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Tip 45 – How to dramatically accelerate learning

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One of the underlying principles of Accelerated Learning is that:“Learning comes from doing the work itself (with feedback)” according to D Meier in his book The accelerated learning handbook. This means that people learn best in context.

Things learned in isolation are hard to remember and quick to forget. We learn how to swim by swimming, how to sing by singing, how to dance by dancing, how to manage by managing and how to lead by leading. The real and the concrete are far better teachers – provided there is time for total immersion, feedback, reflection, and re-immersion.

One of the reasons why many people adopt a ‘coaching approach’ to management is because it provides all the necessary criteria for accelerated learning and so works to improve performance.

As an example of a coaching approach, here are five different ways of giving feedback in a work environment to a report that isn’t up to expectations:

1. Manager's exclamation: 'You are useless.' This is a personalised criticism that devastates self­ esteem and confidence and is bound to make future performance even worse. It contains nothing helpful.
2. Manager's intervention: 'This report is useless.' This judgmental comment directed at the report, not at the person, also damages the performer's self-esteem, though less badly, but it still provides no information on which the writer can act to correct it.
3. Manager's intervention: 'The content of your report was clear and concise, but the layout and presentation were too down-market for its target readership.' This avoids criticism and provides the performer with some information on which to act, but in insufficient detail and it generates no ownership.
4. Manager's intervention: 'How do you feel about the report?'   The performer now has ownership, but is likely to give a non-response such as 'Fine', or to make a value judgment of the work such as 'Great' or 'Lousy', rather than a more useful description.
5. Manager's intervention: a) 'What is the essential purpose of your report?' b) 'To what extent do you think this draft achieves that?' c) 'What are the other points you feel need to be emphasised?'  d) 'Who do you see as the target reader?' etc. In response to a series of questions such as these, the performer/learner gives a detailed, non-judgmental description of the report and the thinking behind it.

The form of feedback illustrated in point 5 dramatically accelerates learning and improves performance by meeting all the best coaching and accelerated learning criteria. In order to answer the manager's questions in 5, the performer/learner is compelled to engage his brain and get involved. He has to recollect and formulate his thoughts before he can articulate his responses. This is awareness and reflection. It helps him to learn how to evaluate his own work and become more self-reliant. This way he ‘owns’ his performance and his assessment of it and will naturally improve next time - when he re-immerses.

Click here to arrange an introductory session to find out more.

It’s widely accepted that the best way to learn how to coach is to have a coach yourself.