Accelerated thinking for sale
By Clive Lewis (April 2004 Issue)
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So you are familiar with accelerated learning or at least some key elements of it. Good for you. But aren’t you missing the point? If you are a trainer or a training manager surely the issue isn’t about how accelerated learning can help you to run a more creative or engaging training course but about how you can find ways to hand over accelerated learning technology to those business users who most need it. And that’s the focus of this article – the need for immediate transfer of accelerated thinking.
It’s my contention that the single most important factor driving the need for accelerated learning is information overload. At this current time in history we are in an intense period of ‘message saturation’ and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We tend to take on too much and feel invaded by technology – by pagers and mobile phones, by e-mails and laptops. Even on holiday may people expect to be interrupted or called by their office. There’s no time off any more.
And the costs are not just felt at a personal level. Businesses are clogging up, too. However, the answer is unlikely to be that proposed by John Caudwell, chief executive of UK mobile phone business Phones 4u, who announced in September 2003 that he was banning his employees from using e-mail in the office. This is the modern equivalent of trying to hold back the incoming tide and is surely destined to similar failure. Most of us accept that there are considerable advantages to be gained from ‘instant access’ and we accept the costs. However, what we haven’t got to grips with yet are the best ways to sort, absorb and handle all the information that comes our way. And this points us towards the requirement for improved mental agility.
In a recent project that Illumine Training ran at the Common Services Agency (CSA) in Scotland, Lisa King, organisational development manager for the agency, outlined the challenge she faced.
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