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Knowledge of group learners grows multifold than lone learners. This is understood by many college students where group study is common. I as a student, part of a group, divided subjects among ourselves, study the reading materials, understand it, condense it and present it back to the group. In this way every one understood the crux of what is to be learnt in a short amount of time. Somewhere I read ‘the moment we get a job, we stop learning’. That is because, learning is a conscious activity and when we don’t learn together, it becomes too tough to continue learning and many just don’t learn anymore.

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Majority of the books have some fluff, it is to comply with the publisher’s mandate for the thickness of the book to justify a price. It is difficult to sift through the pages and mine the wisdom we want from it. It takes time  and speed reading is not easy for a lot of people. In a group setting it is ideal to read a book, summarise the learnings and present it back to the group either as a summary or the application of the learnings. If it evokes enough curiosity, then people will make some time to read it in detail.

The above applies to videos, courses and any other learning form or material. What about the blogs, they are short, can we just forward the links? There are lots of ways in which we receive links; twitter, hacker news, reddit so on. If we merely forward the links that interests us to our groups, it has no bigger impact than people who have already subscribed to the feeds. What will be beneficial to people who receive our link would be, a short description of what it is, how did I apply (or can apply), why this would be beneficial, next steps if possible.

By making it easy for people to understand many topics in a condensed form, we improve the breadth of the knowledge of the whole group. If anyone is curious then they can deep dive for the depth in a particular subject. It is impossible to get out of date in a group that is continuously learning.

Birds that flock, seem to learn faster. They increase their chances to survive and evolve more quickly

Learning together requires effort, it won’t happen if we don’t do it consciously.

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Anyone who had taken a reliable public transport would have formed micro habits. The first time I am in a new place, taking a public transport to work is always an experiment. As few days pass, the onward connections and crowd patterns get clear and I do my optimisations. I learnt to cut down my travel time 15 minutes every day by always boarding the last coach in the train so that when I alight at my station the coach is always next to the staircase which connects me to the next platform; I quickly walk to the next platform and board the train waiting there. If I miss this train, the next connection was 15 minutes later. Even if the coach is crowded, I bear the discomfort for a while because I know I am going to catch my connection on time.

At work and home also lots of micro habits can be formed. As the name suggests, these are not big ones and often takes only a small effort to make it happen. The first requirement to form micro habits is to have a set routine. Wake up at the same time every day, leave for work at the same time every day, leave office at the same time every day. By having a set routine we tend to observe lots of things and we also reduce the variables, so the number of decisions that needs to be made on a day reduces, because the routine automates most of our decisions.

Micro habits should not be confused with micro optimisation. Micro optimisations are very small gains for a large effort. Micro habits end up in great gains in small timely efforts. All it takes is to have a discipline to follow a set routine, observe the surroundings and make those small adjustments. It may not be easy at first, but once we start practising it becomes part of our thoughts.

Small changes can produce big results…but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.

– Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

 

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It is natural for every kid topeter-886132_1280 dream of growing up to a respectable status, have lots of possessions and make decisions. What I did not realise was the amount of responsibilities that came with growing up. The first big desire for any one to grow up is the desire to be independent, not be told what to do instead do what they want. It was always about the desire to be independent but oblivious to the price to pay for being independent. People will stop worrying about us less, we will be expected to stand for ourselves and care for dependent ones as grown ups. Being a grown up is a responsibility than a perk.

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At work similar thing happens, we join as an intern with a big dream. As an intern we will be told what to do and there is a limited scope of influence at work but at the same time there are less decisions that needs to be taken. As we gain experience the sphere of influence of our action increases, so do the expectations from the others to become effective individual contributors.

The term ‘individual contributor’ is largely misunderstood, it does not mean ‘leave me alone to do my work at my style’, instead it is a responsibility to reach the individual goals while working along with others. If there is a need for constant nudge from the managers, co-ordinators or facilitators to be reminded about one’s work and progress then it is a telltale sign that an individual has not grown up. When gaining experience what will matter most is the ability to accept responsibility and be accountable for signed up work, the independence that comes up with that is just a side effect not a right by itself.