For Academics

Hello, this is Stefan. 

He studies Business Studies at the University of Technology Sydney. Over the last semester he participated in the course called Management Research Project. In this course Stefan performed solo research on a current industry topic. In this work he focused on legal issues related to the rise of the sharing economy. His goal was to identify challenges for legislators on the way to a shared future.

Based on rigorous research, he was able to draft a report that gives valuable recommendations to governments around the world on how to enable the sharing economy to prosper, and at the same time mitigate risks that come hand in hand in this development. 

Nevertheless, the aim of this video is not to give you insights on Stefan's research, but to show you how he has improved as a learner, over the course of the last 12 weeks.

In the first week of class, Stefan was introduced to CLARA. And no, that's unfortunately not a girl in his class. CLARA is a tool that helps you to understand and improve your capacity as a learner. At the beginning of the semester, Stefan completed the CLARA survey. Based on various questions he receive his personal CLARA spidergram. On there, his abilities as a learner are presented and assessed along 8 different dimensions. These dimensions aim at creating an awareness of one's current learning identity and purpose. It also gives an idea of improvement and helps to develop strategies for future change.

Extremely important for Stefan's Learning Journey was the first conversation with his coach Mingming. Together they looked at his profile and talked about the various dimensions. By asking questions, Mingming enabled him to interpret his CLARA profile, identify strengths and weaknesses, and develop strategies for future improvement. 

Stefan scored very high on the dimensions of Creativity, Curiosity, and Sensemaking. This was very encouraging for him because he has one big theme in his life: he wants to become a successful entrepreneur. These strengths will help him to learn new things, appreciate uncertainties, and identify potential business opportunities. 

Really surprising to Stefan were the comparably low scores on Hope & Optimism, as well as Belonging. He actually sees himself as a very positive person who approaches learning challenges with a can-do attitude and the appreciation for new learning opportunities. Also Stefan considers himself as a very open and outgoing person, and thinks that he has access to good networks with people with similar learning objectives that along his learning journey. 

However, his coach Mingming found a great explanation for this surprising outcome. Given the fact that at this particular point in time, Stefan has only been to Australia for roughly two weeks,  the low scores on these two particular dimensions were not a big surprise to the coach. Mingming explained that this only reflects the challenges and fears that come hand-in-hand with such a big change in life. Moving to a new country is always difficult. The coach predicted that the scores in these dimensions will rise throughout the semester, that Stefan will settle in and get to know new people. 

Not a big surprise for Stefan was his low score on Mindful Agency. The conversation with his coach showed that he's very well aware of the fact that he's not very thoughtful and organized when it comes to learning. Stefan usually approaches his learning very spontaneously, and sees planning and structuring as a waste of time. 

The same applies to active reflection on his learning activities. The coaching made really clear to him that this is a true weakness, and one of the reasons why he continuously struggles with deadlines, and consequently has to pull exhausting all-nighters! Actively realizing his weakness was really important and valuable for Stefan. He decided to work on his Mindful Agency throughout the semester by structuring his work in a better way, and using tools like To Do lists and Gantt Charts for his tasks at UTS. 

At the end of the semester, Stefan completed the second CLARA profile. Hope & Optimism, as well as Belonging, went up considerably. Mingming's forecast became reality! Having settled in in Sydney, and feeling very comfortable with the new environment, had a very positive effect on these two dimensions. Also, the score on Mindful Agency increased a bit. 

Reflection on a regular basis, as being more structured in terms of working, really paid off. Not a single all-nighter was needed to finish the assignments of the last semester. 

What was really great was that the combination of extremely high Curiosity, and the weakness of Mindful Agency, represents kind of a problem. On the one hand, Stefan's curiosity really helped him throughout the semester to gather valuable data for his project. On the other hand, sometimes he just got carried away by interesting articles, and then far off track, in his research. This is time consuming and not productive at all. Having realized this was very valuable because it helps him to be more mindful with his time, and more effective in his work. 

Stefan knows that Albert Einstein once said, "intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death"! Having this as a life motto, for him the introduction to CLARA was an extremely useful early experience. He will continue to work on his Mindful Agency to become a better, more reflective, and ever more efficient learner in the future.

