Dilip Mukerjea writes in the tail end of his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; this is a sneak preview!):

YOUR JOURNEY TO SUCCESS by Learning Every Day!

On the white pathway leading to the summit, write down at least ONE skill you will learn (or keep learning) in the coming week. Feel free to draw icons and symbols to represent your thoughts and feelings. 

WHY YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO LEARN TO SUCCEED IN THIS JOURNEY 

The ability to learn faster, deeper, and more panoramically than others will give you a crucial competitive edge in the 21st century economy. 

The immeasurable benefits comprise: 

• Allowing You to Stay Current In Your Field. As business rules change, economic conditions shift, and new technologies make old ones obsolete, workplaces are being transformed faster than ever. 

• Providing You With The Flexibility To Change Careers Because You Become Vastly More Employable. Boosting your LQ (‘Learnability Quotient) and your burgeoning skills in “knowing how to learn”; adding them to your résumé and with a link to your online portfolio will catalyse your prospects for unstoppable success. 

• Arresting Or Slowing Down Cognitive Decline. By building up a brain reserve and a more robust network of cells, the harmful effects of cognitive decline that can occur later in life can be slowed down. 

• Fostering The Growth Of New Brain Cells. You can help ensure that these brain cells stay alive by engaging in learning that requires effort (effortful learning). 

• Improving Overall Health (mental and physical) 

• Reinventing Yourself By Injecting Enthusiasm and Joy In Life En Route To Your Quest For Mastery In Your Chosen Disciplines!

Bon Voyage!

 [continue from Part III: How to Become An Intelligent Learner. This is the final part.]

Put Your Information on a Map

You can remember best the information you have read once you personalise the information, by converting the incoming data into meaningful relationships. 

This process takes place through thinking about the information input, understanding it, evaluating it, and translating it into terms you can readily use.

One of the best ways to consolidate your knowledge of a topic is to put your learned information on a map i.e. to make an idea map (or a mind map, to use a term coined originally by Tony Buzan).

Idea mapping is a simple method of distilling the essence of what you know and organising it in visual terms.

According to Tony Buzan, in his book, ‘Using Both Sides of Your Brain’, our left brain, which is logically oriented, “reads” only words, numbers, lists & facts. Our right brain, which is intuitively oriented, “reads” spatial relationships, patterns, rhythms, feelings, colours & “senses” the whole. 

Both our two brains work together to process the “big picture”.

To make an idea map, take a clean sheet of paper, arrange it horizontally or landscape-wise and begin by putting your central topic or principal idea in the centre of the page. 

Start writing key words or phrases on drawn lines radiating from your central topic. Remember to print on the lines, one key word or phrase per line, and keep the lines connected.

You can add small iconic pictures and use colours, whenever possible. 

Let your associations occur spontaneously. When you feel you have generated enough material through free associations, take a look at the result: all your ideas will spread across one single page. 

As you look at your map you will begin to see relationships that will help you organise and integrate your ideas.

Connect related parts of your maps with arrows, more lines, iconic pictures and colours. Eliminate elements that seem extraneous.

Alternatively, you can look at each element & ask yourself: What does this lead to? What’s next? Jot down your thoughts and reactions. Pare your map down to just the ideas you need for your purpose. Then number them in sequence, if necessary.

Idea maps are tremendously effective as memory aids because they utilise the same structure of association as the brain: the brain works primarily through association, connecting ideas in a non-sequential manner. 

Ideas that are closely related are grouped together, reinforcing the association. 

This makes the idea map a powerful means of embedding knowledge in memory in a form that will make it easy to recall and retrieve later.

In essence, idea mapping synergises the left-brain with the right brain, thus generating a whole-brain activity. The typical outline form of note taking and writing generally serves only the left-brain style.

By implementing these strategies and techniques as outlined in these pages, you can develop the competitive edge of being an intelligent learner.

As we enter the 21st century, and in order to survive information overload, we must first become intelligent learners.

In summary, I wish to paraphrase John Naisbitt, a well-recognised global trends watcher, who wrote the well-known ‘Megatrends’ classics in the nineties:

“In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, let alone for the rest of your life. 

The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.”

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!)

