Evergreen Leadership Blog

Learning

Student or Learner: What About Learning Agility?

Today I share a blog written in response to my blog asking if you were a student or a learner. Dave Hoff, co-author of Learning Agility: The Key to Leadership Potential and COO/EVP of EASI Consult.

Here’s a sneak peek at Dave Hoff’s blog:

My colleague Kris’ last blog posed the question, “Are you a student or a learner?” From my perspective, the answer could lie with your development of learning agility.

One of the specialties of my consulting firm is learning agility.  We define learning agility as finding yourself in a situation that you have never been in before and don’t know what to do but then you figure it out. Regarding learner versus student, I’d say that learning agility is probably more characteristic of a learner than it is of a student.

I want to step back, though, and first describe some aspects of learning agility, partially within the context of Kris’ earlier blog. 

Keep reading to learn more!

Read More »
Learning

Reframing – “Fix Your Face”

Two women leaders recently shared a wonderful story to me that struck at a basic truth. Here is how the story unfolded.

Michelle was commanded (not asked, but told) to participate in a developmental program that required her to be out of her regular work for a day and a half. Her coworker, Kenya, also was asked to participate in the same program; albeit in a more inviting way.

Michelle’s first response was negative. She was angry. She was frustrated. She vented to Kenya about how annoying, unjust and terrible this whole thing was. Kenya’s first response was different. She was curious. What was this program about? How might it help her?

So when Michelle’s email came to Kenya, with all the disbelief and complaining and frustration, Kenya presented Michelle with very sage advice in three short words: Fix Your Face.

Keep reading to learn more about the story of Michelle and Kenya, reframing a situation, and how to “fix your face”.

Read More »
Learning

5 Criteria to Evaluate Your Training and Development Investment

Spending your training and development money well is important. Invest it well and people grow and thrive, as does your organization.

But here’s the hard truth- your investment can be wasted if retention is low and learning transfer is even lower.

That’s why I’ve created five criteria to evaluate your training and development programs that are important whether you develop your workforce from the inside or hire outside experts. Programs that meet this criteria will be good investments and will increase learned skills; programs that don’t aren’t worth your valuable time and energy.

Read More »
Learning

Share a Story this Thanksgiving

As you gather across the generations this Thanksgiving, I encourage you to share stories as well as a meal. Share them, celebrate them, and save them. We all have a life story – and the longer we live, the richer the story. Far too often in our fast-paced, media-driven world, the most meaningful stories can get lost. It is an act of affirmation to be asked to share our story. It is an act of love to listen. When we ask and then listen – we not only affirm, we learn. We enrich our family history. We understand our families, ourselves, and our world, in a new and more balanced way.

National Public Radio (NPR) has created the perfect way for you to capture the stories of those around you. Using their StoryCorps platform, they have issued a challenge: to collect 120,000 stories over the Thanksgiving weekend. Their goal: To create an archive containing the single largest collection of human voices ever gathered.

Read More »
Learning

The Skill of Unlearning

I am writing this post from southern California – where in the midst of a 4 year drought, residents are unlearning that green lawns are good, water is unlimited and abundant, and irrigation can enable non-local plants to grow. They are filling that space with the learning that water is precious and scarce, that native plants are well suited for the local ecosystem and are drought hardy, and they have a beauty as well.

What (else) might we need to unlearn, and how does one unlearn? I’ll explain…

Read More »
Challenges

The Need to Read: 5 Tips to Read More, Better, Faster

Today’s post is written for both avid readers and those averse to reading. These tips will help those with towering stacks of books just waiting to be read sort out the “must read” from the “should toss”. And for those infrequent readers, the first three tips will allow you to spend minimal time with maximum payoff.

Read More »

Stay up-to-date on the latest Evergreen news.

Fill out the form to receive the Evergreen Leadership newsletter and be notified about new blogs.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Categories
Evergreen Leadership