Learning Curve or Curve Ball?

You Learn Something New Everyday

That's the old saying. But do we? Really?

What did you learn yesterday?
The day before?
Last week?
Last month?

Are you even paying enough attention to know what you could have learned today?

Learning is the key to success.
Learning is different from knowing.
In fact it takes not knowing - a beginners mind to really learn.
What have you learned lately?

What can you do today to make you better tomorrow? Learn something!
What was the last book you read? The last seminar you went to? The last teaching CD you listened to? What can you do today to make you better tomorrow? Learn something!

Currently I am reading 3 books. Last year I read 5 books, attended 3 seminars and listened to numerous CD's. Of course, some were better than others, but I learned something from each of them.

A few weeks ago I found myself in a mini sales seminar. I could say it was good, but that would be a lie. The truth is they were some of the worst ideas I have ever heard about selling. A couple of people walked out, but I stayed. Why? I was convinced there was something I could learn or that would be useful to me. And there was.
Every situation you are in is an opportunity to learn something. The BIG question is are you curious enough to find it and resourceful enough to turn it into learning?

We live in a I want it now, instant gratification, I can't wait, just get 'er done world. Problem is real success doesn't work like that. Ask anyone who is very successful they will all tell you the same thing, it took 10 years of hard, determined work to achieve their overnight success. If you are stuck looking for the magic bullet then finding and leveraging the learning in every situation may be impossible.

Unwilling to work that hard or persist for that long? Then you are working at the wrong thing. The only way to achieve true success is to be willing to do the work for the sake of the work, not for the sake of the future or the money or the achievement. Working for the sake of working is the sweet spot for real learning and is called Mastery.

What is the business application for learning? The more you learn and grow the more valuable you are to those around you. The more value you can bring to the table the more you can get paid. Learning equals earning.

What will you learn today?

I know, I know. The Knowing Myth

I have been studying high performers—and low performers—for years.

The question that comes up consistently is: What sets the high performers apart from everyone else? What are the qualities and characteristics that make some people break out and perform beyond what anyone thought possible? What keeps other people from doing great things?

The so-called experts have concluded that the high performers believe in themselves more, are more persistent, perhaps more talented, more focused, have a better work ethic, etc.

This expert believes that while those things may be have some influence, they are not the secret sauce of achieving high performance. The most impactful difference between high achievers and everyone else is that the high performers are able to navigate and take action in the unknown better than their less-curious counterparts.

Low achievers are constantly stopped by the need to know before they even try. They ask themselves questions like: What will happen? How will the entire thing turn out? How can I start when I can't see how it will go? Because knowing the answer to any of these questions is impossible, they become stuck in the illusion that they have to know in order to do. Inside this double bind, they are often unable to try. The trap of having to know keeps them small.

In contrast, high achievers take action in the face of uncertainty. Navigating the unknown and being able to act in spite of it requires a high level of curiosity.

What is curiosity? How would you define it? We've asked thousands of people this exact question, and all the answers are surprisingly similar. People say curiosity is something like: the need to know, looking for the answer. True curiosity is none of these things. It is being comfortable in the unknown, not having to have an answer, and, oh my goodness! not having to be right.

What do you have to know? And how is that stopping you from taking action?

Where in your life do you have to be right? And how is that keeping you from being the best you can be?

This way of being curious is directly related to innovation. What if Thomas Edison let the unknown stop him? Would we have electricity? It took an immense amount of curiosity for Edison to continue the quest.

What about Sony and the Walkman? They really had no hard evidence that the public wanted it. As it turns out, the Walkman was the first step toward the MP3 player—technology that changes our world. There was no way Sony could have predicted how that would turn out.

George Martinez used curiosity at Sterling Bank and changed the face of small business banking in Houston, Texas. While he was the chairman and CEO of Sterling Bancshares, Martinez grew the bank from $3 million to more than $3.5 billion in assets. During his 32 years there, he was instrumental in taking the bank public and achieving record profits for 15 consecutive years. Martinez used his curiosity to navigate his talent management and staff situations and empowered all his employees to do the same, producing record profits at the same time.

The single most important skill people need to break out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary is the skill of curiosity, which allows people to gracefully navigate the unknown. Curiosity is the central tool in our business practice.

We use our curiosity to find yours. Once you find your curiosity, your brilliance can emerge. Applying curiosity to your brilliance allows you to bring it to the world, which is what the high performers are doing all the time, they just aren’t telling.

If you want to read how curiosity works in high-performance workplaces, read Mattison’s recently published white paper, Coaching for Curiosity.

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GO AHEAD! YES IT IS UNKNOWN -DO IT ANYWAY!