LEARN HOW TO LEARN WITH LOVE

If you wish to continue leading, you must continue learning! You do not win the race by being the best but by staying the best. If you have a great learning acquisition engine, then the next step is to have a great learning retention engine. 

A relationship is made up of a continuing series of collaborative interactions, all of which apply to you becoming a learning superorganism. Press on with your dreams, no matter how fierce the challenge. Setbacks are given to ordinary people to make them extraordinary: If you cannot, you must; If you must, you can! 

Success is an outcome of focused thought and action, within flowcentric conditions that exhilarate our emotions, excite our senses, energise our bodies, and elate our minds. 

When you are creating something meaningful you are bringing to life something that would never have existed if you had not been there. So, be kind to your mind, and unleash the gems of genius that are within you.

BE KIND TO YOUR MIND!

THE TASK AHEAD OF YOU IS NEVER AS GREAT AS THE POWER WITHIN YOU. 

There are deep, ongoing mutations that are revolutionising the way our lives are being lived. 

Two overarching factors that are producing a transformative impact are: 

(1) the rapid development of cybernetics and information technology 

(2) globalisation and the massive power of these two forces working together. 

Great leaders are great learners. They take every opportunity to keep learning, again and again. 

The youth of today are developing a wide attention range and a short attention span. These young minds are accustomed to a multimedia and multichannel learning style with frequent interruptions. 

Learning in a vacuum rarely leads to the kind of profound discipline it takes to reach beyond ourselves into the new world of ability and experience. Like building muscles, development does not happen all at once. 

It happens over time that is spent in the realm of the unfamiliar, disorienting, and perplexing. How high do we reach? What are our values, and what is the essence of our character? 

Discipline is the key, and aspiration is the spirit in learning that enables us to extend beyond our limits to reach our dreams. It is why this book is being crafted. 

Throughout their careers, the artist geniuses Picasso and Matisse saw each other as rivals rather than as friends. But they followed each other’s work intimately. Matisse once wrote to Picasso, “We must talk to each other as much as we can. 

When one of us dies, there will be some things the other will never be able to talk of with anyone else.” Stay stimulated like Picasso and Matisse! 

We are transitioning through game-changing times in a world of increasing risk and opportunity. This scenario calls on us to attain a balance between masculine assertiveness and feminine sensitivity. 

In the face of multifarious challenges, we need to be open to uncertainty and ambiguity, be willing to embrace the unknown, and yet maintain perspective. 

Today’s unstoppable political, marketspace, and technological forces call upon us to function beyond the normal thought horizons, to reskill, and reclaim the high ground. 

The shelf-life of any advantage is shrinking, competitive intensity is escalating, and there is a premium on speed, flexibility, and innovation. 

As a consequence, we should never cease from negotiating cross-cultural complexities, enhancing opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves when life seems most challenging, and thus ever striving to create a spiritual sacrament that projects our humanity in the best light possible. 

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself. I do not believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. 

One of the reasons this book is being written is to address the question “Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of noble human purposes?” 

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure. Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning. 

One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that. 

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.

There is a specific area of the brain area called the left inferior parietal lobule, which is especially pronounced in humans and not seen at all in lower animals. It is where all the senses come together — touch, vision, hearing, the other senses — and when that is damaged, people lose the ability to engage in metaphorical thinking. 

This extends to diluting their ability to learn. But even without this part of the brain under attack, too many amongst us are not using our senses to learn, and especially, to learn how to learn. 

It is thus my hope that this book can help to awaken the dormant forces that lie unaddressed within us. 

Please learn, and keep on learning! Keep track of your learning tasks to ensure you make exponential gains in your status quo. 

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!):

WHAT IS LEARNING?

LEARNING is the creation of a relationship between two things:

(1) The Known (2) The Unknown

The ability to learn how to learn, and to learn rapidly, is a vital 21st century skill!

Strategies are the secret to learning. A 'strategy' is nothing more than a specific way of organising your resources in order to consistently get the specific results you want. 

The ultimate strategies are mental and emotional because they shape and influence everything else.

Most of our classrooms are stultifying children. Dead data, lifeless facts, mind-numbing rote-regimes that leach the genius out of every child.

 Such regimens leave children enchained between the darkness of a dead past and the obscurity of an unknown future.

