Lifelong learning is much more than just keeps up with technology knowledge. You also learn from experiences and from making mistakes. Many students believe by learning the newest technology would be sufficient but as you grow older and advancing in your career, you will learn more things that may have nothing to do with technology. Basically, you are maturing and becoming wiser.
When you are in college, you learn from teachers, from books, from reading and homeworks and you develop the knowledge of a particular subject. This is what you know and are good at. The knowledge and the degree that you obtain help you to get a job. However this academic knowledge is not enough to help you in the next step. At work, you need to apply the knowledge into something valuable. Only through the act of doing it, you develop your skills. It is the skill that keeps you on the job and helps you to advance in your career. By continue learning new knowledge and apply it, you are improving your skills and advancing into higher positions.
However the skills that get you the promotion are not the skills that you need to be successful in your next step.
This is an important fact that many people do not understand. The best thing you learn with your many years of experience is your ability “To know what you do not know”. As an experienced person you know your own strengths and weaknesses. You learn to rely on others as they bring in certain skills that you do not have. Many people believe that since they are successful and get into important positions, they know everything. This is where managers make mistakes. This is where leaders make wrong decisions. The best managers and the best leaders are persons that understand this fact. They know what they do not know so they rely on people who have certain knowledge and skills that they do not have. They depend on them to help them make decisions. On the contrary, managers who are arrogant, do not know their weaknesses and their limited views will make mistakes and never advancing any further, some even end their careers. Lifelong learning means to learn new skills to be successful in the next positions, including knowing your limitation, knowing what you do not know and make the right decision to correct it.
However this skill is not enough to take you to the next step.
The next step is about having an open mind. A lifelong learning should lead a person to develop an insight into the ability “To do not know what you do not know”. This is what the Greek Philosopher Socrates called “Leader Blindness”. He wrote: “A true leader should have the ability to understand his “blindness” by the interaction with others in an inquiry, to question certain decisions, to analyze with an open mind for opinions that may not be in alignment with his own.” In my opinion, you only can only do this by having a profound and deep thinking with yourself to learn new things. Deep learning occurs in a conversation where you can look at the argument from the other’s point of view and see how they come to their conclusions, even these new information may be contradict to yours.
When you are in a discussion where each team members has their own opinions, you have an opportunity to develop a new learning. You learn to distinguish between the facts and the interpretations and how others come up with their reasons. These are important things that you must learn. When this happens, it will open up new possibilities for you. Now you have uncovered some of your blindness, and deep learning has occurred. This is what the Greek called “wisdom knowledge”.
How do you get into this next step?
The essence for lifelong learning is listening with an open mind. Listening skills are often ignored in today’s business world. Everyone want to be the presenter, the person who do the talking, the person with a strong opinion, the person with a loud voice. There are so many courses about presentation skills or public speaking but not much on listening and learning. A great leader is often not the person who do the talking but the person who do the listening. This is where an open mind leader understanding what the other says without linking it to how it might fit with his conclusions. If you can develop this skill, you will do well, much more than others and could achieve the highest position possible. By listening to other opinions, you may learn new things; new ideas, new reasons, and you may come up with new insight such as: “I had never thought of it that way. It may be better than my own”.
This is what I believe Lifelong learning is.
Prof John Vu
Carnegie Mellon University
Original source:http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1460
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