Do - Review - Learn - Test

6 months into the business planning year is a great time to take stock of personal, team and organisational performance. I have found great personal value in reviewing not only my own personal performance over the last 6 months, but that of the wider team and the organisation. Following Director Development time this week it presented an ideal opportunity to review my own personal impact into the organisation and agree what I needed to address going forward, which would ultimately support delivery against achievement of our annual business plan.

It’s naturally easy to draw comparison from personal experiences participating in team sports the same principle around learning applies. Having a half time interval during a competitive match could dramatically affect the eventual outcome. The minority would argue that half time intervals are for rest and replenishment and an opportunity to voice praise and concern. In high performing teams no matter what industry this is quite the opposite, this is where the true value of experiential learning takes place, questioning our decision making, reviewing our actions and the impact they have so far had on performance and consequently considering other approaches and seeking feedback in the moment.

David Kolb’s model of the experiential learning cycle is a great model for supporting this process, the model is represented by a four staged learning cycle where we as the learners touch all the bases. It is worth noting however, that effective learning only happens once we have been able to execute all 4 stages of the model. Any one stage considered and acted upon on its own entirety will not suffice in providing sustained effective learning.

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” Kolb

Being able to apply the ‘pause’ button to stop and review our experiences, creates the space to reflect and review our performance from the actions and decisions we make on a daily basis. Reflecting and being able to understand what we have so far experienced is where the true impact of learning can be achieved, operating in this space of the learning cycle we are then able to draw meaning from our experiences and decide then how to take this applied learning forward by testing it out:

I would be interested to hear any personal thoughts on experiential learning, please share donna.smithson@thebeechcentre.co.uk 

Donna Smithson Membership Services Director
The Beech Centre for People, Performance & Organisational Development