How to Develop a Learning Mind to Spark Creativity

 Lifelong learning is no longer a choice, but a necessity to compete for the future.

At the individual level, being a continuous learner is no longer simply a choice one can make. It is a necessity and imperative; if one expects to add value, to compete for the future with authenticity and consistency. It is the foundation to stimulate creativity. At the organizational level, the always-on, hyperconnected global workplace opens a whole new world on how to build both creative and productive workforce. Today's digital leaders and professional must contemplate how to develop a learning mind to spark creativity and how to shape a learning culture -from mindset to mind flow, grooming more collective learning minds and tap the fountain of creativity?

A learning mind has more dots to connect for sparking creativity: It's important to make connections between pieces of knowledge. When these connections are structured in a meaningful way, we are better to retrieve and apply knowledge effectively and powerfully; and be able to connect the dots to spark the fresh ideas or to create the new knowledge. Learning is a lifelong experience, it depends on who has an open mind to receive it. The future of learning will require us to break away from the current one-size-fits-all mold and move to a more customized learning platform to really encourage people in their strengths and interests. Creativity is about connecting the dots. In life, we come across various experiences (exposure to various situations) as the colorful dots, the more dots you have, the better chance your mind can connect them freely.

Only a learning mind has better cognitive ability to adapt to changes and nurture creativity: Adaptation is critical for surviving and thriving in today’s dynamic world. We can learn from our own experiences, books, media or other people's experiences. People with learning mind see unique patterns and make fresh connections that others overlook. To embrace mental agility, they need to become critical and creative thinker at the same time, in order to solve complex business problems creatively. From a business perspective, due to the complexity of knowledge and the number of ways by which we learn, it is vital that organization development continues to evolve just to keep up with the cultural changes. Innovation is the most needed changes. Considering that we are always learning, it is very important that we get the staff to be proactive in the changes an organization could possibly face and what needs to be in place to counter those changes. It is important that we don't over think a resolution and avoid making simple things complicated by making complicated things simple. That is the philosophy of creative problem-solving.

The trick and treat of age, experience, creativity, and wisdom: The more one learns, the more one finds the vastness of knowledge, and how minuscule is one's own. Experience is usually valuable. The older you get, the wiser you become. But be cautious though, the mind of the older generation is sometimes more rigid. Their "know it all" attitude is difficult to erase because they are deep-seated with the life's experiences and beliefs. Also, keep open-minded. If you only know two colors - black and white; and then perceptions are filtered into one of those two dimensions. You can only know what you know, but there are more dimensions which you don’t know; there’s known unknown and unknown unknown, hence, the more you know, the more you should feel humble, because even human as collective species, the things we know, compared to what we don’t know, is just the tip of iceberg. Therefore, regardless of your age, develop a learning mindset, remove outdated concept and let fresh knowledge in, make unusual connections to spark creatively.

Learning is a lifelong experience, it should make our mind more open to embracing new possibilities. To encourage learning and make learning more fun and effective, the current e-learning platforms and social learning concept can be quite advantageous if used correctly and make learning more personalized and flexible to fit your lifestyle. Lifelong learning is no longer a choice, but a necessity to compete for the future.

Posted in: Creativity,Learning,Mindshift,Thinkingaire