You Don’t Have to Read. You Do Have to Learn.

The first time Marc and I asked “What are you reading?” in a social setting and got the response “I don’t read,” we were caught flat-footed. We were at the beginning of a day together with this particular group of people. There was no way to excuse ourselves from the day, and we had no idea how to recover the conversation. We awkwardly shifted to talk of scenery and children, and eventually the day got back on track. We left the question-asking to our hosts and had an overall good day. But the moment has stuck with us for years.

Since then, we have come to appreciate that reading is only one path for learning. Books, even, are only one path. Audiobooks, magazines and periodicals, YouTube creators, and community organizations all fill out a person’s learning health.

Health? Yes, health. Learning (active learning) is a vital focus for individuals, teams, and organizations.

Once upon a time, I might have been more apologetic about our commitment to lifelong learning. I might have decided that “it’s not for everyone” or “that’s just what’s important to us.” But now, I am prepared to challenge that: if you aren’t learning something, somewhere, most of the time, then you are not only not growing, you are sliding backward.

Revans’ Law

Last year, I attended the Association for Talent Development SC conference as a coach with ICF-SC. When I wasn’t coaching members, I got to sit in on some of the sessions. Dr. Keith Keating introduced me to the work of Reg Revans, notably Revans’ Law:

“For an organisation to survive, its rate of learning must be at least equal to the rate of change in its external environment.” (Professor Reg Revans)

Revans pioneered Action Learning in the 1940s, well before the burst of technological advances in the last 30 years. Back when AI would have been found only in a science fiction novel.

And yet, I observe that this is a very real diagnosis of why people and organizations are struggling in our current climate.

Some people reading this have never known life without email or cell phones. I’m not one of them. I remember learning how to use email, and Marc and I were slow to adopt cell phones in the early 2000s. Whether we’ve come kicking and screaming or with resilient acceptance, the technological wave keeps moving faster than a speeding bullet. (Emily pauses to consider whether that is true or an exaggeration. What do you think?)

This summer during our Nonprofit Academy Summer Camp, Sarah Pita led a session on developing your organization’s AI policy. The main thrust of her training: if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. AI is already enmeshed in our work, whether we are actively choosing it or not. Proactively setting standards around how LLMs may or may not be used within an organization creates safe borders around technological decisions. It also creates a safe place to have conversations about AI. In Revans’ terms, a policy is an organization choosing to learn at the rate of change.

When it’s too much

With the rate of advances and choices we each face in our personal and professional leadership, it is unrealistic to think we can keep up with all of it. It is not unreasonable to say that it is too much.

Yes. If we look at our learning opportunities as a smorgasbord where we must taste a little bit of everything, it is too much. So what are we to do?

Keep learning anyway.

Set your focus. As a person who wears progressive lenses most of the time, I know there is one tilt of my head that is best for reading, and another for looking at the road ahead. Learning works the same way. Decide what deserves close focus and what just needs to stay in your peripheral vision:

• What is important. Give yourself time and attention to learn it (not to become an expert). If you need an expert on the topic, there are people out there who are experts. Find them and follow them: on Substack, podcasts, YouTube, or in real life.
• What is good to understand. Follow the same steps, with less time and intensity.
• What is fun. This is where work and hobby meet in a happy play space. It might even lead to you becoming an expert. Pay attention to what you love. The challenge is to recognize what is work and what is play, and to give each the proper time and space in your days.
• What you don’t really care about. That’s fine, too. But not caring about something, or downright disliking it, doesn’t give you a pass on having a passing understanding of it. Do not shut yourself off from learning just because you don’t like it.

Take baby steps. Choose one thing to go deep in your learning, or a handful of things to learn a little bit about. A caution for either approach: stay curious and teachable. There will always be more to learn.

Staying curious

I think a learning mindset is the primary key to not being left behind. Learning does not equal being an expert. In fact, I think expertise without curiosity puts you in a risky, inflexible position.

As a parent, I know that my parents were using the information they had to raise me and my siblings. By the time I had kids, there was additional information that changed the way we parented. And if my kids ever have kids, they will also have new information and different approaches. Does this make any of us wrong or right?

It is the same with technology and human systems. If we stay curious and open to new ideas, we keep flexibility in our mindset.

When I think back to that day, I wish I’d asked a different question: not ‘What are you reading?’ but ‘What are you learning?’ Whatever you are learning right now, I invite you to shift from having learned something to continually learning.