One of the biggest impacts of Covid-19 has been on the ways we work, especially as the Work from Home life becomes the new normal. There is a higher focus on learning and upskilling. Online courses are booming more than ever before. And self-assessment and discipline have taken priority. We got some of our leading experts to weigh in on this evolving culture of “hyper” learning. Is it here to stay? And what can professionals do about it?
Here are some excerpts from our TweetChat with Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee (CEO, Future Learning); Varun Agarwal (Filmmaker & Entrepreneur); Ambi Parameswaran (Brand Coach & Strategist); and Sidharth Banerjee (Corporate Leader & Author).
What is hyper-learning and why is there an increased focus on it today?
Continuous, accelerated, self-driven and digitally-powered – these are some of the key ways in which our speakers distinguish the concept of hyper-learning.
According to Ambi, as skills get outdated quickly in a VUCA world, its important to focus on how “quickly we are learning new things and forgetting old things.”
Eika mirrored the sentiment, adding “COVID is the VUCA climax… the post COVID world will respond only to the agile, quick, deeply invested hyper-learner.” Hence, its important to become the “ever learner… constantly adding to yourself and ever growing to become a better version of you.”
“Content is not the problem. Curation is. What to pick and what to ignore. So Hyper-Learning needs smart hacks to cut out the unnecessary and focus on the few things that are critical”. – Ambi Parameswaran
Sidharth highlighted how the digital world offers massive opportunity for self-learning by making it easier for individuals to “glean multiple sources, hack learnings from experts and learn fast by distilling via a process.” In the long run, e-learning must “replicate the classroom experience”, said Varun.
How have you incorporated hyper learning into your life and career and what have been the benefits?
According to Ambi, the key is to keep it simple, pick the things you need to learn and find a mentor. The role of mentorship is especially significant for millennials, as pointed out by Varun. “We started a platform called @gradedontmatter to help millennials learn about different careers from super mentors and experts. Enabling more students to discover their Ikigai and exposing them to different career options.”
Listen to Eika and Sidharth talk about their #52RedPills journey, a new-age playbook for hyper-learning where the couple learnt 52 topics over 52 weeks, to get more healthy, wealthy and wise.
Eika also highlighted working on “passion projects” both personally and professionally. Adding that it is also necessary to have a reward mechanism for moving up on Bloom’s Taxonomy i.e. consumption (reading/ seeing/ hearing); absorbing and comprehending (including context); and finally, re-creating and applying the learning.
What are organisations doing for their staff to help them in their learning journey?
While companies can act as enablers, our speakers strongly believe that the onus lies on individuals to focus on their learning and growth.
“Self-learning tasks and journeys are always more powerful… especially if they are also self-derived and owned.”
-Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee
According to Ambi, one must begin with finding what one needs to learn, be it from a friend, family or coach. “Executives often complain that they are not getting sufficient training inputs. But are not willing to make the necessary noise with the L&D teams.”
What last impacting will Covid-19 have on our approach to learning?
A higher focus on digital learning and the so-called “softer skills” is the order of the day. While more institutes are creating online models, Ambi believes that there will also be a shift towards peer learning which is low right now.
“We will see more prominence of Digital Learning platforms enabled with Augmented Reality tools and Star Speakers.” – Sidharth Banerjee
This might also be the time to relook at the education system. As Varun points out, there should be more focus on “personal finance, public speaking, communication skills and such relevant skills”.
