Learn to Grow Shorts: Practical Applications and the Huberman Lab Podcast

Today I am following up on the conversation with Ruth Gotian, Chief Learning Officer at Weill Cornell Medicine and author of The Success Factor: Developing the Mindset and Skillset for Peak Business Performance – I will add a link to the pre-order Ruth’s book in the show notes. (pre-order here 😊) My favorite aspect of this conversation was the focus on the practical aspects of learning. As I have discussed with numerous guests, AI and machine learning will revolutionize the future of work by automating repeatable tasks. At a very basic level, the demand for physical, manual, and basic cognitive tasks will fall, while the demand for higher cognitive technological skills will rise along with the need for social and emotional skills. In the face of accelerating change, we will need to upskill and reskill continually to keep pace with the demands of the workplace. In short, we will have to be come better learners. But, there’s a problem. Tell someone they need to become a better learner, and they might not even know what that means or where to start. The thought of learning how to be a better learner feels like a concept that folds into itself a bit – it’s intimidating!I have become fascinated with frameworks for becoming a better learner, and I loved chatting with Ruth about the conscious competence model. And I loved the simple, practical tips Ruth gives for becoming a more efficient learner, taking small steps starting with becoming aware of the things you want to learn and grow in. We need to become more adept at recognizing the skills and process we want to learn and systematically applying an approach of continual improvement to take incremental steps to accomplish our goals, and I think Ruth gives some great suggestions for how to do that. Self awareness is crucial to learner progress and is crucial to everything we do.That’s why the framework of becoming better at identifying the things you need to learn, then deliberately taking steps to close the gaps, taking time to be reflect and take action in a repetitive cycle. If you are interested in the science of learning, I also want to plug what has for me been an invaluable resource. Andrew Huberman, Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine has a wonderful podcast called the Huberman Lab Podcast. His goal is to bring simple, actionable insights from scientific research to the general public, and he devotes several episodes to subjects like how to increase focus, how to learn faster, and how to optimize your brain. The episodes are filled with simple, actionable, practical insights that will change the way you think about your brain and how you go about your day. Next week, Kirk Werner, VP of Content at Udacity!