Return to description of Learning Styles Profiler software

Developing the learning organization (much more on this and other topics is in the Manual of the Learning Styles Profiler)

Not so long ago, people went to work and performed the same monotonous job on the same machines for the whole of their working lives. Even, ten years ago, with the information age still in its infancy, the rate of change was still relatively slow. Nowadays, the world of work is changing faster and faster and in directions which we can not easily even begin to appreciate. Jobs are less well specified, change all the time and do not last a life-time. Many office jobs, for example, now involve sitting in front of a computer all day and this has involved learning new skills and adapting to new office procedures. A lot of these technical changes are frightening to the young graduate, never mind those staff who are nearing retirement. However, whatever stage of our career that we are in, it seems that some of us are able to adapt and some are not. Some of us would appear to have an in-built resistance, or apathy, to embracing new ideas that make us easily mistaken for ‘has beens,’ virtually from the first day we start in our jobs.

For companies who can afford it, training can be the standard answer. ‘Send Sandy and Norman off on a computer course.’ ‘Send Caroline and Simon off on a management course.’ However training courses only work if people want to learn and then want to put ideas into practice. Arguably, if staff want to learn and put ideas into practice, then they will not need to go off on a training course anyway.

A more modern technique is to ensure that a learning culture is firmly embedded in staff and management. Such a culture means that the workforce will develop their effectiveness by wanting to learn from daily work life. There are two main elements in developing a learning culture. First, we need to identify the internal learning strengths and develop the weaker learning styles. Second, a learning culture needs the organization itself to be positive in outlook and develop a learning culture.

Let’s take a look at the first point which is development of, or at least greater focus on, learning styles. Many people at work think about the skills they acquire as a result of learning, but are unaware of the learning process itself. It is straightforward for people to describe what is learnt, but it is very hard to describe how it was learnt. The first essential ingredient in creating a successful learning culture is therefore to develop know-how about the process of learning and more specifically what peoples' learning strengths and weaknesses are. In this respect, the learning process has recently been better understood in terms of its relationship to personality. The Cymeon Learning Styles Profiler Software (LSP-III) measures an individual’s preferred learning style based a far more sophisticated model than those based on Kolb’s learning cycle. The LSP is based on a learning system developed from our understanding of the neuropsychology of the applied biological process. A person’s preferences for different types of learning translates into strengths and weaknesses of learning style. These are described in Box 1 which provides a summary definition of these learning styles.

Box 1 Scales in the Learning Styles Profiler (III) Sensation Seekers are the impulsive 'appetitive learners' of the learning world. They approach new experiences and learn from rewarding experiences. This is a biological scale of learning which reflects our desire to learn. High scores are functional learners if some or all of the following conscious learning styles redirect their sensation seeking towards positive outomes. If not, high scorers can be dysfunctional learners.       Goal Oriented Achievers set hard and specific goals and have the self-confidence (self-efficacy) to achieve them. Their goal setting provides tenacity, focus and the chance to allocate resources towards solving the problem.   Conscientious Achievers have learnt to be wise and responsible learners who have learnt to take precautions against mishaps. They think things through thoroughly and think deeply before acting. Emotionally Intelligent Achievers are self regulating and independent thinkers and are prepared to stand out from the crowd.. They learn best by being able maintain a steady perspective. Deep learning Achievers reflect a lot and love to learn as much as they can.

Knowledge of these styles, and how these styles have developed, provides people at work with a real head start in being able to adapt to the changing world.. For a start, it provides information on learning preferences within the organization. This is useful in encouraging staff to engage in activities which they can best learn from and conversely it also encourages the development of weaker styles. The message here is that to develop a learning culture within your organization you need, first, to identify each person’s learning style and then provide a personal development plan to help staff take advantage of their strong styles and overcome weaknesses in learning.

Learning culture

The second essential ingredient to setting up a learning culture is the creation of an environment where people are encouraged to develop. If learning is encouraged, then the organization will move forward although mistakes will also be made (and learnt from!) If learning is discouraged, then people soon get the message that the learning culture is not about ways to move forward such as through creativity, openness, honesty.

There is much that the individual can do to learn and develop and therefore do better in the job and have a more active and varied life. At Cymeon, we recommend a focus on self-development through knowledge of learning styles. We do not claim that this is easy, because the biological basis of learning suggests that learning is a relatively stable disposition. Nevertheless, development is possible and this is what the software of our Learning Styles Profiler sets out to do.