Published monthly by Sharon Eakes, Hope Unlimited, LLC
******************************************************** FOCUS: Learn and Forget
Disciplines: Personal Mastery, Team Learning

"Learn all that stuff and then forget it"
Miles Davis, referring to the technical aspects of jazz

THOUGHTS:

Miles Davis' quote is a good way to describe the process of learning. I've heard it elaborated as 4 levels or stages:

1. Unconscious Incompetence
2. Conscious Incompetence
3. Conscious Competence
4. Unconscious Competence

When my children were small, before every big learning leap, they were unusually crabby. I got so I expected something big and wonderful to happen when they were out of sorts for a week or more.....and sure enough, there would be a breakthrough. They walked, talked, learned to read, ride a bike, type, play the flute, dance, drive a car.

Steps 1-3 are the "learn it" stages and step 4 is the "forget it" stage.

In steps 1 & 4, we are happy...as in "ignorance is bliss." Steps 2 and 3 are often hard. That's where the crabbiness lives.

I had a big "aha" when I first heard of these steps in learning. It helps me be more patient with myself as I learn a new software application or become comfortable in a new culture.
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COACHING TIPS

1. Be aware of which level you are on in all kinds of learning situations. Be patient with yourself, knowing you have to move through 2 - 3 to get to 4.

2. Be patient and encouraging with people in your life who are going through these stages.

INVITATION:

Please join me in a telegathering Monday, May 20, at 12:00 noon EDT (11 a.m. CDT, 10 a.m. MT, 9 a.m. PDT) to explore in more depth the four stages of learning.
(702) 558-4398 No need to register....just call at that time!
Reach me: 1-888-769-3494 or e-mail sharon@hopellc.com
Visit our website at www.hopellc.com.

Each month FRESH VIEWS focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. Please forward it to friends and colleagues. My purpose in writing FRESH VIEWS is to nurture, prod and encourage readers to think and talk about these topics with their families, friends and colleagues. Mine is only one view. Multiple conversations may deliver us to insights only hinted at here. Such a process sustains the vitality of learning relationships, learning families, learning organizations and learning communities.