Over the past couple of months I have started to realise how long it can take for me to learn. Sometimes, years after an event I am still learning. For example, even now, two years on from The Creative Tapas Experiment I am still getting ideas from it – both through reflection and through conversation with other people who were there.
I think this makes sense and that we have quite mistaken ideas about how and when learning of any significance happens. We are often in too much of a hurry to allow any deep learning to happen. If we are trying to memorise the road signs of the Highway Code, then maybe its reasonable to expect an immediate result. But if we are interested in anything complex or subtle, like leadership or creativity is that really sensible? Or is it wiser to let a learning experience seep into us slowly and starts to affect us over time, in gentle ways we didn’t anticipate?
I love this idea. It means that powerful experiences, like The Praxis Awareness Experiment I was lucky enough to be involved in a few weeks ago, or The Coaching To Excellence programme I was on last week have the capacity to keep on yielding learning for who knows how long.
All I have to do is be patient and they will, in their own sweet time, surrender their riches to me.
