A Sustainable Christmas No 3: The Gift of Life-Long Learning
Last year a book that caught my eye was published by my old colleagues at London Business School: The 100 Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. It drew attention to a fundamental shift in life patterns from how we lived in the 20th century to how we are likely to live in the future.
A key tenet of the book was the understanding that where once we lived life in 3 distinct phases — Education, Career, Retirement —human longevity and social changes now mean we are far more likely to relive this cycle more than once in a single lifetime. Possible two or three different times.
That has changed the idea of education from an early-life to a life-long activity. The degree we once studied or the Masters we attained is no longer likely to supply sufficient knowledge for a lifetime of change.
Life-long learning has become the new black in many ways. I love learning. I can never get enough new knowledge — sometimes to the point where I can seem random in my constant quest to learn new things. Two of the best things that happened to me in my life were my brush with advanced lymphoma and subsequent depression — because both opened up a window of opportunity to stop work and absorb myself in new learning after years of running to keep up with my consultancy work. I now have regular learning opportunities built into my life and I would never give them up.
So this Christmas, why not give yourself or whoever you love a gift that is about learning something new? So many people made learning suggestions for gifts it’s almost impossible to name everyone. So instead let me try to categorise some of the most important areas you mentioned.
The Gift of Personal Development
Raising the level of consciousness all around the world has never been more important. Personal development is never easy; in fact sometimes it’s a real slog. But I’ve always found it’s worth taking that next step to see where a new leap in development can take you. Here are just a few opportunities you might want to think about:-
Creative Meditation with Sundial House. I started this three years ago. I was nowhere near ready to go this deep into spiritual and psychological development that this fantastic distance learning course offered. I had only a little experience in mindfulness meditation and didn’t have the boundaries in place to manage the opening that creative meditation offers. If you’re ready to take a new step in your meditation practice, this is worth investigation. It is utterly brilliant. It is distance learning, there’s no personal contact and that’s not for everyone — I found it difficult — but this course is very rich in experience. New intake is from December 22nd for a 12 month period so apply soon.
Conscious Leadership with Sandja Brugmann: I first met Sandja at Sustainable Brands Copenhagen when we were both speaking there. Sandja is a delightful person who works as a conscious coach to many business leaders, and is incredibly knowledgeable about the transitions we go through when undergoing personal development and change. If you want to develop your personal capacity to lead conscious change, Sandja has a great online course which would be a super gift to receive. Yes please!
Mindfulness Meditation: I find it hard to believe that there is anyone in the world who hasn’t heard of Headspace. Headspace is the most brilliant way to get into mindfulness meditation. It’s cost-effective, it’s easy and it works. It’s the first doorway to awareness which is so important in creating positive change. Voted for my many of you. Help yourself!
Schumacher College: my own journey to renewal started here with a short course on Economics for Transition. But what grabbed my heart were the endless courses on indigenous wisdom, pathways practice for sustainable innovation, designing for peace, ecoology & spirituality and rewilding. If you get a chance to study here, you will never regret it. If I were not overseas for business I would be on this short course Three Horizons with the awesome Daniel Wahl and Bill Sharpe.
Theory U and U Lab: the ULab Mooc is a joy. It’s super intensive over a 3–4 month period usually from Sept-Dec (that’s now) but people interested in facilitating positive change from all over the world join this experience. It’s completely free but to get the best out of it you have to commit to the intensity and the work. Led by the brilliant Otto Scharmer whose work with change process Theory U is transformative, this was recommended by literally hundreds of people.
The Gift of Creative Learning
One of the key qualities that business leaders kept on repeating to me over and over again that they want to develop inside their organisations and see in their people is creativity. Sadly so much creativity gets squashed out of us in an education system that is designed to drive us into box-ticking exercises. Of course there are some better schools. So this Christmas, why not give yourself or a friend or a family member a gift which activates their creativity. It could be anything! From art to creative thinking!
