: United We Stand, Divided We Fall. The story of: Farmer and His Sons, whom he teaches the moral by demonstration of Sticks.

I read this part given further in one of the calendar’s, which was presented by one of our distributor’s to the company where I am currently working, which has to be delivered without any dilution of the message:

A father had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring a faggot of sticks and ordered them to break it in pieces. They all tried with all their strengths, one by one and were not able to do it. The father then opened the faggot and took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his son’s hands, upon which they broke them easily.

The moral conveyed was to remain united like faggot and unity would be their strength.

But the inspiration derived is:

Nothing is particularly hard, if you divide it into small parts.

People, who get into trouble most often, are the ones, who are overwhelmed by the sheer size of their tasks/troubles, and then falter at the solving. When you face with huge tasks or lot of problems, never try (to do or solve) all at once in one go. Make them line-up one-by-one and then do and solve the one you are working on, before moving on the next one.

Use divide and conquer method to get big jobs done by breaking them to ‘bites’.

This Divide and Rule strategy we Indians are quite familiar with from our lessons of history, wherein English ruled us for over 100 years. So, why not learn the same for better purpose of: Dividing our insurmountable tasks of Professional as well as Personal Life.

To end this very First Post of 2nd Innings would like to refer over here Father of Management, and my personal God of Management Studies: Peter F Drucker

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”

And to make all of our fancy Diplomas/Graduation/Post Graduation Studies seem of very little value, would like to give a very inspirational quote by, Eartha Kitt, Singer, Actress, and Cabaret Star:

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”