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1 I’ve been thinking lately about the role of structured learning environments at work in creating psychological safety for people to learn new things, especially for people in stretch roles. A thread >>
2 To begin with, in many jobs in technology, most of your learning opportunity comes in the course of doing the job day-to-day. In growth environments, it is common to show up to work and not know how to do something you need to do.
3 If you’re wired for it, this kind of environment is challenging, motivating, and fun. People who are “wired for it” are often self-directed learners with natural curiosity. These are wonderful characteristics.
4 Part of being “wired for it” includes some comfort with failure - when you try new things, sometimes it doesn’t work. But while comfort with failure is partly a personal trait, it is also an environmental one. I might feel ok to takes risks in some places and not others.
5 If you know you’re in a place where it's safe to fail, you take more risks. But sometimes, environments that make it safe for one person to fail make it harder for another - for reasons that are not about the work itself. This is rarely by intentional design, but it is common
6 In particular, the more you feel you have to lose (financially, socially) the scarier it feels to take learning risks. The more people around you that share your background, in whatever dimension feels central in the moment, the safer it probably feels to take risks.
7 Informal learning environments — the kind most people mostly work in - are wonderful IF the support is there for taking risks. They work IF the learner feels psychologically safe to try and fail. They need to know that occasional failure doesn’t diminish their reputation.
8 Structured learning environments say something different: “The point of being here is to learn, and everyone here is learning.” No one expects you to already know the material. It’s safe not to know the material.
9 A class, a lunch-and-learn, reading recently published research… few playing fields are truly socially even, but these have the potential to be evener. Because everyone shows up a beginner, regardless of their background, and that is the whole point.
10 In my own journey as a leader, I’m thinking about two things. a. How do I create more opportunities for structured learning around me - the kind that everyone feels safe showing up to? How can I facilitate that?
11 also b. How do I continue to take risks with my own learning and put myself into more environments where I am a beginner? What makes it feel safe or unsafe? What do I learn from those patterns and how can I bring them back to (a) above?
12 Thanks tweeps for reading my nightly musing. ❤️