Hi, I'm Rob Mayne. I'm an engineer with over 20 years’ experience working in three different organisations. I've had many roles over that time, and I've learned a lot. But one thing that hasn't changed is the way I learn. My natural tendency is to learn to achieve a specific purpose or a task, or a skill, which is perfect for high school, university and starting work. But it's not good enough for today.

In 2017, I undertook a, my fourth leadership program at Hunter Water, but was the first to spotlight how important it is to learn, and show me how I learn, and how can I improve my learning.

As part of the program, I undertook a Hogan personality assessment, and a CLARA Learning Power profile.

The Hogan assessment showed two things. One, you can't change your personality. And two, you can change how you act if you are aware of your personality traits. And I'll learn from this experience that my personality traits support and hinder the way I both lead and learn.

My initial Learning Power profile highlighted I was low on the scales of Collaboration, Belonging and Mindful Agency. This ladder point measures the extent to which I take responsibility for my own learning. It’s not where it should be.

This feedback correlated with my Hogan profile, it jogged me to change my learning style. The leadership program encouraged me to take what I learned from the program and apply it to a team that I lead, and the Non-revenue Water program team was the perfect opportunity. Perfect, because he was a topic I knew almost nothing about. And perfect, it gave me the opportunity to learn from within a team.

So how have I gone? The starting point for me was about creating an atmosphere of comfort, trust and confidence within the team. They're essential steps if you want to feel safe to be inquisitive and creative. I shared as much as possible with my colleagues about the power of a team learning together, and having the right learning attitude and appetite. We soon opened up about each other's strengths and gaps. Plus, we're comfortable learning from outside the team as well.

In September last year, in talking with other planners, I saw an opportunity to improve the information we have in our Geographic Information System. Here can be the solution to people spending loads of time manually looking through lines of data and volumes of strategies to plan network upgrades. The Rob Mayne of old would have supported digital audio and hope someone else would take the lead because I had no experience with GIS. Not this time. I took the lead and jumped into the unknown, knowing that I had colleagues with knowledge in GIS and asset planning, who'd be happy sharing the knowledge with all members of our newly formed team, including me.

The project hasn't been easy. I've stumbled a few times, but have kept focus on my need for learning, and the learning of those in the working group. I’m persisting at not missing a good opportunity. But just to wrap up, I recently undertook a second CLARA Learning Power assessment. I'm pleased to see improvements in Collaboration, Belonging and Mindful Agency. But I've still got a long way to go in becoming a proactive learner.

Learning is important for everyone. Each of us should challenge ourselves and our colleagues, about how we learn and how we’re tapping into the wisdom and learning about experiences around us.

And my takeaway tip to you: find out about your learning style, strengths and weaknesses. Knowing these will help you be a more effective learner, both today and into the future. Good luck.

Hi,

I'm Sonya, and I'm here to talk about something we all do all the time, sometimes deliberately, and sometimes without even realising it.

Learning. In particular, the aim of this video is to give you an insight into my personal learning journey, how I've changed as a learner and as a leader over the past 12 months.

My learning journey started when I asked myself why, why is learning still so important, and yet so different? Because something that I've thought about a lot is part of this experience. Today's world is changing much faster than before. Information is everywhere, and it's easily accessible. If you don't know the answer to something, you can Google it. If you need to learn how to do something, you can just watch it on YouTube. Learning isn't just about studying and gaining new knowledge anymore. It's about how quickly you can learn and use that new information in the best possible way. It's also about how to learn, and it's about new ways of thinking. And to me, that was my first light bulb moment that simply learning is a skill. And like any skill, you need to constantly work on improving it.

To understand the way I learned, I completed the Clara self questionnaire back in March 2017. The tool organised my results in eight different learning dimensions with the following results. As you can see, I scored high in collaboration, belonging, and also have an open readiness to learning. This was encouraging, as it means that I'm comfortable learning with others, I have a network of people who I can turn to. And I'm also confident to learn on my own. When I look at the dimensions that I didn't score as high, there were two areas that stood out, hope and optimism and creativity. Hope and optimism is about being confident that you can change and learn. And so, I was really surprised with this result, because I'm generally a positive person, and enjoy learning new things. But let me put this result in context. The current profile tells you how you see yourself as a learner at a point in time.

