Knowing your employees learning styles will increase productivity!
Each employee learns differently, and therefore, organizations need to understand their employees learning styles to increase productivity. So what are the learning styles:
- Initiating: experimenting with new courses of action. These learners enjoy networking, influencing others, and thinking on their feet. Employers should encourage them to jump in and learn from trial and error.
- Experiencing: finding meaning from deep involvement in experiences and relationships. These learners focus on emotions and intuition. Employers should encourage them to work with others.
- Imagining: contemplating experiences and considering a range of solutions. These learners seek and appreciate diverse input from many people. Listen to their creative ideas and encourage them to work in small teams.
- Reflecting: connecting experiences and ideas through sustained reflection. These learners observe others, take multiple perspectives into account and wait to act until they are confident about the outcome. Employers should allow adequate time for them to watch and listen on their own.
- Analyzing: integrating and systemizing ideas. These learners like to make plans, attend to details. Employers should use concise, logical language with these learners.
- Thinking: engaging in disciplined logic or mathematics. These learners prefer quantitative analysis and abstract reasoning. Employers should allow them time to focus on one objective at a time.
- Deciding: choosing a single course of action early on to achieve practical results. These learners efficiently set goals and evaluate whatever solution they have chosen. Employers should involve them in figuring out which problems to solve and setting standards.
- Acting: taking assertive, goal-directed steps toward change. These learners care about completing the task, are risk takers, and get things done more quickly. Employers should encourage and trial and error and give them on-the-job experiments.
- Balancing: weighing the pros and cons of acting versus reflecting and experiencing versus thinking. These learners can flexibly assume any learning styles to fill gaps in their knowledge. Employers should tap their abilities to identify blind spots and adapt.
