They say that every day is a school day

They say that every day is a school day!

The roads are busier and parents everywhere are collectively sighing in relief. It must be back-to-school season. I’m sure many of us long to return to the days we spent dreaming of our futures and learning new, exciting things – although we probably didn’t realise how much we appreciated learning at the time! In reality, due to change and the pace of change, there is an expectation of continuous lifelong learning for us to stay relevant and current. The setting for our learning has changed and we’re a bit older, but we should still be learning and developing every day, I’m sure most of you will not disagree with the above so the question is: how do we get ourselves back into the habit of learning?

Keep a ‘learning diary’

Ever thought something’s really interesting and then can’t even remember what it is the next day? It’s easy to do when you’re in a fast-paced business environment, jumping from one thing to the next. That’s why I recommend keeping a ‘learning diary’. It’s doesn’t have to be complex; every time something interests or inspires you, simply jot it down. Review your notes at the end of the week. Is there anything you’ve learnt that you could implement in your business? By getting into the habit of doing this, you will become a more innovative business leader. Involve your employees so a regular pool of ideas is formed.

Block out learning time

The diary is a great way of ‘passive learning’, but you should also block out time for ‘active learning’. Put an hour a week in your diary and treat it with the same importance as other diary items, such as meetings. Deciding what to learn can sometimes be the challenging part. The easiest place to start is by looking at what you already know that you’d like to know more about. Improving a skill you already have and use daily is the best solution for your business. Once you’re ‘skilled up’, you can start learning about totally new things that you could implement in your business in the future.

Share the value of learning

As a business owner, you should be leading the way with learning, but by no means should you be doing all the learning. As mentioned above, get your employees to keep a learning diary, but also make sure they’re blocking out diary time to skill up on specific topics. Teaching is the best way to learn and if your team can teach each other on a topic then that really is very powerful.

We are all aware that YouTube, podcasts and books are great for learning. In addition there are some great online platforms out there including LinkedIn’s own learning programme, Lynda, Futurelearn, MOOCS, and SkillShare, amongst others which cover a wide range of topics for all skill levels.

Let me know your thoughts on other platforms and also I’d be interested to hear how others keep up with learning in business – tweet @SafarazAli.