Back to School?
Ready to learn something new? Access my LinkedIn Learning course free and take curiosity back to school.
It's more important to be interested than interesting.
Jane Fonda
It’s back to school time!
I get a pang of longing every year when my kids go back to school and my Facebook feed fills up with ‘first day’ photos. This year, that pang was more intense, as one of my kids started college.
That pang comes from the longing to be back in the classroom; to be in an environment filled with new ideas that can keep my mind fresh and advance my curiosity. To be fair, I’m not sure I always felt that way when I was in school. School pressures often outweighed learning joys. But today, when life feels full of demands and to dos, I covet the protected time for exploration and discovery.
Learning is not just a luxury. As any leader will tell you, success depends on curiosity, expansion and novelty. While it often feels like we are either doing work for today or learning new things for the future, this learning/doing tension is definitely NOT AN EITHER/OR. Our learning only helps us be better at all that we do. Great leaders are curious. They are inquisitive. They read. They listen. They learn. As Jane Fonda noted (often misattributed to Steven Jobs!), great leaders are more interested than interesting.
With that in mind, I’m thrilled to share with you my new LinkedIN Learning course. LinkedIN Learning has figured out the recipe for quick bites of important and interesting content for busy people. I’ve loved the chance to take 30 minutes (to be honest… often during a workout!) and get a dose of cutting edge content to help advance my thinking. I’ve taken courses on AI, on communication, on teamwork. I’ve connected with great thinkers.
When it comes to Both/And Thinking, this is the critical leadership skill of our times. You may have heard me say this before - Both/And Thinking is the EQ of the 2020s. While EQ was novel and interesting 20 years ago, now its part of every leadership development course. While Both/And Thinking is novel and interesting today, fast forward 20 years and I imagine it will be part of every leadership development course. It’s a skill that everyone will need in order to navigate the complexity of our world.
The good news is that we have been given the green light to offer the course free to all of you - whether or not you have a LinkedIN Learning subscription. To get access, you need to find me on LinkedIN and follow my posts. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share FREE access to the course. You can then pass it forward on your LinkedIn accounts. The course is 54 minutes in total (OK, maybe worthy of two exercise sessions), and you walk away with greater insights into the nature of paradoxes, and how and why to make more effective decisions by shifting from either/or to both/and thinking. There’s more details below.
I’ve ALSO identified a couple of other LinkedIN courses that I have loved. If you have a LinkedIN account, I hope you take advantage of this learning opportunity.
If you know others that would benefit from this course, feel free to pass along this newsletter or have them connect with me via LinkedIN. They can also take the course for free for a limited time (I think you get access for a month!).
Mostly, I’d love to hear what you think. This community subscribed to my newsletter are often the people I turn to for my first feedback to help me learn, grow and improve. What strikes you as interesting? What examples felt salient? What did you learn? What did you still want to learn? I’m game for any feedback.
“It feels like we either have time for learning or doing. But the more we learn, the better we are at all we do.” - Wendy Smith
Below is some information about the LinkedIN Learning Course and how you can connect to it.
Navigating Leadership Ambiguity with Both/And Thinkings
It's not IF we face tensions, but HOW
WHO should take this course?
Senior and emerging leaders looking to advance their leadership
Individuals looking for better strategies to deal with dilemmas and challenges
Learning and development professionals seeking advance their organizational knowledge
Executive coaches and facilitators seeking a framework to help clients address key issues
Teams facing conflicts or persistent tensions
YOU!
WHY should you take this course?
To make more effective decisions; for yourself, your team or your organization
To be a more effective leader
To find better strategies for turning conflict into productive tensions
To build a framework for advising and coaching others
WHAT will you learn in this course?
Why our traditional either/or approaches to address issues is problematic
How to define and spot paradoxes and turn them from obstacles to opportunities
What is both/and thinking and how does it unlock new insights and creativity
Tools to apply both/and thinking through the ABCD Paradox System
Real world examples of individuals and leaders drawing on both/and thinking for better decision making
HOW can you take this LinkedIN Learning course?
Join me on LinkedIN. Over the next month, I will share this course exclusively with my LinkedIN community. For a limited time, you will get FREE access to this course, whether or not you have access to LinkedIN Learning. Don’t wait… the free offer from LinkedIN Learning only lasts a few weeks.
Are you interested in other LinkedIN Learning courses?
Here are some that I have loved. Sadly, I don’t have access to share these with you for free, so hopefully you’ll have other ways to engage.
I’m sticking around close to home for the next month (phew!) with hopes of getting a whole lot of writing done. My travel gears up again for October and November and I’ve got some international trips ready to go that I’ll share in the next month’s newsletter, with hopes of connecting with some of you in person.
As always, feel free to reach out if you are looking for a speaker or workshop leader.
I’m excited about doing your course! It is very generous of you. Thank you.