Something that helps people make progress is to consciously think about what they know now that they didn’t know last week (month, year, etc.). Incremental knowledge – no matter how small or big it may be – accumulates and adds to your professional development.
Why not ask this question in your weekly team meetings? If you take time to have a quick round robin, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you hear.
You and your employees will benefit in several ways. First, it helps create a culture of continuous learning. By being encouraged to share what they learned in the past week, they may create more value in their work.
Second, it encourages knowledge sharing with their coworkers. One person may say something that triggers an idea in someone else, and this has obvious benefits for expanding their perspectives.
Third, as people share “what they know now”, it creates an opportunity to consciously focus on becoming more of a high-performing team and organization.
This starts with the leader, of course. You set the tone by participating fully and by encouraging even the smallest contribution. All incremental knowledge helps move the team; don’t be judgmental about the “quality” of the learning.
If doing this creates a 1% improvement each week, you can do the math and see the possibility of what happens over a year.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Header image by Kabooompics/Pexels.com.
