Adaptability & Learning Agility From Feedback

Adaptability is sometimes confused with being a generalist. But I think there is a big difference. The main differentiator is that the adaptable reflect on feedback consistently to change their thinking about the world. In my opinion, generalists gather knowledge and work, but not necessarily in a feedback loop.

Many years ago, I was fortunate to graduate from a liberal arts college, Carroll College, that has now become Carroll University. During that time I took the liberal arts core classes in a variety of subjects. While the topics (“What”) differed by subject or department, the “how” of learning, or learning loop was consistent. I really like Kelly Palmer and David Blake’s learning loop steps: Knowledge -> Practice -> Feedback -> Reflection.

All feedback is a gift—feedback on where you both excel and need work. This is the key: knowledge and practice only take you so far. I’ve mispronounced something in a speech and really appreciated when someone pointed it out before the big stage. I’ve also had feedback about timing and when to emphasize certain words.

You can apply this way of thinking to anything. Whether you are studying art and enter contests, measuring sales in galleries. Or if you are learning to present, there are storytelling contests from The Moth radio show and Toastmasters that allow you to practice and get feedback at the same time. The point is to always measure how your product was received.

Agile learning loops

“The Learning Loop is a straightforward way of thinking about the learning process and has four components: knowledge, practice, feedback, and reflection.”
— Kelly Palmer & David Blake, The Expertise Economy

During the early part of my career as a programmer & analyst or consultant, this loop involved learning new programming languages and paradigms. Other more experienced developers acted as mentors, giving me feedback during code reviews. These built technical skills across new frameworks, languages, and tools.

However, what was more important in the long term was learning about the problems I was solving for the business. How I could get all of the industry and problem context from the business. Software for software’s sake almost never solved the problem satisfactorily. Using agile methodologies like Scrum encoded the learning cycle for software teams using the simple guidelines of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

In my experience, a business person describes a tricky problem that we were going to solve as a team. The team would break up the problem and solutions into smaller tasks to quickly get a working demo to review with the business and customers.

The demo is where Scrum forces the actual software users to provide feedback. By doing this continually you are learning as quickly as possible while doing. Constantly reflecting how the design and backlog should change to reflect the learning that is naturally happening.

The retrospective is also a key part that encodes all parts of the software development practice into a learning loop. In fact, teams go through great pains to measure velocity over time to make sure that team is learning to be effective. Not only understanding their capacity but when and how they need to change together to deliver better outcomes and value faster.

How I put it into action

In the software industry skills become obsolete fast and it is paramount to stay on top of things. I’ve found these steps to be a good way to increase my learning agility:

1. Choose a skill or challenge to work on
2. Practice in as real a setting as possible
3. Find a forum where you can get feedback, and ask for it
4. Write down what can be refined based on the feedback
5. Iterate, for the next challenge

“Mastering a craft… is about constantly revising our thinking.”
— Adam Grant, Think Again

I found steps 1 & 2 come naturally. Asking for feedback is the hard part, at least for me. Did I achieve what I set out to achieve? How was I perceived by others? These can be a bit uncomfortable and it helps to have a trusted mentor who is on your side.

For technical skills, you can create your own open source project or contribute to one. The pull request process leads to natural feedback. This allows you to learn a new language, create something (code usually) with it, practice reflecting on feedback, and have a trail to measure your progress against as your commits pile up.

When it comes to soft skills, consider an improv class or Toastmasters for speaking. Both offer a safe space to experiment with communication, presentation, and speaking in front of an audience. In my experience the teachers and club members or classmates offer genuinely helpful suggestions. These have included how to act more naturally on stage and think fast on your feet.

Regardless of how you put it into action, the focus should be on practice with feedback and adjusting to practice again.

Reflection & revising

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
— Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

Learning is a journey. Tackle slightly more complex tasks over time and keep adding new challenges. If I look at what I did a year ago versus today I want to see my progress. It gives me energy to keep going. That is one reason why I really like the structure in Toastmasters. Not only do I get feedback from my Toastmasters mentor and fellow club members, but looking over the past years shows me where I’m excelling and where I can keep challenging myself to stay in that healthy challenge zone.

Make that commitment to ask for feedback. Find a mentor. Track your progress. It only takes one day to start your loop and revisit every week or two. Make it better over time—you don’t need to do it all at once.

Further reading

Here are some books that I found helpful when thinking about adaptability and learning:

• Kelly Palmer and David Blake, The Expertise Economy
  This book was written in 2018, before COVID and ChatGPT accelerated the changes going on in our ways of working. It is still relevant—maybe even more so—to provide steps to create a learning loop so you can learn with agility to make expertise a competitive advantage.
  View on Goodreads

• Matt Beane, The Skill Code
  The main takeaway, for me, from this book is optimizing the three C’s: Challenge, Complexity, and Connection. The point is to challenge yourself to work near your limit. Verify that you incorporate the bigger picture, the complexity, by learning while doing actual work using implicit learning. Then build connections so folks will understand your expertise and build trust.
  View on Goodreads

• Adam Grant, Think Again
  My takeaway is that we should be open to feedback. Because we get better by constantly revising our knowledge and processes. In a world where AI chatbots are constantly parroting back what a great idea I have, it’s good to keep over-optimism to a minimum. He encourages you to think like a scientist and use evidence to update your beliefs.
  View on Goodreads