You do not need to know all the answers; you do need to know how to ask questions, and thus to manifest solutions... and then the answers emerge! 

Although teachers may be wise, sometimes they are otherwise. But the brilliancy of an incomparable teacher generates lectures that breathe optimism, where human harmony prevails and the students:

 can see opportunities where others see only problems

 are helped to influence outcomes where others are stuck

 are enabled to create solutions where others are challenged.

The interest of the learner in a vibrant classroom is stimulated by the interplay of two themes that recur almost like melodies in the sonata of life evolving, and give the experience an intellectual resplendence.

These encounters contain themes that are the role of conscious human activity in the creation of knowledge and the imagination content of that knowledge. Thus the integrity of the student matches the vision of the teacher.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." ~ Frederick Douglas

Curiosity maintains momentum. Great teachers catalyse students towards learning mastery. 

A 'master' is someone who has a comprehensive grasp of all the nuances in his or her field, and exhibits dexterity with:

 Adaptive Agility: aware that the best at any point does not ultimately win; it's the one who is most adaptive, the one with the widest range of responses.

 Strategic Amplification: where, with a 'multiplier effect' the student learns how small influential moves create huge leverage gains.

 Game Transformer: enacting events that transcend what is, to what can be ... beyond the anaesthetic of stale encounters into the aesthetics of a vibrant aliveness.

 Positive Momentum: spotting the invisible forces at play that drive one forward, from hope to fulfillment.

It may not be easy, but it is worth it! Remember that some of the best days of your life haven't happened yet! Break out of static thought into the open vistas of creative possibilitiy.

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!):

The Feynman Perspective and Method for Learning! 

The Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman - and overall great man - once said, “Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible.” 

How does this help you in studying? 

Here is what he had to say about it. 

1. Write the name of what you are studying at the top of a blank piece of paper. 

2. Write an explanation of what you are studying. Throw away all the jargon and pretend you are explaining this concept to someone new. Highlight what you know, and pinpoint what you do not. 

3. Review what you have pinpointed, then go back to the original material of what you are studying and re-read it. Then repeat step 2. 

4. Avoid the jargon and try to create a broad analogy of what you are studying. 

This approach allows you to develop a fundamental-level understanding of what you are studying. 

What often happens to those who “study” and end up failing is that they do not actually understand the material; they have just memorised it. 

Feynman also had something to say about this. “I do not know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!” 

Feynman sought to ensure that he was not “learning” like this, and that he would never opt to render this approach to learning for his students. 

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!):

RELENTLESS DAILY LEARNING THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN refers to the way the human brain is designed to learn, naturally, physiologically and psychologically, so that the suite of skills can be plugged into WHAT to learn. 

This means that anything (any subject) can be learned via attaining mastery of these skills. 

The driving force is ‘Applied Imagination’, whereby human memory, comprehension, and articulation are synthesised into a composite powerpack, a brainforce that garners winning outcomes, across all ages, domains, disciplines, and cultures, without the need for cramming, and mindless memorisation. 

Any paper shuffler can take one from A to B; the leader must take the people from A to X! X is the zenith point, the unknown zone in the sense of your limitless possibilities. It is also reflected in the exponential zone on the graph to the right, on the next page. 

As you can see, once again to the right, I have explained the miraculous benefit obtained from a simple 1% improvement in oneself via daily learning. 

Here are the crucial insights that have been explained: 

(1) Starting at a unit value of ‘1’, for example, if you do not improve or decline every day, for one year, you will remain at 1. 

(2) However, if you improve 1% every day, you will be 37.78 times better after 365 days, 

(3) BUT, if you decline in your standards by 1% every day, you will plummet from 1.00 to 0.03, almost zero, after a year!!! 

Drawing a parallel to this insight in terms of your money, the percentage increase in an original investment of $1.00 at 1% interest per day for a year = 3678% after 365 days! A miracle!

We are at the epicentre of seismic transformations in the way we organise our societies, run our businesses, live our lives. 

How we deal with these challenges is up to every individual; one thing is certain: we need to be skilled in converting obstacles into opportunities. 

We need concrete routes to realise the global aspirations for a sustainable and resilient world. 

There is a desperate urgency for us to arm ourselves with new navigation tools to combat the volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, novel and turbulent (VUCANT) challenges that loom before us. 

