A journey to the underbelly of learning
I had no idea what to expect. I published my first ever post on LinkedIn and asked a friend “how did I do?” (It’s all about learning, right?) The answer was a realistic, if not slightly disappointing, “not bad, but had you had a better title, you would have killed it!” He wisely guided me to think about what would make someone want to click on the post. The advice was spot on. What would truly interest others to learn?
Except for those who are already their own bosses or financially independent, I imagined that putting at rest workforce survival fears would do the trick. I’ve had a blog before; I know how it works. It’s not so different than the first lines of a book, or the impression you make in the first 30 seconds of a speech. You’ve got to get people interested in what you’ll say before you can actually say it. I get that.
Turn up the volume
That said, I couldn’t help but go down the rabbit hole of the subsequent implications: it’s more than just about titles - it’s what they represent. There always has to be a hook! Yet how? We’re bombarded with so much information, content and voices, how does any one voice or message hope stand out? How do we get through the noise? We create more, louder, more enticing noise, that’s how … as did my title.
To penetrate limited attention spans, we create smaller and shorter snippets of information. Sound-bites dominate public narratives, and the 24 hour news cycle rules all. Flash-sale sites feed off of our insatiable appetites for immediate gratification, and late-night commercials compel us to “wait, there’s more!” All of it is designed to exploit the limitations of how we’re wired. It overwhelms the senses! “Will eating this one healthy food kill you? What your bank never told you about the risks of your mortgage; could you fall victim? Will giving this household staple to your baby cause autism? Stay tuned to your local news, at 11!”
No magic bullet
The sad truth is that no, there’s no secret to never getting fired. It doesn’t exist. And there’s no newly discovered herb from the Amazon that will help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days. And there’s no “one answer” to a fantastic marriage. All these messages speak into the hopes and dreams we have as humans, and the anxieties that define the human condition. Yet, at the end of the day, we need to individually do the hard work of taking ourselves on. No one book, expert or kernel of knowledge can do that for us.
Further, these louder, more addictive messages feed into the idea that we’re not already complete – that we’re constantly missing knowledge or know how, beauty or money – that there’s a secret we just don’t know. They compel us to operate from a place of scarcity and “fixing” rather than of strength and growth.
Someone always knows more
… and operating from scarcity is precisely what gets us tangled up in the game above. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought “someone must know more than I do”. And someone always does. Just look in the self-help aisle at your local bookstore, or the business section. Further, the real questions to be asked in life, either you already have the answer to or you have all the tools you already need within you to get to your answer. There’s no magic bullet. It merely takes an inward look and the desire to put forth the effort to get there.
But it’s oh so much easier to keep searching for more, bigger, better answers and get our fix of the next best thing … the flavor of the month, the new “secret”. That’s how we’re wired: our reactionary self always gets there first. It takes discipline and intention to override it. That’s why mindfulness is so important, helping to create the smallest of spaces between the ringing bell and the saliva, the catalyst and our reaction … and that’s the space where freedom lies.
Further, for as helpful as knowing more might be, the game is typically won or lost not on having more or better knowledge, but what you do with it. It’s rarely about the thing you know but rather putting it in practice. Some of the most profound lessons in life remarkably simple, such as Buddha’s “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” And yet they mean nothing unless you actually “get” it, unless you put it into practice and live it. This requires attaining your own moment of insight, and then applying the insight to your life. Magic!
The knowing-doing gap
And this leads me to my favorite topic: learning & development. The biggest challenge for organizations and individuals, alike, is that people often know what to do but they don’t actually do those things. Whether you call it the execution gap or the knowing-doing gap, billions of dollars are spent on corporate L&D programs, self-help and leadership books, all in the quest of narrowing that gap and achieving some lasting behavior change. Employees are “taught” the content or skills they need, but little comes of it relative to effort and spend. Leaders are given areas to improve, whether from 360s or feedback conversations, and improvements are typically incremental at best. I have read more secrets to an “optimal” diet than most would believe and have an almost molecular understanding of what I put in my body – boy, am I an expert! And yet you’d never know it from the evening meals I have after my toddler is finally in bed.
So let’s all strive to know more, by all means. Let just try to apply it – just one thing – now – and make it mean something. Lesson one: you know most of what’s truly important; don’t get sucked into the hype. Lesson two: now make it count.
In the meantime, stay tuned for my next post: The 5 Least Known Ways to Manage Your Personal Brand.