Now, at the time of the survey, there was some changes in the organisation, and within my area. I suspect my head was in the detail of the changes, meaning I was a little more cautious than usual. Anyone who knows me knows I'm more than a glass half full kind of person. To help improve in this area, I reflected on my past learning experiences. During my time at Hunter Water, I've successfully completed different roles in really different areas, and handled challenging projects and situations. These range from working in HR to economics, learning Six Sigma, and now working in IT. Not as big of a surprise was creativity. And this is about risk taking. It's about playfulness and imagination. I tend to focus on an issue or a problem at hand and may pull back conversation if I see it going off track. This in turn may limit exploring different ideas and coming up with unexpected and sometimes often better solutions. This requires different approaches. First, I discussed it openly and to see what works for others. I shared with my peers. That's an area that I'm working on. And I ask them to stop me if I appear limiting. I also made some goals for myself. One is to listen to more TED Talks. But really, I want to practice or challenge myself to start thinking outside of the box. I'm aiming to come up with multiple potential solutions to an issue, not just one. I also want to be more visual, for example, using the whiteboard more often and earlier in discussions.

From now on when I'm presenting, I want to use fewer words and use more pictures. Feedback is always important, so how am I doing with this video? I recently retook the Clara assessment and was pleased with the results. As you can see, my profile is in general has improved. But I know the journey hasn't ended. And I know it's going to continue to be an exciting trip. And some of you will share it with me. Thanks for listening, and I hope you have a great learning journey too.

So, when I was first told by Lutz that I was going to be on this program, I took a very open-minded approach. I've always enjoyed learning, doing research and looking for new things. I had no real expectations about whether it was going to be any sort of restrictions, I was happy to find that it was not aimed at accreditation assessment, it was actually something that was tailored specifically for Hunter Water and its needs.

It was part of the program, we went through some diagnostic tools, we looked at our CLARA profiles, Hogan assessment, and also 360s. So the good ones I got there was the fact that I tended to look like I was a good coaching and mentoring person. And I intend now as a strength to use that skill more often with my team, and anyone else that's sort of willing to listen.

The learnings I've got from the program worked along with how I responded, how I work, and how I've tried to talk to my team members and my other people about what sort of things I do. There’s a thing called the “left hand margin”. And that to me, is the things that you think about but you don't say. A lot of us basically either blurt that out or come out with it quite regularly. And it's a stop and think thing. It's actually you know, should I say that now? Is it the right audience? Is it the right people to say it to? Is it the right time? Should I say it at all? Which is hard to do as an engineer, you've got to engage more of that grey matter and become more grey. So there's areas that, you know, it's a “measure twice, cut once”. Is that the right response? Is that the only response? Can I look at other things? Are there other ways that we can do this as well?

For the remainder of the year, and I guess, for the rest of my career, is to try and make it a permanent change, which is what learning is all about, is to continue along the lines of having more conversations, engaging with more people. And looking at what I've got there, as far as a work-life balance is concerned, you know, look at the things that are important to me, outside work and inside work. Saying when you go home, or when you go and do things that's not the cut-off point, but you've got to seriously think about what you do and how you act affects everyone else, both at work and at home.

This tool here which is Learning Power, development Learning Power — I've got that stuck on my computer monitor now, and I use that on a daily basis, particularly the ones I use are the Mindful Agency and also the Sense Making, it's something that I basically now live by on a day-by-day basis.

So years ago, there was a song by Oasis called “Wonderwall”, and I was thinking about it, and as a result I created a “wonderwall” in my office. I've got pictures up there of all my family, my kids, my grandkids, parents, and I've also got some stuff out there or the program that Ruth and Gus have given me, including this, which is up there as well. I use that on a day-to-day basis just you have a stop and think moment where you sort of sit and look and say well, what can I use out of that in both my day-to-day life at work, and at home, and see how it works out. It gives you inspiration.

So also from a past life, a thing that I got from my dad — and I don't know where he got it from, I don't know if he made it up or not, I never got the chance to ask him — but it's a slogan that he used to use. And that was “The harder you try, the better you get. And the better you get, the more you try.” And it's all about being better than before. And it's worked quite well for me, and I use it on a very frequent basis.

One of the things I got from previous education, my formal education, was from a uni lecturer a long time ago. His adage that he used “Knowledge is like a grain of sand”, so the analogy was drawn on the fact that if you believe at any stage you have all of the knowledge in the world, everything that everyone would ever know, relate it back to the fact that all you really know is nothing more than a grain of sand on the beach. What I would engender to people to do is to get engaged and continue to improve themselves and what they do.