Every institution must sharpen their visual acuity to look beyond its immediate interests and manoeuvre through a panoramic opportunity space that holds the secrets to future prosperity.

Dilip Mukerea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (yet to be released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!):

EXAMPLES OF SUPERSKILLS AS A PRAGMATIC SUITE OF EXPERTISE IN BRAIN CAPITAL CREATION

ENVISIONING INFORMATION: 

Able to process masses of information, in real time, with speed, clarity, depth, and extensivity. No educational campus presently possesses these skills. 

A SUITE OF VISUAL MAPPING STRATEGIES:

Can depict panoramic expanses of information on one sheet of paper ... using techniques based on the physiology of the brain and the psychology of memory. 

MEMORY:

Possesses hands-on, applied imagination skills to dramatically boost memory. There is no learning without Memory: thus, a wide range of mnemonic learning strategies needs to be grafted onto study material for easy, and durable, recall. NO CRAMMING! 

PROWESS AT READING: 

Possesses a range of critical and creative reading skills panoramically enhanced via (i) vastly augmented reading speeds (ii) greatly strengthened comprehension. 

POWER LEARNING: 

Is able to execute high-speed integration of reading-visual mapping-memory-and-presentation expertise, to powerfully slash the learning curve. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS: 

Knows the skills of Sentence Mapping (critical thinking addressing the anatomy of a sentence, et al), vocabulary building, diction, and eloquence in writing, speaking, and live presentations.

[Author's Comments: Learning How to Learn, with 292 pages, densely graphically illustrated,  is essentially a complete compendium of requisite skillsets, toolsets, actionsets and mindsets for any professional or student who wants to stay relevant - and remain ahead - in the 21st Century!]

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!)

A VIGNETTE ON LEARNING HOW TO LEARN 

Learning how to learn is a crucial skill for the 21st century. It can make you agile, flexible, adaptable, and adept at visual-verbal processing, all brain skills for immediate application, pivotal to future-proofing your career. 

Imagine being able to acquire a new language, take up a new sport, or learn to play an instrument in less time, with greater speed and depth, by using the most effective, researchbacked methods available. 

At its core, learning is the process of creating new dendritic branches through practice, brainfriendly study bouts, and sleep. Sleep is essential for learning. It clears out metabolic toxins that accumulate during wakeful periods, and strengthens new connections made during learning. It is also when our brains rehearse what we have been learning, and makes more loose associations about any problems we may be working on. 

Although living brains are very complex, this book uses, as an example, metaphor and analogy to help simplify matters. You will discover several fundamentally different modes of thinking, and how you can use these modes to improve your learning. You will also be introduced to a tool for tackling procrastination, be given some practical information about memory. 

‘Chunking’ is one of the skills that requires cultivating focus, developing understanding, practising the skill or concept you want to learn, and paying attention to the larger context that the chunk fits into. 

Chunks are compact packages of information that your mind can easily access. We will discuss how you can form chunks, how you can use them to improve your understanding and creativity with the material, and how chunks can help you to do better on tests. We will also explore illusions of competence in learning, the challenges of overlearning, and the advantages of interleaving. 

Building solid chunks in long-term memory—chunks that are easily accessible by your short-term memory—takes time. This is why learning to handle procrastination is so important. We also address some of the best ways to access your brain’s most powerful long-term memory systems. 

Another highly effective approach, ‘Retrieving’, directed at information that needs to be learned, is an active process that facilitates deep learning and helps form longlasting chunks. It is a great way to combat illusions of competence. 

Three neurotransmitters affect learning: dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. Dopamine increases in response to rewards and the anticipation of reward. Serotonin is linked to social status, mood and risk-taking, while acetylcholine is involved in focus and concentration. 

Interleaving is a powerful recipe, described here in a unique manner, when you switch between multiple problems and themes that require different skills, which results in several related chunks being formed. It is useful for avoiding the illusion of competence; by testing yourself in different areas, you improve at them and can (sometimes) transfer them to new problems. 

Reconsolidation is the phenomenon whereby memories change when they are remembered. There are two essential facets of memory: working memory and long-term memory. 

While researchers originally thought we could hold 7 items in working memory, the number is more likely closer to 4, although we chunk items to conserve energy and short-term cognitive space. 

