Make Your Own Lane: Being Trained and Learning Are Not Same

"When things are uncomfortable two things are happening:

You are learning (In the process of adopting new habits)

You are unlearning (Letting go off old habits)

If this is not painful, you remain the old version of yourself with limited knowledge, unprepared for the future of work.  "

Image Credit: Canva Design

That is an excerpt from my mail to one of the learners who was finding it extremely difficult to cope up with office, home, daily travel and learning curve.

Yesterday I had a SKYPE coaching session with her.

She still thinks that I was coaching her on a particular skill while the reality is – it was mental training to build a habit.

Learner Background

Two decades of experience in the corporate world across various functions –Executive support, administration, accounts, risk control and finance

She worked in different industries

She is comfortable with desktop/ tab and not used to laptop

She never had a face book account

She is an introvert as per human metrics test

I would like to capture what she thinks she is learning and what I am trying to achieve

She Thinks	My Goal
She is learning how to create websites on WIX Skill: Website	I was just letting her explore a site at your own pace and self-learn Mental Training: Self Learn new subjects/ sites
She is formatting a 25 pages word document Skill: MS Office	Attention to detail Mental Training: Develop critical eye for quick quality check to see errors
She is being introduced to Face book and Twitter because is not inclined towards them	Social Media Management Mental Training: Building habit to be digitally alive with a purpose
She is being coached through SKYPE Skill: SKYPE	Virtual Coaching Mental Training: Auditory learning. We do not use video/ just voice so that she focuses on what I say to learn and take notes.
Write service description about she is good at and can cater to clients independently Skill: Writing	Building confidence to deal with clients (not managers) Mental Training: Conviction and critical thinking.
It is not just skill training	It is will training

You cannot build habits in a day. Once habits are built, skill coaching is cake walk and mostly taken over by the learner without any external coaching.

The surest way to understand if learning is happening is to look for hints and changes in behavior

Changes observed in 7 weeks

Read epic mails I send  Acknowledge mails immediately No more use of SMS language Summarize discussion Organized writing with numbered points Queries are mailed - Only one mode of communication with me instead of Watsapp or phone.	Watch Ted Talk Attend SKYPE sessions Source quality links relevant to subject (Freelancing, Travel etc) that meets client's standards  Post links to Face book pages Micro learn at your own pace
Conceptual Understanding  1] Maslow's hierarchy of needs 2] Frame of reference 3] Mind Maps	Hands On training: WIX; Canva; Blogspot; Freelancing portal
Different types of learner - Visual; Auditory and Kinesthetic	Visual Communication through Smart Art
Different sources of learning - Online, Read, Social, Group, Micro, Coach	The series of excuses that was made initially for not completing home assignments died a natural death.
Build Knowledge Repository from the mails exchanged between us, where she captures critical  learning based on her own assessment. This is not just for reference but an enabler when she is ready to coach others with any challenges	Coaching is two times learning. She is encouraged to learn a thing or two on her own and explain it back to me.

When coaching is outcome driven, it makes no difference what syllabus you have to cover - the only thing that matters is change in behavior, leading the learner to apply learning in different situations to impact results that can be quantified.

These observations are just the beginning. 

The key objective is to build habits - strong and positive habits, while assisting the learner gather a skill or two.

To know more about qualifying criteria to be BECKON Coach, please write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com