Hello everybody! This time we will see what you need to focus on when learning. Usually, in human being’s development economically, socially, culturally depends on the quality of learning he or she is making. In reality learning takes place from different things in the world. Each individual will have their own perception, interpretation, and observation on the things they look at in day-to-day life. In this specific experiential insight, will explain you what are the different things we come across in real life, what one should be focusing on when they are observing or learning from it.

1) Physical World/Driving in a Metro City: This specific activity is a huge opportunity one is having in learning. If one is living in metro area, it is an opportunity for them to observe what kind of businesses, shops, outlets, shopping malls, establishments, industry, organizations coming in their area. One can observe what kind of products/services these setups are offering, how is their pricing in each outlet, how each business is growing, or sinking, how they are maintaining ambience in their businesses, how organized they are, how they are making use of their human resources, how these setups are changing product prices, their demand is growing or decreasing in area, overall you can observe the life cycle of a business, if one is living in metro area. This improves basically an industry awareness, what kind of techniques each player is using in selling, etc. This is basically, learning by silently observing and learning about different entrepreneurial journeys.

2) Physical World/Living in Rural Area: Usually, rural areas have the abundant natural resources. Rural areas are the places, where you can observe the real Jugaad. That is with minimal resources, minimal equipment, people do innovations in several product development/local needs fulfilment. For example, People, use motor cycles to fetch water from village wells; use biogas for power generation; innovate in transport vehicles; For example, somebody developed a motor cycle-based ambulance in a remote village in rural India. These are the places, where people have time, have only natural resources, not manmade resources, and try to fulfil their needs with minimal infrastructure they have. From, here, Jugaad concepts and innovation can be learned.

3) While Watching Ads/Hoardings on Road: These are important sources of catching eye and getting attention. By seeing the images on the Hoardings, taglines on the hoardings, one can know about new products being launched in city, new discount sales being taking place in the city, about new shops being opened in the city, some of the expertise of professionals like doctors who entered into city newly are being displayed sometimes on these hoardings. Also, one can come to know about different programmes and schemes being launched by different state and central governments. These hoardings are also useful as communication tool between governments and citizens. One can learn about different welfare schemes and feature. For example, Central Government’s Ujjwala Yojana Scheme hoardings, distributing gas cylinders to underprivileged women are displayed in different petrol bunks/gas stations. One can learn about different communications, schemes, and offering by watching these Ads and hoardings.

4) Observing People at Workplace: this is basically, an important component of learning. Usually, one keeps a figure, if not formally, informally, internally one role model at workplace, by seeing/observing people at workplace. It happens with everyone. The way they are sharing information, the way they are keeping the project statuses/facts and figures on the table, the way they are dealing in business transactions, operational processes particularly employee processes or customer processes or vendor processes, how they speak in absence of other colleagues, how they review intermediate work deliverables/work products, how they execute the tasks; whether they complete the given task silently, or they have many complaints in each task, or they forward it to someone else or whether they escape from responsibility, etc. Basically, this kind of observation and learning helps an individual in building trust with colleagues, they come to know how each one behaves, one can play a safe game with this kind of keen observation at workplace and also they can build the trust with their colleagues. This learning at workplace is required for professional and personality development of any employee in an organization.

5) While Reading a Book: This is important. Some percentage of learning takes place from books. Books are several types such as non-fiction/text books, fiction, autobiographies, and research oriented books. For example, from non-fiction books, one can learn about different concepts, conceptual linkages and historical background and how different subjects have evolved over a period of time. A body of knowledge for each subject can be built using non-fiction books. Fiction books are sources on creativity and innovation. You will come to know so many imaginary things, which may not be there in real world currently, will be explained in fiction books. Sometimes these fiction books become input/sources for scientific projects/space exploration/industrial projects. Also, these fiction books become input to movie making in film industry. From Autobiographies, different individual experiences, how each one respondent to those situations, what went wrong, and what went right in one’s life can be learned by reading autobiographies. Basically, this is learning from somebody else’s experiences. This particularly saves lot of time for one in their life learning from that book. Research books, for example, Competing for the Future, The Millionaire Next Door, Competitive Strategy, etc present the longitudinal studies; present how industries and individuals responded to different interventions can be learned from these kind of books.

6) While Reading a Magazine: Usually different type of magazines available in the market; business magazines, political magazines, science magazines, general knowledge magazines, competitive examinations magazines, etc. For example, business magazines present different organizations, their journeys, different entrepreneurs, their journeys, etc. Also From Advertisements in Business Magazines, one can learn different products and services being offered by different companies, what are their uniqueness, what are their portfolio, etc. For example, magazines like Dalal Street, Fortune, Forbes, Business Today etc publish different industry analysis, organizational experiences. One can learn, in which direction industries are heading, in what ways products are evolving, how industrial market sizes are growing in $billions, etc; all these aspects can be learned from magazines.

