“There is divine beauty in learning…. To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.” ―Elie Wiesel
Due to the pandemic, I have been able to attend a whole lot of online seminars, training and talks, as well as having more time to do some of my hobbies with less social activities happening. This has allowed me more time to learn new topics and do some things that interest me. Also generally in my work in libraries and information centres, there are some great aspects of doing research work with our patrons, and we are recognised in this process and cycle of information gathering, that we create a personal knowledge pool in what is known as the information society. There – a mouthful of words, but you can earn and learn!
In the article ‘Never too late to learn new tricks’ (by Julie Winkle Guilioni in Chief Learning Officer November 2018 ), research conducted by Zenger-Folkman is mentioned on as people grow older, their confidence grows, defensiveness shrinks and receptivity to feedback expands. This allows older workers to shift from what Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman refer to as a “proving mindset” to an “improving mindset.” Additionally, the more seasoned brain is better able to absorb next-level skills and nuances.
According to John Barrett, executive vice president at Aon, “For younger employees the game is fast; they don’t see the big picture. But for more experienced employees, it’s a lot slower. They know the endgame and where they’re going … so they can take in more and learn more along the way.” This is exactly why I wanted to write about lifelong learning. There comes a point that our knowledge and wisdom are great, especially in my profession – but nothing stays the same so we are continuously learning, adapting and applying new knowledge to the work that we do. This sometimes happen in our everyday lives too. Learning and leadership have no age limit, and so too is our ability to learn new skills, education and new subject areas of interest to us. Learning is one of the most beautiful aspect of life and it literally keeps our hearts and minds ticking.
As a curious child, I loved learning and reading but I certainly wasn’t a bookish child – I found it a chore and was happier playing outdoors, watching television and chatting with friends and neighbours. However, compulsory education does give you the structure to carry on learning in formal schooling in a classroom environment. In hindsight, there were other learning context going on growing up in the Caribbean – such as cultural and religious practices, community activities, sports, popular culture and social life. Those formative years in the Caribbean was at a time when we had frequent celebrations and activities to hear stories, take part in traditions and cultural occasions. These all contribute to my worldview, especially for the arts and multicultural understanding. My parents also encouraged us to go to the temple where we were taught Hindi and Indian music. I even got to the point where we did exams up to secondary O’Levels in Hindi but I didn’t retain a lot of my learning of the language, just like my French and Spanish lessons, as the languages were not used frequently afterwards. I had lessons on playing the harmonium but did not pursue it for long as was busy at secondary school. Fast forward to the late 1990s, I also did Italian evening lessons for two years before I had my children. However a few decades later …and I am pleased to say that I have restarted music lessons about three years ago, plus I also started doing Italian lessons on an app (when I have the spare time). I do hope in the next few years that my music lessons and Italian will be at an acceptable standard. The most important aspect of this – I am doing this learning now for me.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Hopefully I have got you interested in what I want to say about learning. Firstly, the concept of lifelong learning implies that we never stop learning and the more frequent the opportunities the better! There are two aspects of our current lives that acts as a conduit to this: 1. Time – we have in the pandemic and 2. Technology – that has enable learning.
In the last few decades, the internet has transformed the way we are living and it goes without saying, the way we learn from online sources. Everything is a lot more accessible. Social media has its’ haters and troubles – but I am a fan and learn so much from it. This includes not just formal insights or programmes, but fun and international cultural aspects I would not normally see on traditional media. Time is crucial and with the pressures of earning and living, we have little time to spending learning but with current slowdown of social interactions – I seem to have more time to read or do my hobbies. I would still like to take up yoga and more interesting physical activities like dancing, however my time is limited and I can aim to do so in the future.
The pandemic really has given us the opportunity in time value to slow down a bit. In the last few months, I have been busy attending lots of seminars that are of personal interest such as a recent talk on Transatlantic Slave Trade. Although I may have spent several hours being taught this at school, I am still getting use to new knowledge and information now and I have some time to learn. As I work in a library and as an information professional – every day or every week at least – we learn something new. Be it trivia or information that can be used in our work. Enquiries from our customers also give us very interesting insights as part of the research process. Just before the pandemic, I went to an exhibition at the Barbican’s whereby the dancer Loie Fuller was featured. It was ironic that soon after I received an enquiry at work about how she protected her dance with intellectual property. So sometimes creativity and culture make work enquiries fascinating. There was another query being discuss recently about a Beano comic magazine having a prior art design for a pet door opener, and coincidently there is a whole exhibition on the Beano in London. These little references are great when you see how the present and the past can merge, and how creativity is inspired from what is gone before in the form of archives and artefacts. Imagination is fed and watered by new learning experiences.
“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” – Peter Drucker
If you are more proactive and formal with learning – this is great. I would love to have studied further but life got busy and trying to find the time and finance for further my education would be another challenge. I still have a deep respect for places of learning, especially filled with students, lecturers and educators etc. This is one of my reasons for attending lots of events in my professional roles in various employers overs the years – in the corporate sector there were talks for away days or for knowledge management (KM) forums. When I worked at City Hall, we put on talks for the then Women’s Network and for KM, but I also attended on such topics like modern-day slavery etc for general staff. Where I work at the British Library, it is a privilege to actually attend numerous talks and events over the years. They are not formal means of learning but they are by great speakers who are knowledgable on their topics and therefore keep me inspired, interested and happy. I am very proactive with my own self-development and continuous professional development (CPD), and therefore I would consider this a strength as I am able to gasp new topics very quickly, although I may not know all the finer details without some further research. This all makes life interesting – so even though I may work in a library…there is always something new to learn.
As we close another year, I have felt like there are times when I could study a particular topic a bit more. However, I have a lot of commitments in the next three years which will make it impossible for me to find the time to learn lots of new topics in detail, as well as new skills. However I am looking forward to doing a little bit of learning as I go along in a practical way. Recently we received a cookery lesson class voucher and although I know how to make fresh pasta – I am looking forward to making more fancy pasta shapes. I am also keen to learn to use a pastry bag properly and also to learn more arts and craft activities. If I cannot find the time to do these more exciting things – perhaps I will have to rely on the internet, a book and/or the television to help me learn. The main point is a reminder for me to enjoy what I learn and to never stop!
“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Connecting the Dots 