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AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Becoming a More Versatile Learner
IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS
Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.
| LEAD CONTRIBUTOR | Maxine A. Dalton |
| CONTRIBUTORS | Kerry Bunker |
| Silvia Swigert | |
| Michael A. Wakefield | |
| Amy Webb | |
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS | Martin Wilcox |
| EDITOR | Marcia Horowitz |
| WRITERS | Marcia Horowitz |
| Tom Kealey | |
| Martin Wilcox | |
| TEXT DESIGN AND LAYOUT | Joanne Ferguson |
| COVER DESIGN | Chris Wilson, 29 & Company |
| CONTRIBUTING ARTIST | Laura J. Gibson |
Copyright © 1998 Center for Creative Leadership.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
CCL No. 402
ISBN-13: 978-1-882197-38-5
ISBN-10: 1-882197-38-0
CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Becoming a More Versatile Learner
Maxine A. Dalton
THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated in the course of more than thirty years of research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.
Table of Contents
The Four Sets of Learning Tactics
What Are Your Preferred Learning Tactics?
Benefits and Problems with Your Preferred Tactics
Becoming a More Versatile Learner
Conclusion: Setting a Learning Strategy
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Almost all managers regard job experiences and the lessons they provide essential for their development as leaders. But not all of those managers are successful at learning those lessons. That difficulty is often related to a manager’s relying too much on one preferred learning tactic—a tactic that might not be suited for gleaning the lessons of a particular job experience. By increasing the number of learning tactics and becoming a more versatile learner, managers can better position themselves to take advantage of the lessons that job experiences offer and contribute to their leadership development.
Introduction
Because learning from job experiences is essential for your development as a manager, you should understand three principles of managerial learning:
• You learn the most, in fact it is likely that you only learn, from experiences that are challenging. Some managers uncomfortable with any situation that they are not on top of immediately avoid challenges, thus missing even the opportunity to learn.
• You learn the most if, when facing challenges, you employ a variety of behaviors, or learning tactics. Some managers, although perfectly willing to take on challenging experiences, use only comfortable, tried-and-true tactics, thus severely limiting their ability to learn from these experiences.
• You learn the most when you have a strategy that coordinates what you want to learn with the challenges that are likely to teach those lessons, and with the tactics that enable learning.
Increasing the number of learning tactics that you use—becoming a more versatile learner—is therefore a fundamental development task. This guidebook will help you accomplish this, and in doing so it will position you to set a learning strategy that will contribute to your continued managerial development.
The Four Sets of Learning Tactics
There are four sets of learning tactics that managers can use when facing a challenging experience: feeling,