7) While Reading a Journal Paper: Journal papers can be conceptual/empirical papers. From conceptual papers, one can learn different meanings/interpretations/perspectives on concepts and conceptual linkages can be understood. Conceptual papers give advanced latest developments in specific area concept; more advanced than text books. Empirical papers present the research findings based on first hand data. This is basically the new knowledge being generating based on hidden patterns in data. One can learn the new knowledge from empirical papers, which can be applied in their organizations/industries/situations. Also, when reading empirical research papers, it is important to look at results of statistical calculations such as Correlation, Regression, ANOVA, t-test, etc. One should be able to interpret the results based on the statistical results/outcomes. Sometimes, you find interesting insights from it, which were even skipped by the original author of that specific research paper. Or even you may end up in interpreting differently based on statistical results. Perspectives based papers discuss findings from different papers in literature followed by author’s interpretation/perspective/comment/opinion will be provided. Different meanings or interpretations can be learned from perspective-based papers.

8) While Reading a Case Study: Case studies are basically organization or industry specific. Illustrations (in the form of Tables/Figures) in case studies are very important. They present the facts and figures about organization, such as organizational annual revenues, milestones, products, services, roadmaps, etc. Also case studies present the Problems/challenges organization encountered, what kind of action was taken, how organization responded in that situation, what was the outcome will be present in case study. Sometimes case studies present up to the problem/issue encountered by the organization and readers/learners are to present the solution. Some case studies also carry teaching notes, if you are in teaching profession, it can be useful in conducting case discussion in a classroom. Different problem-solving approaches, how to respond to different situations can be learned from case studies. For example, there can be marketing case studies, strategy case studies, HR case studies, Mergers & Acquisitions case studies, etc.

9) While Reading Newspaper: This is important. Newspapers are different types. They are (i) Generic News Papers: which publish what is going on in society in day-to-day life. From this one can learn about socio, political environment. (ii) Business Dailies: These are like The Economic Times, Business Standard, Financial Times etc. They publish industry, government, economy related happenings. (iii) Appointment Dailies: these publish job opportunities exclusively. Usually in category (i) and (ii) newspapers, advertisements are also important. Different organizational annual revenues, profits/losses/product portfolios can be learned from the Balance Sheets/Reports they publish in newspapers. This information is useful for any investor in equity markets. Also, if you are a business man or a contractor, one can see the several tender notifications from different government departments in these Category (i) and (ii) newspapers.

10) While Going Through to Conference Broacher: Conference broachers are very useful for knowledge workers whether you are an academician, industry practitioner, or any research expert. This is because, conferences take place on the latest industry/research trends. By reading these broachers one can learn new and emerging areas in different disciplines. Sometime, this information can give input or some thought process for your future research or product roadmaps and directions.

11) While Going to Local Business Pamphlets: You will come to know what is in more demand in your area. These will be useful for one to choose a right product at right price as a purchaser. Sometime these pamphlets are useful to purchase in bulk, or to seek price matching from the sellers. Usually using these you will come to know about different laptops, processors entering into market, different technologies, and their configurations, different retail outlet offerings from these pamphlets.

12) While Watching TV: This is very important. Particularly the innovative context-based Advertisements which will catch the eye. Creativity can be learned from it. Different business news, political news, societal news can be learned; which will improve the awareness.

13) While Watching YouTube: This is useful for need based learning. One can search specific topic in YouTube and learn about that specific topic only. One should be choosy about the quality of content in those videos. This is an opportunity to learn from across the globe, from different countries.

14) While Watching a Movie: Creativity (Example: Bahubali Movie- Creative Settings); Situational learning, Communication, Leadership (Example: Lagaan-Cricket match based movie); Teamwork, Project Management (Example: Maritan English Movie; Mangalyan-Hindi Movie) can be learned from different movies. Different management practices can be learned from movies; because the outcome also will be evident to us in the movie in next few minutes/hours.

15) While on Vacation: When you visit historical places, come to know history, geography, nature, socio-economic situation of a place, establishments, uniqueness of the place, what products, services come from that place, what the place is famous for, how development took place there over a period of time….

Thus, learning is possible from everything we deal with in day-to-day life. Only thing is the way we look at things; how can we make use of the situation in order to improve upon for ourselves; by observing the outcomes is more important. Learning mostly depends on our purpose of visiting/observing. One more thing in life is, lot of time can be saved, if we are learning from others’ experiences, instead of we to undergo the same situation in our lives.

Thank you. Hope I am able to share my experiences in this specific experiential insight;

Best Regards,

Dr. Goparaju Purna Sudhakar

(http://www.gpsudhakar.com)

gpsudhakar6@gmail.com

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