Articles

Elite Learners – Understanding the 4 energies of the learning cycle

The ability to learn faster than your competitors, may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.

Arie De Geus (Head of Planning for Royal / Dutch Shell)  

The hallmark of any great performer is their ability to continually improve upon their personal best.  Year upon year world records are broken, distances hit get longer and times get shorter.  Therefore, staying at the same level is not an option if we want to continue to succeed.   

In fact, improving on your PB’s isn’t enough!  Improving at the same rate as your competitors means that relative to them, you’re not improving at all!  Therefore, it’s vital that you improve faster than the competition – to do this means you need to learn faster than the competition.  In essence, you need to become an “Elite Learner”.

The learning process can be thought of including four key stages¹:

Stage 1 - Experience / perform; Stage 2 - Reflect / review; Stage 3 - Conceptualise / think; Stage 4 – Test / experiment;

As a sporting example: a golf player plays a shot during a match and sees the ball flying into the distance (stage 1 - experience / perfom); walking towards the ball they reflect upon their previous shot, the resulting location of the ball and consider what they might do next time (stage 2 - reflect / review); they then begin to plan their next shot taking into account the key pieces of  information (stage 3 - conceptualise / think); and then finally practice the shot they plan to execute with a couple of practice swings (stage 4 - test / experiment).  Having played the shot (stage 1), they reflect (stage 2), and so on...

Thus this process is a cycle, with each stage feeding into the next.  It’s sometimes easier to understand these four stages, and the roles each stage plays in the learning cycle by assigning each stage a specific colour (other excellent tools also use colours to correspond to character preferences e.g. Insights Discovery²).

	Yellow = Experiencer / Expressor / Interactor
	Green = Reviewer / Reflector / Relater
	Blue = Conceptualiser / Thinker / Planner
	Red = Controller / Tester / Experimenter

To learn, we have to use all 4 of these “roles” (i.e. ways of thinking and processing), but we each have a preferred role in the cycle based upon our natural strengths.  Understanding our own strengths and therefore our preferences is critical to ensuring that we continue to be “elite learners” – without being aware of this, we will limit our learning, and thus our rate of improvement.

As a coach or manager, there will be times when your performer (or learner) “stalls” in the learning cycle, typically in the stage of the learning cycle that corresponds to their preferred style (e.g. a Thinker / Planner will normally stall at the “Conceptualisation” stage of the cycle, finding themselves over-thinking the situation, unable to “get out of their own head”, and suffering from paralysis by analysis).  In order to “grease the wheels”, as a coach / manger you may need to “scaffold” or support the athlete at a particular stage and help them move from planning (blue) to testing / experimenting (red). 

For each “preference” (or “role” that someone prefers to adopt in the learning cycle) there are associated key needs and likely stressors:

• For instance, someone who prefers to think and plan (Blue), will typically want to thoroughly understand a situation, the rationale for a particular course of action and to have sufficient time to prepare – they will often feel stressed if they do not have this opportunity, or feel that their preparations have been rushed. 

• Someone who likes to reflect and review (Green) typically needs to understand that you care for them and others, and be given the time to understand their feelings – they will feel stressed if they do not feel valued, or perceive that they are being treated unfairly.   

Also, when working with others, it’s also useful to note the balance of “energies” across the whole group (or relationship).  For each colour, there are key “energies” e.g. Blue = logic, Red = fierceness, Yellow = playfulness, Green = tenderness. 

When the relationship becomes “stuck” or there is an excess of one energy (e.g. too much fierceness), it’s often useful to first “pace” the energy being displayed (e.g. also demonstrate your frustration / fierceness) and then gradually “amp up” other energies in the relationship / group (e.g. increase your logic, become playful, or demonstrate a tender or caring approach) - this structure is based upon that adopted by Steve Gilligan² in therapeutic change. 

Should you choose to work with us at Learning to Win, we will work with you to: 

• Identify your (and/or your performer's) strengths and preferences;
• Understand what this means as a learner and a performer;
• Build strategies to ensure that you remain an “elite learner” throughout your career. 

Learning to Win is committed to ensuring that you fulfil your potential, and continue to learn faster than the competition.  

Notes:

1.       Based up the learning cycles of Kolb, Lewin, Honey & Mumford

2.       Insights Discovery – questionnaire developed and delivered through www.Insights.com

3.       Steve Gilligan’s theory of Sponsorship - www.stephengilligan.com