Long-term memory is nearly limitless; we can hold billions of pieces of information and representations there. 

Transferring things from working memory to long-term memory requires time and practice. Spaced repetition allows you to strengthen connections in long-term memory by resting and returning to practice sessions repeatedly over long stretches of time. 

From section to section of this book, you will encounter crucial ideas and techniques that will enhance your ability to learn. You will also discover how to more profitably interact with fellow learners, how to recognise your own strengths, and how to avoid the “imposter syndrome.” 

[Imposter Syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects highachieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. Many question whether they are deserving of accolades]. 

Fighter pilots and surgeons use checklists to help them with their critical duties—you can use a similar checklist to help you prepare for tests. 

Ultimately, you will learn more about the joys of living a life filled with learning! 

Learning rewires the brain. In the process, some of the brain’s nerve cells change shape or even fire backwards. Recent data have been showing that the brain continues to change over the course of our lives. Cells grow. They form connections with new cells. Some stop talking to others. And it is not just nerve cells that shift and change as we learn. Other brain cells also get into the act. 

Extensive practice can even allow a person to perform a task while thinking about other things — or about nothing at all. A professional pianist, for example, can play a complex piece of music without thinking about which notes to play next. 

In fact, stopping to think about the task can actually interfere with a flawless performance. This is what musicians, athletes and others often refer to as being “in the zone.” This is an ideal state for ingesting learning material. 

The word synapse stems from the Greek words “syn” (together) and “haptein” (to clasp). This might make you think that a synapse is where brain cells touch or fasten together, but that is not quite right. 

The synapse, rather, is that small pocket of space between two cells, where they can pass messages to communicate. 

A single neuron may contain thousands of synapses. In fact, one type of neuron called the Purkinje cell, found in the brain’s cerebellum, may have as many as one hundred thousand synapses. 

One type of synaptic plasticity is called long-term potentiation (LTP). LTP occurs when brain cells on either side of a synapse repeatedly and persistently trade chemical signals, strengthening the synapse over time. This strengthening results in an amplified response in the post-synaptic cell. As such, LTP enhances cell communication, leading to faster and more efficient signaling between cells at the synapse. 

Neuroscientists believe that LTP underlies learning and memory in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. The strengthening of those synapses is what allows learning to occur, and, consequently, for memories to form. 

It is the aim of this book to get your brain alive and alert with a symphony of synapses so that you master the  art and science of learning how to learn.

Dilip Mukerjea shares his personal thoughts as he writes in the preamble of his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!): 

My hope is that the world is ruled by 

- Wisdom tempered by humility 

- Justice tempered by empathy and 

- Reason tempered by compasion 

I keep asking myself: 

“In what ways can you make a disproportionate and positive impact upon the world?”

Confidence comes from having goals, taking risks, holding on to our convictions, and building up a small arsenal of succeses…and failures. Our failures tell us that it is possible to survive and move on. Our successes reveal that it is posible to prevail in the future. Both these experiences are vital in helping reassure us that in the end, all will be well.

BE ADEPT AT MAKING FULFILLING CHOICES!

STAY WILD & FREE!

DO WHAT THEY THINK YOU CANNOT DO!

BETTER DAYS ARE COMING!

STAY COOL!

BE MORE AMAZING THAN YESTERDAY AND LESS THAN TOMORROW!

A TEACHER AFFECTS ETERNITY. HE CANNOT TELL WHERE HIS INFLUENCE STOPS.

KEEP RUNNING AND NEVER LOOK BACK!

SUCCESS IS NOT INSTANT!

THE BEST VIEW COMES AFTER THE HARDEST CLIMB!

JUST START!

YOU WILL NEVER WIN IF YOU NEVER BEGIN!

TAKE RISK OR LOSE THE CHANCE!

THE MORE YOU LEARN THE MORE YOU EARN!

ALWAYS STAY HUMBLE AND KIND!

Continuing from an earlier post on  THE PARAMETERS OF THE LEARNING ECONOMY: LEARNING AND SKILLING, Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (not yet released; still in the works; this is a sneak preview!):

Innovating Innovation 

A 3Cs strategy can serve as a foundation for shaping opportunities to create significant value: 

Consider, Create, Consolidate. 

