Is it knowledge or is it a skill?
Is it knowledge or is it a skill?
I can tell you information but, to develop a skill, you're going to have to practice.
Think about an upcoming learning project. What is it that you’re trying to achieve? What is it that you need people to do?
These questions form the basis of every project we work on here at Mind Tools Towers, and the answers typically spark this conversation among our learning designers: Are we trying to develop knowledge or skills?
Developing knowledge
Knowledge forms a foundation for almost all learning interventions, and is the easier to help others acquire. The Battle of the Eclipse took place in 585 BC, for example. There, you’ve acquired some knowledge.
We can outsource knowledge. It’s not necessary for you to remember the fact above, as you can always look it up online or refer back to this newsletter.
But there are times where remembering information is useful. If you’re working in a fast food restaurant, you’ll be more effective at putting the different combinations of burger together if you can remember them than if you have to refer to a cheat sheet each time.
And to embed knowledge we typically want some degree of repetition. Remember, the Battle of the Eclipse took place in 585 BC. The more you hear this, the more likely you are to remember it.
Or we could try deeper encoding of knowledge with retrieval practice:
The Mind Tools platform has mostly been knowledge-based. If you need a quick answer to a question, and a solution to an immediate workplace challenge or problem, it’s ideal.
But for many workplace-learning challenges we want to go beyond knowledge to develop a skill.
Developing skills
What is a skill? I’ve always liked Julie Dirksen’s description:
‘Is it reasonable to think that someone can be proficient without practice?
If the asnwer is “no, it’s not rasonable,” then you know you are dealing with a skill.’
This week, at Learning Technologies in London, I’ll be speaking about our new product feature: Skill Bites.
Skill Bites works on the premise that skills need to be developed over time. Learners who experience a Skill Bite complete a self-assessment to gain an insight into their existing capability. Then they’re challenged on a weekly basis to commit to practicing a component part of that skill.
This commitment is key: we want learners to leave each session with something to practice. And, the following week, we check in to see how they got on.
For example, one of my content colleagues is developing a Skill Bite on ‘delegation’. We know from research conducted by our Insights team that managers who can delegate have a bigger impact on organizational performance than those who can’t. When we deconstruct this skill, we can see that they need to be able to:
⚠️ Overcome blockers to delegation
👀 Identify what to delegate
❔ Identify who to delegate to
✅ Ensure the task is delegated effectively
💡 And provide support to ensure that the task is completed well.
The ultimate outcome of the Skill Bite is for the learner to become better at delegation over the long-term. For them to be able to delegate without support.
But we know that it isn’t enough just to tell them how to do this. They need to practice.
At Learning Tech, I’ll be demonstrating this approach to skills developing by teaching my L&D Dispatch friend and co-author, Ross Dickie, how to golf.
Drop by Bitesize Learning Zone 1 on the 18th of April at 11:55am to see how that goes! The Exhibition is free.
Then, a few hours later, Ross D will be sharing a case study on how our Custom and Insights teams worked with South Western Railway to develop a custom management development program — which led to a measurable improvement in individual capabilities.
If you’re involved in helping managers build their skills, I strongly recommend that you check it out to get some ideas!
Make sure to be at Theatre 10 on the 18th of April at 14:45pm to hear that session.
🎧 On the podcast
In this week's episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Claire were joined by coach, writer and Leadership Experience Manager at Deloitte Mina Papakonstantinou to explore how building coaching skills leads to more effective conversations with team members, colleagues and clients.
Check out the episode below. 👇
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or the podcast page of our website. Want to share your thoughts? Get in touch @RossDickieMT, @RossGarnerMT or #MindToolsPodcast
📖 Deep dive
Is your organization going through some kind of change just now? A re-structure, re-brand, new boss, new technology, changing strategy? I suspect that at least one of those items applies to you and, in all likelihood, one or more always will.
‘Change’ is no longer a thing that happens and then we reset to some kind of normality. It’s ongoing. But, as humans, we crave closure and certainty. If we never get it, we feel anxious and increasingly overwhelmed.
As part of taking part in the podcast above, Mina shared an article she wrote in 2019 that tackles this issue head on, offering up the concept of ‘micro closures’ as a solution.
I hadn’t come across this term before, but I love it. Since change is constant, we need to identify smaller transitions within the wider change program that we can deal with and celeberate separately.
In the article, Mina offers a case study example: Miranda had experienced a previous re-structure that hadn’t worked, her role was now being made redundant, and there was an opportunity to apply for a new role. Rather than treat this as one overwhelming process, Miranda is coached to think of each phase separately and to consciously identify ‘micro closures’.
For those of us working in L&D, it’s a fantastic concept that I think we can apply in all of our coaching programs and in our work with managers. And, since 2019, it’s only become more pressing.
Papakonstantinou, F. (2019). Creating micro closures: reinventing the psychological transition process to help coachees deal with the current state of disruptive change.
👹 Missing links
🤯 Is there a limit to our tolerance for distraction?
In this article for The Guardian, technology writer Alex Hern asks if AI-generated content could be dangerous for our health. His argument is that the internet has become a battleground for attention, where individual creators and large corporations offer up addictive content in a bid to show us as many ads as possible. New AI tools are making it easier than ever to create this content, but then Hern asks I think a more interesting question: Is there a limit to our tolerance for this?
Related to the above, it seems that a growing number of people are getting out of Dodge. The company Dumbwireless, founded by a couple in Los Angeles, sells phones with crappy screens, no apps and no video camera. In March 2024 they sold 10x as many phones as the same month last year. So if you’ve had enough of your pocket slot machine screaming at you for attention all day, you’re not the only one.
⬆️ Looking to be more effective at work?
A couple of years ago, Ross Dickie and I were commissioned to develop a podcast for Future Talent Learning: focused on building common workplace skills like creativity, critical thinking and leading change. Guests included Dr Brennan Jacoby, Dorie Clark and Amy Edmondson. Those episodes are now available online, so feel free to check them out!
👋 And finally…
The L&D Dispatch has a theme tune! You can listen to it now, courtesy of Suno AI.
This so-called ‘ChatGPT for music’ can create a tune in any style, write the lyrics, and - for $10 a month - hand you the rights to commercialize that music through platforms like Spotify.
Suno founder Mikey Shulman told Rolling Stone that Suno is not designed to replace artists, but I’m not sure what the definition of an ‘artist’ is at this point. If it’s someone who makes a living through music, then it sure seems like this could replace them.
Anyone can now make music with a single prompt. No matter the founders’ intentions, creators will create, listeners will listen. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.
Which is a thought that inevitably leads me to the 20th century’s greatest work of art, Jurassic Park:
‘You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox.’
Dr Ian Malcolm
👍 Thanks!
Thanks for reading The L&D Dispatch from Mind Tools! If you’d like to speak to us, work with us, or make a suggestion, you can email custom@mindtools.com.
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