When we speak of lifelong learning in the economy of knowledge and innovation, we do so from an inexcusable learning effort with a broad and synergistic spectrum - hard and soft - that we do not always face with full awareness of its need and importance; of an apprenticeship that, without ruling out tutorials and orchestrated courses, is self-directed, independent; that, in addition to being reactive to the daily need that arises, it is proactive and eager; that, without losing sight of the position held, is oriented with perspective and ambition; that, in addition to reinforcing the positive in the profile, helps to neutralize, immediately and where appropriate, the negative, the hindering.
It is a continuous learning derived from our commitment as human beings and based on a rigorous, precise, penetrating self-criticism; a self-criticism stripped of the blindness that usually characterizes us in this regard. We have to approach it with determination, effort, open-mindedness… but how? It's a bit like Darwin's: his grandfather already had the ideas of evolution, but it was necessary to explain how it was produced. We are describing-qualifying an ideal lifelong learning, but let us look at how it materializes -at the step from attitude to act-, without detracting from the uniqueness of each individual and their environment.
If the reader agrees, one must determine the goals: what to advance, both on the hard side of our profile, and on the soft side. For many of us, this last side would constitute a greater challenge if we considered it rigorously and decisively, but we don't usually do it and we are now going to focus on the hard side: more specifically, the acquisition of knowledge. When facing this side we have to deploy two capital, synergistic and overlapping dedications, the informational and the cogitational. Lifelong learning requires us, indeed and as basic requirements, to deal well with the information that surrounds us and to take care of the cognitive processes when translating it into applicable knowledge.
The thing is complex, but yes: to learn properly, we have to take great care in the corresponding cognitive processes. It is no coincidence that, already in the last decades of the last century and in tune with the lifelong learning movement, two other opportune connected currents took a decisive momentum: the information literacy movement and the critical thinking movement. They point to inexcusable strengths in performance, but also in their own autonomous learning exercise. In this society of ours, and if we want to be the protagonist of our life and our development, we cannot let them give it to us, or have it given us thought.
Informational and cogitational skills are certainly inseparable, but there would be a lot to talk about the second; let's focus now on the first. Let's go, yes, directing the focus - a kind of reflective slalom with a final zoom -, because the issue addressed is extensive and complex; It would seem, for example, that no one feels like a good learner if he simply attends the orchestrated courses to which he is called, or consults information only when it is essential.
Within the informational skills we could place computer skills and even information skills, but the concept-construct referred to (in universities they have been talking about "information literacy") points to cardinal basic faculties: the individual is aware of what he needs and knows how to look for it; correct when analyzing, evaluating and contrasting what was selected; and also establishes connections and inferences, to fit the new knowledge into your personal heritage. The time will come to apply it, but it could also already contribute to the collective knowledge of your organization.
In this information management, it is possible to observe the overlap with critical thinking and even with knowledge management. Depending on how much the permanent learner comes to know -or, almost better, depending on how many more know the same as him-, we would be facing a standard, extra, superior, supreme level… The maximum would be to be in a position to learn what Nobody knows yet, that is, to create, innovate, extend their field of knowledge through research, creation: this would already be a quality artisan learner.
In reality, the profile of the ultimate learner - the researcher, the innovator - deserves special attention. Typically we find much of her psychic energy, if not most of it, devoted to her learning-creative endeavors; His addiction could affect his personal relationships, so that he was perceived as strange, not sociable, eccentric, absent… Let us point here however to the most habitual learners; to those who, without neglecting their daily tasks, open their minds to new knowledge, to advances in their field (or neighboring fields).
Faced with information, there can be no narrow-minded or rigid-minded learner; Nor is an open mind so open that errors, falsehoods, fallacies, biased inferences can be accommodated. We have alluded to the fact that information is “analyzed, evaluated and contrasted”, and here we must stop. This is what we wanted to arrive at after isgogic paragraphs: the need to avoid false learning, perhaps catalyzed by our own interests, conveniences, concerns or mental models, but also the result of some excess of confidence, not to mention occasional credulity when it came to prevention, caution, in the examination of the information.
Let's say colloquially that there is good news and bad news: we have a lot of information, but we would be lost if we considered all of it valuable, objective, reliable. On the Internet - let's say it is the great platform for the autonomous exercise of e-learning - there is a lot of information. In search of rigor and objectivity, highly academic texts can often be reached, with their unique rhetoric, but each learner ends up knowing well the best sources for their specialty and their need. One, a training consultant, has had curious learning experiences on the Web, on management and personal-professional development issues.
Among the topics that have sounded the most in companies in recent decades is leadership. When browsing looking for information about it, one comes across different and very favorable demonstrations, often aimed at filling the leader with virtues (in a CESEDEN document it is pointed out, for example, that Hitler was not really a leader, but a troublemaker); but also, always within authorized sources, we can come up with the idea that the perfect - albeit nefarious - leader was Hitler, or that the role of the leader in the company is to manipulate. On this issue, one ended up in his own books (Drucker, Bennis, Rydz…) and making the leader great, not because of his condition as such, but basically based on the goals pursued-achieved and the means used. But no, we can't always trust books either…
In one edited by two Spanish consulting firms to present their management model, I observed that, already in the first pages, Drucker's management by objectives was firmly rejected, after identifying it with a bonus system for workers, as if it were Taylorism.: I was frowned. In another book, now about the first e-learning experiences (orchestrated on their own platforms) in large companies in our country, the quality of the course content was relativized; It was said, already in the same prologue, that excellent content guaranteed absolutely nothing and could even lead to failure… I avoid the reader, as digressive, other memories that also alert about the handling of concepts and invite a synotopic examination of the information, to activate critical thinking.
In the field of business management, that of executives, there are certainly numerous concepts that have been blurred and perhaps adulterated (quality, professionalism, strategy, competition, innovation, leadership, integrity, talent…), and it also occurs in other fields; Even the aforementioned critical thinking, which is sometimes identified with merely critical thinking, or skeptical thinking (that of the Skeptical movement) has been distorted. But in the information other diverse contaminations are also noticed, frequently at the service of intentions and for the benefit of interests. The post-truth empire is not limited to politics, and the learner has to be astute in his journey towards new truths to incorporate into his heritage.
Given the questionable quality of the information we handle, the learner must be careful in handling it as raw material. With a dose of suspicion and a greater dose of genuine intuition - a golden resource of intelligence that is enriched over the years - he has to detect, where appropriate, the ambiguities, contradictions, fallacies, concealments, impostures, mistakes, inaccuracies or falsehoods that keep him away. of the persecuted certainties. We can certainly come across high value and quality information, but perhaps there is more to the other.
