Pile it on

Most of us have a distinct learning style, usually one of four types: Visual, auditory, reading and writing and the last is Kinesthetic (a hands-on style.) I don't believe many of us respond to only one though and (generally) in my experience most people seem to learn via a combination of two or more. I'm no different. In fact for me I'd say that it's all four styles together that help me learn more rapidly.

I've learned in a self-paced/driven and autonomous way over the years and have taken instruction, formal and in formal; whilst I've been challenged throughout either process I've always felt in control and comfortable; there's rare exceptions to that although mainly it's through maintaining control (over myself) I've found I learn best.

I'd say I've been overly comfortable in my job for the last twenty years; I knew everything I needed to know and simply augmented that knowledge as things changed or new concepts developed. Being the guy who knew everything was a comfortable position and matched my management and mentor role perfectly. I wasn't arrogant with it, just confident. But my recently-acquired role is in a totally different industry and whilst people, and general office, skills are transferrable little else is. I'm like a novice...Ok, maybe not novice as I have a lifetime of skills and attributes, but in respect of the concepts around this particular industry I have a lot to learn.

When delivering training myself one of the worst things I could do was pressurise the trainee; overload them with information and tasks. Some respond to that style though and that's what makes it vitally important for a trainer to understand the learning-type of the student - failing to do so will ultimately result in poor performance of the trainer and student.

When it comes to myself I mostly respond to what others may see as an overload of information; I generally pile it on myself and whilst it feels uncomfortable I usually find that it seeps into my brain better that way; it's that uncomfortable feeling that pushes me to greater effort and accelerates the learning.

It's the middle of my first week with this company and I'll admit to information-overload but I've piled it on myself rather than the company having done that. I don't know what I don't know so clarifying those things has to be the first step - Once that's done I can determine what's most important and what can wait until a little later - prioritising my effort and learning - and saving time along the way.

I'm a very structured man when it comes to most things and for that reason tend to prioritise well; I've been doing that this week.

My company haven't put me under pressure - the opposite in fact - and I'm feeling quite comfortable that they'll allow me the time to grow and develop into the role and the industry. It's actually one of the reasons I chose this company to work for in the first place. They offer an environment conducive to learning in which I can apply self-pressure as required to gain the knowledge and understanding on my own terms. By doing that I'll develop faster and to a greater depth of knowledge and that'll be advantageous for the company.

Have you ever started a new job or needed to do some training in which you were put under duress through workload or time pressure? Most of us have I think. Feel free to tell me about it below; tell me the scenario, how you handled it and what results you gained.