learning brain
“Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.“
–Future Shock, 1970, by Alvin Toffler
These words, written by the late author and futurist Toffler, were eerily prescient—and they point to a type of intelligence in high demand today: LQ or “learning quotient.”
You’ve heard of IQ, maybe taken a test or two somewhere along the way. In 2005, EQ, or “emotional quotient,” became the “hot” type of intelligence to have. An idea popularized by Daniel Goleman in his bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, EQ is the ability to connect with others and “read” the room, among other things. As Goleman posited, EQ can matter more than raw brain power when it comes to success.
The work environment continues to evolve at what can feel like breakneck speed. What this means is that the skills needed to succeed are changing, too. Chief among the new requirements? High LQ.
What is LQ? The ability to learn new skills, be open to new ways of doing things, and tackle tasks that were either outside your area of interest or simply didn’t exist in the past. Think: training teams to work with AI. A recent article in the career newsletter WorkLife described learning quotient like this: “Essentially, it’s a measure of adaptability and one’s desire and ability to update our skills throughout life.”
Desire is key. As with EQ, LQ can be developed over time. We can improve our ability to learn, and continue to do so as we age. Lifelong learning is not a new idea, but it has taken on a new urgency as innovations like ChatGPT are poised to dramatically transform so many industries and careers. Indeed, lifelong learning is a key part of having a growth mindset, the belief that your talents and abilities can be further developed—and the will to actively seek new opportunities to learn.
Lengthening careers contribute to our need for LQ. As Laura Carstensen, the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, has put it, “In this era of very, very long life, learning is going to have to be continuous.” As it turns out, we have to not only learn new skills, but also unlearn old ways of doing things.
If the whiplash of changes in recent years make you feel pre-exhausted when thinking about new learning (let alone unlearning), take heart. There are some old, tried-and-true ways to boost LQ—and some new methods that can meet your personal learning style.
Here are four tips for upping your LQ.
1.Believe in the process of learning
Okay, okay, this may sound a bit airy-fairy, but your mindset around learning absolutely affects how successful you’ll be. As Kristen Motzer, a learning director at LRN, a compliance firm in the U.S., told Worklife, “If employees believe they can try things and possibly fail but learn something in the process, organizations can innovate and evolve.”
Think you’re too old to learn new tricks? Don’t let experience be the enemy of evolution. As this column has written before, “Restocking your mental toolkit can advance your career and enhance your life at any age, whether you’re a recent grad interested in a field different from your major, a mid-career professional, or a grandparent watching your first grandchild head to college.” (Read this article here.)
2.Take advantage of company training
Even if you feel comfortable and confident in your role now, continual learning is part of staying current. Many firms offer internal training. This can include internship programs for recent grads, mentoring programs, career resource centers, on-site training, and online training courses in everything from sales to leadership to coding to firm-specific skills.
If your company has learning and development opportunities, take them. If you’re a leader, make sure you offer them. As a 2023 article on career site Indeed.com put it, “Most company training programs work to mentor their employees and strengthen their abilities, which can lead to strong engagement, impressive company culture and high retention rates.”
If you’re considering a job or career change, research companies that interest you and factor in the learning opportunities at a potential new firm. You’ll find good training programs in a variety of firms, not just in tech. Among the top 25 listed on the Indeed site: Marriott International, Seattle Genetics, AT&T and Adobe.
3.Don’t rely solely on your firm for upskilling
While in the past, Learning and Development teams may have been able to provide all the training you needed, today’s rapid pace of change means you likely will have to take responsibility for your own upskilling and/or reskilling somewhere along the line. If your company lists a matrix of skills needed for a promotion or lateral switch, look at what’s required and what you’re missing. If your company doesn’t offer a way to gain those skills and experience, find a method yourself.
Learning as an adult can happen more naturally than you might suspect, even if you weren’t a star student in school, in part because of the ever-proliferating types of training available, especially in this post-pandemic era. The exploding variety of options —from in-person classes to online courses to TED talks and more—means you can find a way to gain new knowledge and skills that suits your personality and schedule. As this article from the HR consultancy Insperity explains, there are roughly four types of learners: visual, auditory, reading-focused and kinesthetic. While we all can learn in multiple ways, we often excel in one method or another.
Back to AI. If you’re a visual learner, watching videos of the new technology may be all you need to grasp its possibilities for your workplace. Auditory learner? Having someone explain to you the new features or taking an in-person class is probably best. Reading-focused learners tend to gain knowledge through text. And finally, if you need to try something to see how it functions, you’re probably a kinesthetic learner. As the article from Insperity puts it, “Kinesthetic employees learn best by experiencing new knowledge hands-on.” For example, you might experiment with generating images via DALL-E2.
If you’re interested in an MBA to help you move into management or an engineering degree to improve your chances of promotion as a patent attorney, find out if your company offers tuition reimbursement. For nonprofit workers, the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance lists professional development resources on its website. Enhance your tech skills by reading magazines such as Wired, written for a mainstream audience, or TechCrunch. Consider taking a class at Code Academy or Udemy. Look at MIT’s open courseware, or see if your local community college offers classes in coding.
4.Provide opportunities for employees to up their LQ
If you’re a leader, help your employees learn and grow. As this blog on reskilling and upskilling puts it, “The first value of a company is its employees. And the first value of an employee is their skills. It is therefore understandable that promoting a learning culture within the company is a central issue both for the employee and for the organisation as a whole.”
Or, as Motzer put it, “There must be a culture of trust that starts with leadership.” What this means is that if you’re a manager, model an open, curious attitude. Be willing to try things that you’re not sure will succeed. Focus on the learning part, not just the outcome. And help your employees do the same.
Another trend that is part of the LQ moment: quiet hiring. This is when a firm decides to hire from within, reinvesting in proven employees by providing training and guidance needed to shift roles (often called reskilling). Consider making a matrix of skills needed for specific jobs—then offer ways for interested employees to gain them.
Quiet hiring allows employees to retain their social capital while keeping their knowledge and experience within the firm. Given the massive amount of change we all face today—from the pandemic, climate disruption and political and economic upheaval, to technological revolutions—staying put at the same firm for years or even decades, while continuing to grow, may experience its own renaissance.