Consider what to focus upon, 

Create possibilities out of your focal options, via smart techniques, then 

Consolidate the decisions and actions that emerge from your considerations and creations. 

They integrate strategic, operational and organisational initiatives into pragmatic skills to deliver near-term performance improvement and longer-term capability building. 

Today, most of the world’s brilliant people are not members of any single team but are distributed all over the planet in diverse institutions. Increasingly, innovations occur at the interstices between different disciplines — between, for example, biotech and nano technologies, genetics and robotics, information and telecommunications. 

Organisations need to find ways to leverage the disparate intellectual assets of people who see the world differently and who use unique tools and methods. Such people are likely to work both in different disciplines and in different institutions. 

Discovering and leveraging successful ways to work with them will lie at the heart of innovating innovation. 

Today’s computers have the power to simulate massively complex, nonlinear systems, coupled to phenomenal visualisation techniques; they enable the customer to be brought ever closer to the design process. 

Two principal sources of learning are: 

‘learning by doing’ — via actions and interactions, and ‘learning while waiting’ — what is discovered from markets during product development. 

Keep learning in both modes, so as to stay current, creative, and competitive. Innovation is transforming the business landscape. 

The global economy is characterised by intensifying competition. New relationships will emerge from ‘accelerated capability building’, widely believed to be the most powerful source of strategic advantage. Scan the edges of business ecosystems, and explore the core of corporate consciousness, to discover catalysts for creative capability building. 

LEARNING UNLEARNING RELEARNING REBUILDING 

This is a four-step cycle that we experience from infancy, but without elaborate prior knowledge. But as adults, we must reframe our consciousness and understand what these steps mean and the value inherent in them: 

Learning can take place through formal education or informal training. 

Formal education involves attending classes and studying books while informal training takes place when someone teaches us something by example. 

Unlearning means letting go of old habits and ways of thinking that are no longer relevant. This happens naturally over time as we mature and gain experience. 

However, sometimes we need to consciously unlearn bad habits and negative beliefs. 

Relearning is similar to unlearning except that instead of letting go of old habits, we replace them with positive ones. When we re-learn something, 

We use the same knowledge base but apply it differently. For example, if you were good at math before, you might find yourself using different strategies to solve problems today.

It is necessary to learn, unlearn and relearn at any stage in life, but in the modern professional context, it calls upon us to consistently revamp our skills and upgrade our knowledge so as to keep pace with the rapidly changing world. This cycle enable us to expand our horizons, change our paradigms, and transform our possibilities. 

As long as we keep growing, we will continue to move forward towards achieving our goals.It provides us with valuable insights into how to deal with challenges and obstacles along the way. It keeps us sharp and relevant. 

With age comes wisdom and maturity. But without learning, we would remain immature forever. It improves communication skills, without which, we cannot effectively lead teams, manage projects, negotiate deals, persuade clients, influence stakeholders, and lead a fulfilling life. 

This cycle then upscales through a synthesis that enables us to re-build out status quo, and advance well into the distant future. 

Shift. Learn. Transform. 

This is the triunity of experiences that comprise the dynamics in our quest for the best.

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book, Learning How to Learn (still in the works; to be released shortly; this is a sneak preview!):

THE PARAMETERS OF THE LEARNING ECONOMY: LEARNING AND SKILLING

Within the churn of ever-changing and volatile technological trends, the only way professionals and organisations can sustain themselves is through the cycle of lifelong “Learning, Unlearning and Relearning.” 

This discipline must be complemented by the heartbeat of the acronym “CURE”: 

1. Cross-Skilling: 

Learning skills from domains other than their core, to perform beyond existing roles and responsibilities. Professionals should be able to work on multiple technologies rather than having mastery over just one technology to do justice to the constantly evolving job roles and responsibilities and volatile work environments. 

Additionally, cross-skilling helps professionals gain a better understanding of the process from start to finish. This boosts job satisfaction as well. 

2. Up-Skilling: 

In light of exponential, technological advances, professionals have to regularly upskill through undiminishing regimes of learning and development. Hands-on practice and application are needed now more than ever to upskill and be proficient in new skills being acquired, and further skills demanding attention. 

