Learn vs. Study… or What’s Wrong With Conferences?
At this time of the year, when we are more likely to count our blessings and to give thanks than in the other seasons, I’ve suddenly felt how thankful I am for all the learning experiences that have come my way. No matter what, I always find delight in learning and exploring, and my work has never failed to provide opportunities for just that. Learning is interwoven with the challenges that we encounter as professionals. We have to learn, learn, and learn to do our work well.
If we replace “run” with “learn” in the famous quote from Lewis Carrol’s Through The Looking Glass, it describes exactly what we deal with:
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen, “Now, here, you see, it takes all the learning you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must learn at least twice as fast as that!”
Let’s now consider what people normally do to learn — or to educate themselves — as professionals. How do they gauge the mainstream education techniques to their individual needs — or to the needs of their organizations? Well-intentioned higher-ups send employees to conferences believing this is the best thing they can do to help their folks grow professionally. And, have you ever attended a conference or a training event, looking to learn something new, only to find that you’ve spent several days listening to truisms? The positive outcome of such an event might be the feeling that you’re not alone, because you’ve mingled with people who have similar goals and aspirations. However, as I’ve observed, there comes a time — with many conferences under your belt :) — when a conference or a gathering would hardly serve a ready solution to a specific challenge of yours. Here’s the bottomline: we often mistake studying for learning.
How do we discern between studying and learning? Studying usually involves rote memorization, taking in a lecture, or a presentation, and doing abstract assignments. Learning is about polishing the gems of knowledge unearthed while studying. Tailoring those gems to our own needs. The way I see it, our lives represent an on-going cycle of exploring→studying→learning→facing a new challenge… and starting over again ! :)
If we attend too many conferences — which can easily happen since going to conferences is a commonplace perk:) — it might feel as if we are coerced into being perpetual students, not learners. We take in and take in, and… then what? What are our takeaways? What have we learned? How attending this conference helps us in our work? It’s always a good idea to sit down and to reflect in writing on why a conference you’ve just attended was interesting, or dull. If you’re disappointed, why? Have you felt like a perpetual student, like a passive observer? As we externalize our impressions in writing, something magical can happen: we might acquire a new perspective and see that we’ve actually learned something from a conference (and not only sat in there for 3 days, clapping and subjecting ourselves to gamification techniques).
The point is, we have to continuously define our personal thresholds, those moments when we are ready to leap from just studying to learning, in the cycles. And — of course — the media sphere targets us with new and new things that we might want to study. But what about learning? There has to be a moment when we say: “OK, that’s enough. I’ve studied so much. Now I will apply those things that I studied so well to my work and to my life”. Or, even better, there might be someone who helps us navigate those stages. Mutual mentoring — exchanging insights, thoughts and opinions between professionals — is a great technique both for studying and for learning. That’s where conferences might actually be of help, as I’ve mentioned above.
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