10 steps to ‘download’ new skills and capabilities fast

speedPay-off: learn how I download new skills and capabilities fast
Investment: 2.5 mins

A few nights ago, I did the closest thing to ‘downloading’ a new skill, within 3 hours (think Neo in the Matrix downloading the skill of flying a helicopter quickly, and we’re heading in that direction!)

I used an approach I regularly use:

I read an entire book, mind mapped it, and then organised it into a system of practical actions that I could follow when I needed to, thus creating myself a new ‘job aid’ to improve my performance at the point of need.

Now, whenever I face this specific challenge (and I do regularly) I can use that job aid, follow the steps and hopefully overcome it. I’ve already done this successfully twice since creating it, so my return on investment on that learning has already been significant. And the more I use it, the more the real learning kicks in. Eventually, I won’t need the job aid as I’ll have the habit and new behaviour embedded.

I’ll be a new man!

I thought you might like to know how I ‘downloaded’ this new skill fast:

My 10 steps

1.I learned to speed read and range read years ago and have improved ever since – probably the most important skill I ever learned with the highest ROI

2.I faced a challenge that I felt the book could help me solve and so was hungry to learn from it (a full tank of fuel to learn fast!)

3.I bought the book for my Kindle

4.I set the Kindle text for easy speed reading; the right sized text for my comfort, and a thin newspaper like column. This means lots of page turning (or tapping the screen!) which I find keeps me more active in the reading process and adds to my sense of speeding through.

5.I sped read and range read the book, highlighting every idea of potential use

6.I finished the book and accessed my Kindle highlights on the web

7.I copied and pasted these into a mind map – I’ve been using www.xmind.net over recent years (and iThoughts on my iPad and iPhone – the best I’ve come across by far)

8.I quickly organised the mind map into potential actions I could take, supporting ideas, resources etc

9.I arranged the actions into a step by step process that made sense for me (I believe that learning is accelerated when you question and challenge an author’s suggested ideas and bend them to suit yourself. I accelerated my learning of cooking years ago by regularly altering the recipes and learning and adapting based on what worked for me. I’m not sure people who just follow recipes straight necessarily learn how to cook?)

10.I saved the file with an easy to search for name (I often call my files ‘How to..’). Always make your learning and ‘job aids’ easily accessible at the point of need.

Done.

It’s a practical tool now ready to take me from A to B, which I can find fast on my Mac typing the key words into the Spotlight search.

You can learn this skill

If you or your team would like to learn how to learn faster, more easily and enjoyably, and be able to ‘download’ new capabilities in what feels like lightning speed, then get in touch.

It’s highly rewarding, enables you to maximise the ROI out of any subsequent learning, and best of all has you feeling that no challenge is too big, because you are confident you can learn what you need to in order to overcome it.

I’ve run courses on how to learn the skills to do this for years, (speed reading, range reading, memory, mind mapping, strategic learning, social learning, informal learning, self-directed learning) and they’ve been very well received with people regularly reporting eye-opening results and an almost disbelief in their new found powerful abilities!

My site is here: http://www.HelpPeopleLearn.com

Want your team to bring in more revenue in less time?

PS if you want your team to learn how to sell or develop business better, I point these accelerated learning techniques towards that – see my other site http://www.HelpPeopleBuy.com

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