Navigating a New Role as an Over-50 Professional: Shared Learning

Career Management

This is the fourth post in a four-part series. For other posts in this series, click here.

At some point in your career, you probably had a mentor — someone who was more skilled than you, perhaps older than you, maybe wiser than you about a particular subject or skill area.

How did you learn from that person? Did you just listen and take notes, or did you realize you had something to learn, listen closely and take notes, question what was being said to refine the learning, practice what you learned, make and correct errors as you did your work, and watch others working, failing, learning and trying again?

Characteristics of Adult Learning

If you are like most adults, there is a definite way that learning happens. In fact, according to the four Principles of Learning identified by Malcolm Knowles,:

1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. They want to get to the learning as quickly as possible, cutting through the seemingly unnecessary and focusing on the most important.

2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities. Listen, watch, learn, try, fail or succeed, and repeat the process continuously until it gets better.

3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life. If your job depends on your learning something well, you will be motivated. Nothing can provide more motivation than the fact that your learning is directly related to your getting paid or keeping your job.

4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. Adults want to know why the subject is important and how it is going to impact their work and their success in that work.

Talent vs. Speed

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he argues that “it is not the brightest who succeed.” He continues:

Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.

In other words, our success comes from seizing an opportunity with the talents hat we already have and making the most with those talents and that opportunity. No matter how talented we may be, there will be things that we will have to learn to make the most of an opportunity, and we will have to learn those things fairly quickly.

As Josh Kaufman wrote in his book The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything… Fast, the Knowles’ Principles of Learning are evident in his fast learning process, as follows (with my comments following the bold phrases):

  • In the first 20 hours, you are in the observation mode — you are reading, listening, thinking, trying, trying again, reading some more, trying some more. The adult learner works to cut through to the heart of what needs to be learned and how to learn it effectively.
  • You finally decide on a course of action (or way of thinking) that makes sense and put aside the things that don’t. The adult learner has an idea which t are the most important parts of the process of learning the subject, and has filtered that information down to a few select premises. The learner can easily explain or help another person avoid some of the trial and error the learner himself experienced — basically, how to avoid some of the “toe stubbing” to get to the important stuff a little faster with a little less pain.
  • You start using your skill, continuing to refine and refocus so that your skill becomes, more and more, the natural thing to do. The adult learner has learned the skill, is doing it successfully and is constantly reviewing and revising to make it easier and easier so the work is done and success is evident.

 

Focus on the Message

As an over-50 professional, there will be things you are going to want or need to learn — and learn quickly and efficiently. This could include a new workflow process, a specialized technology or some special communication and collaboration skills so you can produce results just like everyone else in your office.

But here’s the rub: It is highly likely you’ll to be learning some of it from someone who is not in your age group. In fact, there’s a strong possibility the mentor you’ll need will be somewhat younger than you. Some people identify this process as reverse mentoring, but in reality, it’s just going to someone with better knowledge, no matter their age, and learning from them.

In this kind of relationship, how do you keep from getting distracted by the difference in your age, or anything else? You’ve got to be willing to put aside the age of the messenger (and the messenger’s way of thinking, their jargon, their way of dressing, etc.) and focus on the message being delivered. 

Decide from the beginning that you’re going to focus on the information the person is sharing with you. In an ideal workplace learning relationship, there will be learning going in both directions — some people call this mentoring and reverse mentoring, but I am going to call it shared learning.

Do you have things that you can learn from someone younger or with less overall experience? Certainly! Does that person have things they can also learn from you? Certainly! But they may also have to focus on the message (your information) and not the messenger (you). Is it really possible not to pay attention at all to the messenger? In an ideal world, yes — but in the real world, you can’t help but take the information that a person is giving you and filter it by their age, their dress, their mannerisms, their gender or their speech patterns, as well as your own.

So, to prevent yourself from getting trapped in a box, agree on these points from the outset:

  • Keep the sharing informal — no rules about note taking, no reports to fill out, no boxes to check. Let the sharing of information go where it will go.
  • Define what you want to get out of the sharing. Start with something as simple as the suggested springboard question framed by Mike Maddock in his Forbes article The Best Question to Ask Really Smart People: “If you were me, what questions would you be asking?” Get clear on exactly what you would each like to learn from the other person. What’s really the most important thing here? Ultimately, it’s should be better understanding, mutual learning and empathy — all things necessary for effective collaboration.
  • Don’t allow yourself to dominate the conversation. Agree to remind each other when it seems that personality is creeping into the process and causing one person to end up with all of the speaking and the other person with all of the listening.

Once you have agreement in these areas, dive into the process and let the learning and sharing begin.

To Wrap Up

In the previous posts in this series, I discussed what each generation wants from their work experience, their organization, their managers or their coworkers. Let’s review:

  • Traditionalists (born between 1922 and 1945): Respect from others for their contributions, their historical knowledge and their capability to still have something to offer in the overall success of an organization.
  • Baby Boomers (born between 1942 and 1962): Respect from others and their ability to see a personal correlation between an organization’s mission and purpose and their personal goals.
  • GenXers (born between 1965 and 1980): Respect from others and a strong sense of their importance in the overall success of the organization and how that success will directly affect them personally.
  • Millennials (born between 1981 and 2004): Respect from others, an opportunity to grow professionally and financially, and to have their ideas and influence considered in the overall direction of the organization.

Do you see some similarities here? Respect; a sense of purpose; personal, financial and future security; opportunities for leadership; and opportunities to learn from others with guidance that is respectful, helpful and considerate — these are the things that we all need, no matter the generation — and you are positioned perfectly to facilitate everyone getting what they want from their career. What a great time to be a mature, experienced and perceptive over-50 professional with much to still contribute in the workplace!

What has been your favorite part of this series? Share in the comments!

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