Personal Growth is a Team Effort
One word to define my time at Hive Learning is "growth".
I believe, all the way to my core, that learning and growth are the two biggest measures of a successful career. As a life-long student of servant leadership, I truly want to help other people have the same obsession I have with personal growth.
So when it came time to plant the seeds of a growth mindset in others, I took my job at hive Learning very seriously. Because, in some small way, I was doing my part to make the world a better place.
As a learning designer, I designed content about dozens of topics, from software instructions to selling skincare products. But my favorite topic to write about was leadership.
Several of our clients came to us for help with their leadership programs, and those were my opportunities to help people grow in the best way possible.
Many of my fellow students of leadership are intrinsically motivated to learn and grow. Yet they’re also the second-most time poor audience I ever had to engage. So even if they wanted to grow their skills, they didn’t always have the time to spend on self improvement.
Finding the right balance was a career-defining creative challenge.
- I wanted to teach fellow leaders new skills to help others.
- They often had the will to improve themselves.
- Their employers wanted them to become better leaders.
- yet when it came time to deliver training, they suddenly had no time for it.
Employers want quick fixes to complex problems, including leadership. They were willing to invest a certain amount of money, but rarely were they willing to invest time.
(Some people say “time is money.” With all due respect, those people are wrong. Time, I’ve found, is infinitely more valuable.)
That’s why I had to practice my own growth mindset. I had to work with my team to develop new ways of reaching audiences that were difficult to reach.
It wasn’t enough to just build a leadership program that looked and sounded snappy. Even when we trimmed our content into the smallest bites possible, we were often told it was too much.
I used to wonder how people could be expected to learn if they didn’t have time to read anything. But that was stick-in-the-mud thinking. It didn’t get me anywhere. After venting a little, it was always time to knuckle down and find a solution.
They say that necessity is the father of invention. For me and my team, it was necessary to invent new ways to reach learners.
So we did.
- When old-fashioned learning sprints proved they weren’t working, we invented new ways to sprinkle in activities and discussions to shake things up.
- When that wasn’t enough, we invented new types of content to engage the learner’s brains and help them think about how to apply new knowledge directly to their jobs.
- When Ai came around and peoples’ attention spans shrank even more, we used AI to engage learners through interactive role-playing and coaching scenarios.
- When time-starved executives needed to quickly upskill on the latest strategic initiatives, we designed solutions that fit into their flow of work.
Once we started treating every new program as a unique entity, rather than an off-the-shelf training module, we realized that there were limitless ways to approach solutions to our problems. After that, we got to practice our growth mindset with every new program request. Plus, we were able to reach more and more people and help them grow, too.
Although I’m no longer at Hive Learning, I know I’ll be forever grateful for the learning and growth opportunities I had for myself while I was there, and for those I got to share with others. I still feel deeply connected to the Best Team Ever™ -- Bianca, Dan, joe, Sophie, and Zoe – for the experiences they shared with me.
I’m also still just as much of a growth mindset nerd as ever. Which is why I’m excited about what the future holds for me. I know it’s going to be messy, difficult, and challenging at times. But necessity is the mother of invention, and I know I’ll invent new solutions to any problems that come my way. I know I’ll also be able to reach out to my friends if I need help.
Because the secret to personal growth, I’ve learned, is that it’s not so personal after all. Personal growth is a team effort.
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Jacob Wood is a learning designer, writer, game publisher, accessibility advocate, and a life-long student of servant leadership. That may sound like a lot, but human beings are complex and we aren’t defined simply by the careers we hold.
For more about Jacob, visit his LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-wood-writer