Learning Requires Repetition…

…Lots of Repetition

Our effectiveness in every dimension of life is directly related to our ability and willingness to learn.  We can only do what we learn to do.  And that is the heart of the matter.  Learning is not about taking in more information.  It is not about sitting in a classroom.  True learning is about the disciplined process of developing the ability to do something that we couldn’t do before we learned it.  It is developing the ability to fulfill our mission and achieve our goals. 

We must continuously learn and grow throughout our lifetimes.  If we don’t learn, we don’t grow.  We get stuck.  And many people seem to be stuck.

Today’s rapidly-changing, knowledge-based marketplace requires continuous learning.  At some point, many of our current skills will become obsolete.   Our effectiveness in dealing with fast-changing threats and opportunities in the future is determined by our ability to learn today.  We should not allow short-term urgencies to tyrannize our time and displace long-term improvement. If we are not committed to lifelong learning, we condemn ourselves to a treadmill of old capabilities that have decreasing effectiveness in today’s world. 

A common impediment to learning is that we often become tired of hearing a concept long before we have mastered it.  We settle for exposure, when what is needed is focused and disciplined study.  Effective learning requires repetition.  Lots of repetition.  Anyone who has learned to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language or master an athletic skill knows the necessity of repetition. 

When I coached football we made sure that our players repeatedly practiced the fundamentals every day, over-and-over.  If you have ever been around football players, maybe you’ve heard the phrase “getting reps in practice.”  That means repeating a play or a skill that the team or player has already practiced many times.  Almost every day I would say, “OK guys, let’s do it one more time.”  The payoff was that our team mastered the core skills of football, and we won a lot of games and championships. 

Wow was it fun to practice … then play … and then win! 

For some reason, many companies (and many people) take a non-repetitive approach to learning.  Employees and managers attend training courses, read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos, listen to speakers in seminars, etc., but few people want to review, revisit, and repeat the training material more than once.  They make the fatal mistake of equating hearing with learning.  They become tired of hearing concepts long before they have mastered them.  Once people have been exposed to a concept in the classroom, they don’t want to be exposed to the material again, and they certainly don’t want to repeat the class work.  “Oh, I’ve heard that before” is an all-too-common reaction. 

Understandably, companies don’t want to spend the money and time to repeat programs and courses over and over.  However, what kind of ROI do companies get for the time and money they actually DO invest if there is little repetition and minimal retention?  If the skill is a “hard” skill like the ability to operate a machine on the assembly line or knowledge of a computer software program or mastery of a surgical technique — then repetition IS part of the learning process.  It is also part of the testing process.  Professionals must demonstrate a basic level of mastery before they are certified to perform the task “for real.”

But if the capability is a soft skill — like self-awareness, listening, teamwork, managing emotions, communication, etc. — then there is very little repetition and testing.  If I had coached our football team the way many companies do training, we would never have won a single game.

Stop and consider: How many training programs have you participated in that had virtually no repetition as part of the learning process or very little after-the-class coaching and accountability for implementation?  What would the result have been if you had taken personal responsibility for repeatedly reviewing the material after the class?  What knowledge would you have acquired and what skills would you have mastered if you had made after-the-class repetition a disciplined part of your learning process?

We need a learning revolution in business.  We need a return to the simple physics of learning through repetition.  Lots of repetition.

OK, let’s do it one more time …