Learning energises

I love to learn, yet not every time I attend a talk or workshop or training to I feel I learned something new.

Thinking about this, if training is receiving information, learning is absorbing and embedding it in a way that you can contextualise the information and then apply it in your work and life.

Recently I wrote: “Without Context, Data is simply Noise“, capturing some distilled learnings from Fergus Connolly. As the title of that post captured, we need context for data to become information that is useful to us and so elevate to the higher levels of knowledge and then wisdom.

Yesterday I went to the RSA and attended a workshop by Zoe Arden on “from Storytelling to Storydoing”. Thanks to that workshop I reflected and so wrote today’s post to share.

One point Zoe made in her workshop was similar to Fergus’ point around data and context, but she made it around storytelling, that stories both depend on and provide context. As I learned years ago as a maxim: “never make a point without telling a story, and never tell a story without making a point”. In short, always have a context to link to your storytelling and visa versa.

So, despite having had very little sleep due to the heat from the previous day being the hottest day of the year in the UK, I felt I truly learned some new tips and skills through Zoe’s interactive workshop.

There is always more to learn.

On further reflection, a new key learning came to me, that when I learn something new, it energises me.

Perhaps that is another distinction between training and learning. When we are trained and don’t learn, likely we feel de-energised, but when training lands with us as truly creating learnings in us, we are absolutely energised.

Would love your thoughts on this. Can you distinguish between training and learning? If so, does your energy level help you determine the difference?