3. Re-Skilling: 

Today’s technologies, and those that are emerging within the accelerating future, have a short shelf-life. As a result, professionals need to enable themselves to constantly keep learning new skills, so as to stay relevant to current trends and abreast of marketspace demands; Re-skilling helps professionals sharpen their business acumen, their critical, creative, and systems thinking skills, and exponentially raises their employability quotient. 

4. Expert-Skilling: 

While cross-skilling is the spreading of one’s skillset breadth-wise, expert skilling is going deep, much deeper. Attaining hands-on experience in technologies while solving real-world problems under the guidance of industry experts has been the standard way of learning. A thorough expertise refers to a project well taken care of. 

Experts at technology are seen as assets to organisations. The scaling in companies is another issue – whether it is down-scaling or up-scaling, the professional who is cross-skilled, up-skilled, expert-skilled or re-skilled is expected to thrive! 

In summary, as professionals embrace the CURE concept and practice, their organisations will breed future business adaptiveness, agility, and resilience! 

Today, we are in The Learning Economy! The creative brain capital resident within a nation’s citizenry will determine the emergence of winners in an ecosystem of stampeding idea-brokers. 

We are in a “VUCANT“ world, where Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, Novelty, and Turbulence prevail: game-changing challenges compel us to continually think, learn, and create, in unreal time, so that we move ahead from volatility to vision, uncertainty to understanding, complexing to clarity, ambiguity to agility, novelty to noteworthiness, and turbulence to tranquillity. 

This means that we must be able to: 

• convert information into usable intelligence. 

• come up with simple solutions to complex problems. 

• understand and appreciate that true TQM equates directly with effective brain and heart usage.

The corporations that survive in the long term will be those with “smart teams” that are able to think quick, move fast, manoeuvre 

The corporations that survive in the long term will be those with “smart teams” that are able to think quick, move fast, manoeuvre  flexibly, and are more focused through the medium of “relaxed alertness.” 

The possession of knowledge alone, without subsequent application, will produce a pundit rather than a practitioner. 

True knowledge resides in ultimately doing, not merely knowing about, and talking about.

Dilip Mukerjea writes in his new book (Learning How to Learn; still in the works; to be released shortly;  this is a sneak preview!):

Navigating the 4th Industrial Revolution 

Tapping into the brilliant observations pertaining to human evolution right up to the present state, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and author of the masterpiece Shaping the Future of The Fourth Industrial Revolution, awakens us to the crucial realities confronting us today. 

His conviction that today, we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. It is monumental in its scale, scope, and complexity, whereby the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. 

One thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society. 

The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. 

The Second used electric power to create mass production.

The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. 

Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. 

He proffers three reasons why today’s transformations represent not merely a prolongation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather the arrival of a Fourth and distinct one: velocity, scope, and systems impact. 

The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. 

In this Exponential Age, when compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance. 

The bedrock of this is education, and learning how to learn! 

“We must develop a comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has never been a time of greater promise, or greater peril.” ~ Klaus Schwab;

Continuing from an earlier post:

Dilip Mukerjea continues to write in his latest book, Learning How to Learn (still in the works; not yet released; this is just a sneak peek!):

In what I term ‘adaptagility’, we need to be adaptive and agile in the VUCA world. 

Curiosity, risk-taking, and reflection are central to Learning Agility. 

People who are highly learning agile have a sense of wonder, a readiness to seek out the unfamiliar, and an ability to unpack this new knowledge in actionable ways. 

In today’s everevolving, ever-challenging business landscape, these qualities are in great demand, seen increasingly as critical to a company’s success, and an individual’s prospects in life. 

In view of the dire shortage of individuals and institutions addressing this issue, I offer the AGILE concept as an option that can be activated in countries across the world, where AGILE represents 

Academy of Governance, Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship. 

The AGILE Mandate: To get people to see themselves as better than they are; to transport them into the future to spot opportunities, and triumph against adversity, to become torchbearers of excellence. 

AGILE aims to leverage its consciousness of virtues and values, by inspiring its membership to heal the body, feed the spirit, and illumine the intellect, in all walks of life. Its purpose is directed at every level of society, to inspire the creation of ‘leading learners’ and ‘learning leaders’. 

