Degrees of Learning
By “degrees of learning,” I don’t mean professional or advanced degrees. What I mean are the small degrees that separate 1 from 2, 10 from 12, and so on. I thought of the phrase after hearing someone say “I already know that!”
At the least, that expression points to lack of openness or, as bad, to arrogance.
Let’s say I tell you something you already know. Or something you think you know. Does that mean you shouldn’t hear it again, be reminded, or get reinforcement?
Even deeper are the musical and angular perspectives. By angular, I mean an angle or a particular point of view. If I tell you that my experience as a middle-aged man, born in the Northeast United States with roots in Georgia and Florida, gives me a particular angle on a topic, that angle could present you with a degree of difference from that which you “already know.”
By musical, I mean the inflections, volume, and pace of the message. The emphasis I give to certain words, the speed or slowness with which I speak, and how loud or soft, will transmit signals and feeling-tones too. Based on those variables, you may end up with a different take on the same information that you thought you knew.
Even if you think you know something, if there is one degree of distinction as outlined above, then the attitude expressed by “I already know that” stands in the way of learning variations on a theme that may open the way to richer insights and perception.
In a few weeks, I’ll be featured at the Center for Transformative Learning’s upcoming 2021 Integral Practitioner Convergence, taking place April 17 & 18, 2021.
As we pass the one-year mark since the beginning of the pandemic and a light at the end of the tunnel begins to appear, key questions about our collective future are emerging, questions that we’ve been pursuing in recent posts. Beyond the medical and economic concerns, questions about the future of coaching, organizational leadership, psychotherapy, and education are in need of collective inquiry and reflection.
I encourage you to learn more if you are seeking to coach, consult, and lead in the post-pandemic future.
The Integral Practitioner Convergence will feature a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds, and professions across two days of panels, and I am looking forward to speaking as part of the Convergence.
Learn more and register now to join the Convergence, April 17 and 18, 2021.