Maximizing your learning potential
Let’s keep talking about reframing your learning.
In the last article, we discussed how your environment—who and what you surround yourself with—significantly influences who you are.
We can also apply this idea to the tone of your community. What kind of environment do you want it to be? A place that elevates people or one where people get pulled down?
I know my answer to that question. And I could guess at yours, too. If you’re thirty-five articles into a sequence on upping your publishing game, it looks like you are committed to expanding your learning and lifting yourself and others up.
So let’s stay meta and focus on learning better, whether that’s in marketing, business practices, or craft.
You learn better when you’re excited and interested.
You retain your learning when you teach others what you’ve learned.
Most of those I surveyed said that this material has helped them think differently. I believe I can have that impact because I use this content as a learning tool for myself. I must continue to research and compile relevant material to deliver to you.
Here’s an example…
Have you ever heard of the Johari Window Model?
It was initially designed to help a person become more self-aware and to serve as guideposts in relationship development.
Let’s take a closer look at this idea and see what takeaways we can find. It’ll make more sense if you were to think about this model applying to you and a close friend as we go through it.
If we start in quadrant one, this is the Open/Free area where you and your friend are sharing the same knowledge. There are no secrets. This open area needs to increase in size for the relationship to strengthen, making the other three quadrants smaller.
This can be done in a few ways. For example, if you were looking to improve yourself into quadrant two, you would ask questions of others, and they would provide feedback that will help remove blind spots you have about yourself.
To expand into quadrant three, you could tell the other person things about yourself to reduce the hidden areas of your life. This builds trust.
While this model was designed for application to personal relationships, what if you applied it to the idea of learning?
What if instead of this being about you and another person getting to know each other, it was about you and another person expanding your knowledge on the subject of cumulative advantage?
Imagine you and another author you respect using this model to create an Open/Free area on marketing or craft.
What if you did daily sessions where the two of you explored the unknown, sharing what you read and discussing your thoughts?
What if, together, you locked arms and knowingly went into quadrant four through shared discovery and reduced the uncharted waters?
I’ve done this. On multiple occasions, people say to me, “When you figure that all out, teach me.”
But does that always happen? Not necessarily.
Sometimes, when an author develops a tactic and shares it with others, it loses its potency.
If you want to be a follower and adopt strategies others have already implemented, don’t be surprised that it doesn’t work because you’ve embraced it too late.
However, if you and another author venture into uncharted territory together, you may discover something truly valuable that the two of you can exploit.
Compounding value
Suppose you set up a Johari window–based learning partnership and invest three to five hours a week with your partner, creating a larger common area of knowledge necessary for your business. Do you think it would pay off in the future?
I would argue that the only time better spent as an author is on putting words to paper.
In cumulative advantage, the compounding of funds and fans drives the economic engine. But at the same time, you’re also gaining opportunities and wisdom as you succeed, round after round.
Building a robust system of learning is the supercharger to cumulative advantage.
Knowledge doesn’t just compound but explodes exponentially. Dozens of failed experiments, hours of reading, contemplation, and debate result in discoveries and breakthrough results.
A growing divide is developing. The winner-takes-all market will further amplify this divide.
This divide will be between the winners and losers in the marketplace. A few years ago, all it took was getting a book published and doing some rudimentary marketing. Now, authors like you are taking this to the next level. You read articles like these and work with your fellow authors to build great businesses.
These advantages accumulate and compound, widening the gap between those who do this work and those who whine and watch the train leave the station.
Next week we will dive into what influences gameplay and build out the scaffolding of your game.
One more thing…
Maybe the idea of having a learning partner interests you, but you don’t know where to find someone to partner with. Here are a few ideas on how to get started.
- You may have a peer group that you already work with. This could be a sprint group on Clubhouse or a local critique group. Bring this idea to the group this week and see if there is someone who wants to partner with you.
- If you’ve participated in one of my masterminds, then bring up this subject in your next meeting and see if there is an opportunity to partner with another and use the Johari window model to improve your learning on a subject you are both interested in.
- For those who are paid members of Game of Cults, go into the membership area and find this week’s post. Use the comments section as a Johari Window Match.com. Tell folks about where you are and the genre you write in, and we’ll see if we can get some folks connected to do this work.