Learn from every experience
Everyday we are surrounded by opportunities to learn something new. We can learn from formal education and courses, from colleagues, from friends and family, we can learn from everyone. Our life experiences can provide inspiration and plant curiosity seeds to help us grow. This article will explore how we can be prepared to absorb small pieces of knowledge in our everyday lives.
Learning from everyone everywhere is a mindset that requires a certain state of mind to work. Although the difference between the two concepts seems subtle, they are complementary and will help us understand the keys to being an everyday learner.
A mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. I wonder what mindset set us on the right journey to become a learning sponge?
State of mind is the mental and emotional disposition of an individual. A state of mind is a mental or emotional condition of being in a particular situation. Over the past few years, I’ve come to realise that certain states of mind help me identify everyday life experiences as learning opportunities. These states of mind include: empathy, curiosity, focus, hopefulness, reflectiveness, calmness and happiness.
While embracing these positive states of mind, I discovered three things: everyone has something to teach us, we value the smaller improvements in life and life can surprise us in different ways.
Rock & roll experience
I didn’t expect to learn something so meaningful from a famous Uruguayan singer on a Saturday night. Jorge Drexler is very popular among Latino Americans. In 1992, he published his first record “La Luz Que Sabe Robar“. His famous song “Al otro lado del río” received an Academy Award for best original song in 2005.
I went to see Drexler at Centro Kursaal Elkargunea in the beautiful city of Donostia, San Sebastián. As Drexler played his opening song, the quarter-final of the football world cup kicked off between Argentina and the Netherlands.
When the concert started, Jorge started singing acapella in his unique style and gave us a fun and playful welcome. He first congratulated Argentina for reaching the quarter-final and thanked all the Argentinians who chose to come to the theatre instead of watching the football match. He surprised the crowd by encouraging his Argentinian fans to follow the game and share the score throughout the show.
With this simple gesture, Jorge started the show with a deep understanding of where the audience were emotionally. He also shared how important it was for him to play at such a mythical venue, drawing the audience in even more. As a result, he immediately connected with everyone: he recognised them and opened himself up with humility. These actions created an atmosphere of freedom, appreciation, intimacy and, as a result, a deep connection.
From that experience I learned two important lessons: “meet your audience where they are” and “empathy”.
I’ve shared my experience of Drexler’s live show with many people since. Talking about it again and again has allowed me to internalise and reflect on how empathy not just connects you so deeply with others, but can be used as a powerful tool for learning.
My simple growing learning flow
This is the flow that helps me grow a learning seed and adopt it in my everyday life. Let me share a few details of each step.
STEP 01 — Identify: Identifying learning requires three important things. Have a curious mindset, have all your five senses sharp, and be present with all your self in the moment.
STEP 02 — Reflect: When you sense that there is something to learn, start a self reflection, ask yourself about the motivations, the reasons why you have identified this experience as a learning, how can this be applied to your life.
STEP 03 — Articulate: Now you have reflected about the learning and what it means to you. Some learnings are ephemeral, others stay with us for longer, others for life. I found that articulating the learning, writing down your daily learnings in a journal or on some sticky notes, or even writing about it in this article takes me on a journey to understand how much I’ve learned since planting the initial seed.
STEP 04 — Expand: Expanding your reasoning with people will help you analyse the learn from different points of view. Ask people around you, break your comfort zone and ask people that usually have a different or even opposite view than yours. Ask for feedback, what do they think and feel about your experience. Where can I find more information about the topic? Is there anything I’m not getting right because of my personal bias?
STEP 05 — Improve: Now it’s time to go back to review the learning articulation and nurture it with all the feedback and additional reading and research you have done. As an improvement step cycle, this stage could be iterated many times. Doing this step consciously and intentionally will help you multiply that knowledge seed you have identified and grow it with each step.
STEP 06 — Spread: Now it’s time to multiply your learning and spread it as much as you can. This is a moment of gratitude, to give society what you have learned. My favourite way to return it is by example, changing my own behaviours, trying new things. Another way is to share your experience directly with others and enjoy powerful conversations.
My articulated learning as a facilitator
“Meet them when they are’’ is all about embracing the audience. Meet them where they are and not where you want them to be. Drexler’s song recognizes the audience with deep humility. Drexler knew that a large percentage of the people who came to see him were Argentinians who felt a cultural connection to his music and followed his career closely. So he welcomed the audience’s situation and he made them part of the show.
I facilitate many sessions a day with people from many different backgrounds and contexts. My articulated learning is: before jumping into a meeting or facilitating a workshop is to make a hard stop. Leave aside for a moment your personal goals, what you want to achieve, the dynamics and material, and take a deep breath. I love using the square breathing technique.
Put your mind and energy and focus only on the audience. Start by asking yourself some simple questions: what time of the day is it for each one of them, what day of the week is it, what level of energy might they bring. Go one step beyond, is there anything within their context that may be affecting them? What actions can you take to trigger empathy behaviours in the room?
The last step is to reflect about their emotions: what are they going through, what are their struggles, what is important to them right now. Take all that reflection, start the session with a flexible mindset and think about how you would like to open the session in a meaningful way to them.
Be open, be present, ask questions, be curious, reflect, you can learn from everyone everywhere