THE CONCEPT OF ‘ADAPTAGILITY’ WITHIN THE AGILE FRAMEWORK 

Tapping into deep processes, harnessing the forces of attraction, influence, and serendipity, and harvesting the fruits garnered from applied imagination. 

Learning to dance to the rhythms of sfumato = openness to uncertainty and ambiguity, willingness to embrace the unknown, and yet maintain perspective. 

‘ADAPTAGILITY’ is the confluence of being adaptive and agile in a quest to catalyse human INTELLIGENCE = sensing, thinking, feeling, responding ~ in an ambience of space, time, energy, and information...through continual creative expression and improvisation. 

With purposeful engagement in the domains of governance, business, education, and social causes, we have to meet and defeat the whirlwinds of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. 

Competitive intensity is escalating. There is a premium on speed, flexibility, and innovation. Thus, there is a call for the ‘spirit of enterprise’ to awaken at all levels of society. 

The activities within the AGILE Framework are designed to impart a range of skills for immediate application: to reduce complexity, accelerate learning, extract clarity from clutter, convert extensive information into intensive insights, and recognise design beneath disorder...all directed at applications that engender peak-value Returns on Imagination (ROI). 

AGILE embodies the ideals of Samurai Service, which enables us to become able, and helps us to help others in soulconscious ways. 

Following such precepts, we engender and inspire Soul-Smart Leadership. 

This means that real power, as true as an electric current... the power of the inner reality, the engine of the highest ideals of being human, gives wings to our dreams, rides the waves of creativity, and illumines the darkness of ignorance, all of which is AdaptAgility in Action!

Dilip Mukerjea writes, in his new book, Learning How to Learn (still in the works, for this is a sneak preview):

THE CRUCIAL 21st CENTURY MANDATE FOR LEARNING AGILITY 

Learning agility is the X-factor that can propel individuals and organisations ahead in a VUCA world relentless threats, challenges, and opportunities. This characteristic applies to students, executives, and leaders in the domains of education, business, and governance. 

[The VUCA world refers to one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous]. 

Learning agility measures an individual’s learning ability and learning orientation to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Imagining a metaphorical dashboard, it indicates an individual’s learning preferences and drive towards excelling in continuously changing scenarios. 

The elements that would enable to shift, learn, and transform coalesce into the acronym CURE: cross-skilling, up-skilling, re-skilling, expert-skilling. 

Learning agility refers to the essential behavioral competencies that predispose an individual to learn new things faster than others. 

Learning orientation refers to crucial cognitive competencies that allow a person to learn quickly by identifying patterns, logical rules and data trends. 

Learning agility is a combination of skills that enables a person to learn, relearn and adapt to changing situations easily. It comprises both the ability and the attitude to learn, and is critical for nurturing a future-ready workforce that can adapt to changing work environment. 

Learning agility is not necessarily an academic skill, rather it encapsulates an individual’s ability and passion to quickly study a new problem and use their own learning process to gain deep understanding before making a decision. 

Korn Ferry encapsulates Learning Agility as the Organisational X-Factor. This phenomenon is sometimes described as “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do”; it requires an open and receptive mindset. 

Those who demonstrate strong “learning agility” in the guise of mental agility often excel at being able to study, analyse, and understand new situations and new business problems. 

When an organisation and its staff members are agile, and inevitable changes and challenges occur, employees and work processes are less likely to become stressed, because this is a normal way of working. Korn Ferry research informs us that Learning agility encompasses five factors: 

Mental agility—embracing complexity, examining problems in unique ways, making fresh connections, and staying inquisitive. 

People agility—being open-minded toward others, enjoying interaction with diverse groups, bringing out the best in others. 

Change agility—willingness to lead transformation efforts, continuously exploring new options. 

Results agility—delivering results in tough situations, responding to challenge, inspiring others to achieve more than they thought possible. 

Self-awareness—being reflective, understanding strengths and weaknesses, seeking feedback and personal insight.

A brand new book is in the works by Dilip Mukerjea. It's entitled:

Learning How to Learn. 

It's going to be jam-packed with skill-sets, tool-sets, action-sets and mindsets for navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

It will also share a gamut  of strategies, tactics, hints and tips on how to enhance your learning agility.

This is just a provisional front cover.