Here are a few favourite places people have mentioned, and some recommendations from me too:-
West Dean College: set in the beautiful South Downs, West Dean is home to a wide variety of short and longer creative courses. From painting and photography to stained glass design and pottery. From gardening to glass engraving, printmaking to textile design. I’ve been lucky to have several courses bought for me by my sister as Christmas presents and I absolutely love the chance to learn something new and try out my creative artistic side. Even when the end results aren’t fabulous!!
Brambles Art Retreats: Peter Davies and Janet Brady run some amazing painting retreats around the world. Based in beautiful Dartmoor in Devon, they go to Morocco, Japan, Rome, Barcelona, up to Skype in Scotland — all in pursuit of the perfect painting. You can work in all different mediums from oil to watercolour; choose from short courses, individual 1–2–1- support or overseas holidays. Awesome stuff, would so love to be able to capture the colours of Japan at cherry blossom time!
Ty Newydd Creative Writing School: I can’t keep all the recommendations in the South, and this one got several special mentions. We all know that video is the medium that’s currently critical for business communication, but writing well is an art that isn’t going away any time soon. The demand for business books continues to escalate, and fiction is still being devoured across all mediums. So if you’ve always dreamed of writing a book, or there’s a closet Agatha Christie in your family, why not gift yourself the chance.
The Vlog Academy: which, despite all my best efforts I have yet to attend. But lovely Mi Elfverson gets consistent mentions on my Facebook timeline so I reckon she deserves a mention here. If you want to learn how to use video in your communications or even if you just want to master Facebook Live, Mi is your first port of call.
Dance Baby Dance: one of the best presents I ever received was 10 dance lessons with Anton du Beke of Strictly Come Dancing fame. Maybe I was hoping for Aljaz or Pascha but Anton was a laugh a minute and I can’t begin to describe the joy of finally getting my chosen dance — the paso doble — right. No pictures or video will ever be shared, but I totally treasure the memory and experience of wearing a Strictly costume and strutting my stuff. It was just after intensive chemotherapy, I was 6 stone, only just had tufts of hair coming back but I will never under-estimate again the power of a moment to restore your self confidence or slip into judgement of someone who feels a mere dress is transformative. I can no longer get into it, but occasionally I take it out and stroke it!
The Gift of Learning Together
A few years ago I wouldn’t have said this. But having participated this year in my first ever mastermind group — albeit digital — I can say that the benefits of being in a group of business leaders while you develop your business proposition or go to the next stage, is indescribably helpful. I joined Peter Diamandis’ of Singularity University’s online group and I am without doubt the dumbest person in the room which is 100% the best place to be. I’ve cannot begin to sum up what I’ve learned about exponential tech and exponential moonshot thinking. I’ve also been a mentor on several startup accelerators and I can completely see the value gained by entrepreneurs being able to share the journey with others.
There are too many accelerators, mastermind groups, startup hubs to list. So I will just suggest that if you’re in business on your own, finding a great group to work with — even if you form your own with a group of like-minded others — will be the best Christmas gift you can give yourself. It’s a lonely journey as a business owner so gift yourself some peer support.
The Gift of Systems Thinking
My own really personal recommendation as the most important skill to develop for the future. If you aren’t a natural systems thinker, no problem. We can all learn to see and think inter-connectedly. It’s like anything else, it takes practice and work. Forum for the Future’s new School of Systems Change is a brilliant forward move from their previous Sustainability Masters, and I should probably put in a plug for our own Activating Systems Thinking workshops and courses.
The Gift of Learning Future-Fit Skills
I’ve spent the last 3 years on a new learning quest. Learning from leading CEOs which qualities they think are most relevant for the future. They are Creativity, Curiosity, Self-Discipline, Self-Management, Collaboration, Imagination, Resilience, Empathetic Communications, Purpose, Vision, Collective Leadership, Execution, Comfortable with Uncertainty, The Opportunity Mindset.
To those I would add other skills in key areas: biomimicry — learning from nature; exponential tech — AI, robotics, networks & sensors, exponential computing — because its driving change; consciousness activation — developing consciousness beyond awareness; regenerative business models such as net positive from Forum for the Future and understanding the circular economy through the Ellen Macarthur Foundation.
I wish you many gifts of learning for Christmas 2017 and beyond.
