Viagra-vated
I recently overheard a loud, very animated conversation between two ladies sitting at the table next to me in a coffee shop. One of them was describing her frustration with her husband’s new discovery of Viagra. She explained now he had the stamina but he was still missing the passion in sharing the love between them. She knew how sensitive he was to this subject but she needed to discuss her feelings with him soon. What was she to do?
As I got up to refill my coffee cup, I turned to them, apologized for overhearing their conversation, (not like I really had a choice) and suggested that she should tell him that she loved him dearly but she was, umm, Viagra-vated with the situation. Maybe a bit of bad humor or at least a bad pun might help defuse the issue and start the conversation on a light note.
Or make it worst? I don’t know. What we all know is that the world is changing very fast. It seems too fast for our bodies to keep up, too fast for our relationships to keep up, too fast for our companies to keep up unless we learn how to learn faster. Increasing our learning agility is the key.
Learning agility, is the ability to learn new things, unlearn old things, and re-checking your wisdom to know the difference between to two. This is bound to be one of the dominate competencies for success in this rapidly changing business environment.
Learning new things is easy; you just need to know what to learn. Are you doing now the same things now you were doing five years ago? Are you still studying the same things you studied when you were going to college? Probably not. In educational psychology we would say your knowledge acquisition context has changed. Where you are learning and why you are learning are different now, but how you learn, that is if you need to see or hear or read or do, in order to gain new knowledge likely has not changed.
Unlearning is more difficult. We know we are biased by our past experiences and that often blocks our ability to see new information and limits our ability to change. Businesses that thought of themselves as a technology company may now need to see themselves as a service company and may have to change their R&D approach. Often the personal competencies that made us successful in the past may become our career limitations now. The dominating boss of the past must now learn how to thrive with true collaboration and power sharing.
Sometimes, unlearning is easier when we see it as a humorous experience. I have some golfing friends who hit the ball like they are still playing tennis. The “net” result is a real handicap but they are unlearning and learning and having fun in the process as they feel the difference with the wisdom of their bodies.
The old adage that inside every problem or challenge is a new learning still seems to be true today. A problem viewed from different perspectives simultaneously will often show new solutions. Sometimes simply reframing the situation with a slightly humorous view will help eliminate the aggravation while increasing our learning agility. And shouldn’t it all be fun any way?
Please let me know what you think. Thanks!