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I started my professional career as a manual software tester. The role was challenging and I was learning every day. But when I looked to the future, I was fearful. Technology was advancing quickly and this role was at risk of becoming automated away. I decided that to stay relevant I needed to learn a new skill, software development.
Peers would say that it took them decades to learn this skill. I didn't have decades. So I researched ways to learn quickly. Through this, I discovered Tim Ferris who famously learned Japanese from martial arts instruction manuals. I found tricks and techniques that soon accelerated my skills beyond peers. This success started my passion for learning how to learn.
I believe the ability to learn is a leadership superpower.
The best leaders are learners. If you not improving your ability to learn you are quickly becoming irrelevant.
This week I read Super Learning by Peter Hollins.
It highlights how many people adopt poor learning techniques. Most of what we learn is forgotten within days.
I learned 5 new techniques to accelerate my learning:
- Practice testing
- Distributed practice
- Elaborative interrogation
- Self-explanation
- Interleaved practice
This summary shares more about each of these techniques.
I have used these 5 techniques to design Advice Detox, a 5-day program that helps you learn to coach quickly. For example, a small daily challenge distributes your learning over time. You'll learn better than spending 1hr watching a webinar.
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