Power Up Your Mind: Learn faster, work smarter

Ways e-learning can be unhelpful—Top 8 %

It’s easy to waste time 46

Computer crashes 32

It’s difficult to find relevant e-learning material 30

Learning programs or software are poor quality 26

Learning programs or software are too gimmicky 20

Learning programs or software are difficult to access 20

Takes up too much time 17

Impossible to learn without other people 11

Does this data accord with your own experience of online learning?

What does the data in the chart above suggest to you about ways in which you could improve

your own online learning?

How much e-learning are you already doing?

There are many new e-learning providers: have you considered trying some?

Extending your range

To be an effective learner you need to be prepared to try new things

and always be trying to extend your range. This is specifically stated

in the skills that Peter Honey and I identified: “Constantly adding new

techniques to your repertoire from all possible sources” and “experi-

menting, on a trial-and-error basis, with different ways of learning.”

The truth is that we all have our learning comfort zones and

that most of us move out of these too rarely. Taking part in an

action learning set—exploring real business issues in a team—or

being mentored may be within the existing range of one person, but

they may be new to somebody else. Only you will know what is new

for you!

This is as true for those at the bottom of organizations as it

is at the top, as the following example shows.

The Campaign for Learning hosted a breakfast meeting for chief

executives of large companies. Our purpose was to interest them in the

issue of learning. Our main way of doing this was through the inspirational

speaking of Charles Handy, who kindly gave his time to help us do this.

We could have simply enjoyed what a man of his insights wanted

to say, had some conversations over our coffee, and then gone our

114 Power Up Your Mind