The days get shorter, the first snowflakes scurry past the window and the scent of cookies, hot cocoa and mulled wine is in the air - the Christmas season is here!With our virtual advent calendar we would like to wake up your curiosity and make you want to learn something new again.
Qualification is an integral part of our mission at Microsoft and together we are working on establishing a (digital) learning culture - so that lifelong learning for everyone becomes a very natural part of our work and our life.How best to do this and where you can start?Answers to these questions and other helpful tips on how to stay fit for the working world of the future will be available in the next 24 days in this blog post.
Our team wishes you a happy and relaxed pre -Christmas season!
#1 Learn to learn to learn
To learn new things, we first have to make space - so you can learn things.The theory of the futurologist Alvin Toffler sounds obvious, but is not so easy to implement.When learning, it's not just about forgetting what you have learned.Rather, one tries to question old behavior and thought patterns and get rid of previous beliefs and views.A process that costs strength, but has the positive effect that new things can also thrive.
#2 Stay curious
The world around us is in constant change, technologies are developing further and once acquired knowledge faster than ever.How should you keep step?A good start is to (again) get used to asking more questions.Curiosity is like a muscle that you can train.Sounds banal, but it helps scary to absorb a lot of knowledge and stay up to date.Try it out today!
#3 Find a learning topic
In order to find out in which areas one could develop personally, your own job may offer a first starting point: Maybe the activity, your own function and role in the company has changed recently.Or the company and industry is completely changing.Then consider the knowledge and skills that would help you the most with your daily work.Where would it be worthwhile to get better, for current projects or new professional opportunities?The findings can then be used to search for suitable further training opportunities.
#4 Get to know yourself better
If you want to develop further or are simply looking for new interests, it can help to analyze your own strengths and weaknesses in more detail.If you know yourself well, you can make it easier to decide in which direction it can go.In order to find out what is special, you can think about, for example, in which situations you felt particularly good: maybe when you recently helped a friend in a difficult situation?Or when you could settle a dispute between two colleagues?It can also be helpful to ask people from their own environment what skills they see in one.
#5 start small
Fascinates artificial intelligence?Do you find big data exciting?You don't have to start studying parallel right away.It is a quick way to start with small steps and gradually find out whether you want to go deeper into a topic or even to steer your professional path in this direction.There are ted talks, videos or online forums on almost every topic.The dark, cold season can be used well to make yourself comfortable with a tea on the sofa and immerse yourself in new topics.For example, with the AI Business School, for example, we offer a master class series in which top managers from international companies share their findings and practical information on how artificial intelligence can be used strategically in organizations of every industry and size.
#6 Find the right form of learning
As diverse as the topics are, the formats are also different.Some people take the most from regular meetings with a learning group.Others prefer to learn at a learning platform at their own pace, listen to lectures or need presence workshops.So that you feel comfortable and stay on the ball, it is important to find the right form of learning - and of course that works best with trying it out.As part of our IT fitness initiative, learners can get to know different formats, build digital skills and acquire mini certifications in the form of “Open Badges”.
#7 More self -confidence when looking for a job
Job advertisements are packed with requirements - but honestly: Nobody brings everything that is required.An ideal is often described that does not exist in reality.Why not look at it with a different perspective and ask yourself: Do I want to familiarize myself with the topics?Do I see the potential with myself?Anyone who shows willingness to learn often often has a good chance of getting the job, even if not all sought -after skills are available.
#8 Find role models and like -minded people
Together it is a lot more fun to learn something new.Maybe there is a colleague or friend who is also interested in your topic?A mentor can also help you learn, spur and show a way with impulses.Tell people from your project and dare to address experts.Our Skillher initiative works, for example: the participants are accompanied by mentors over the entire learning process and build a kind of competence network in learning groups that promotes exchange and career opportunities.
#9 Learn to become a habit
A good thing in adulthood: to be able to choose how, what and when you learn!Learning can be flexibly integrated into everyday life, how it fits you best and make it a routine.To start, make yourself aware of where you actually learn every day.So you can take something from everyday situations with small tricks and tricks.For example, by deliberately asking yourself what you can learn from the experiences of a person you met today.Or what you have learned about the person, what properties they have and what knowledge you can draw from it.It's like a kind of training for our own learning behavior - try it today!
#10 Don't be afraid of motivation depths
Nobody is motivated every day to rediscover the world and know how to absorb.Especially now in the Christmas season you shouldn't be too strict with yourself if the personal learning path is not as straightforward as you have set it up.Motivation depths are quite normal and are part of every learning process.
#11 use online learning offers
Digital marketing, project management or graphic design?If you want to get deeper into a topic, you will find a lot of free, offers online.LinkedIn Learning offers, for example, a variety of learning content and videos.They enable us to learn at the place where we feel most comfortable.As part of our global qualification initiative, numerous learning paths for digital skills are available free of charge.
#Get 12 certifications
If you already have initial experience in the IT area, you can also train with Microsoft Learn and collect certifications.IT specialists can learn here in your own style and pace-for example in the form of texts, videos as well as practical exercises, tasks and knowledge test to consolidate what you have learned.In addition, there are virtual live training events such as conferences, demos or workshops with professional trainer teams and hands-on training sessions.All content is based on real business requirements and are specially tailored to the roles and positions in companies.
#13 Learn the learning time at working hours
Many are wondering how to find time to train between 40-hour job, care work, care, leisure and family.A solution could be to combine learning with work.Because who besides yourself benefits if you continue to educate yourself?Exactly: your employer.Today, companies are more dependent on the fact that their employees expand their skills and keep pace with the technological development.Explain to your boss or your preservation of how the department would benefit from the new skills.Together you can then consider how best to integrate the training into everyday work.
#14 Accept non -knowledge, “Growth Mindset” live
Whether professionally or privately - in everyday life we always encounter new tasks and situations that we have not experienced in this way and that first a "I can't" or "I don't know" in us.A very natural and human reaction.A small trick can help to change your own attitude and maybe master the challenge more easily: Try to think about "I can't yet" or "I don't know yet" next time.The thought behind it is based on the culture of the "Growth Mindset" that we have internalized at Microsoft: Everyone can change, learn and grow things.
#15 Treat your head a break
Sometimes we step on the spot when learning and just feels like it just doesn't get any further - the content does not want to stay in the head.It is often helpful to deal with a completely different topic for a while or to distract yourself with sports or walking.If you turn back to the learning material later or after a few days, you suddenly notice that what you have learned was better internalized when you thought first.
#16 Find and find inspiration
If you are looking for suggestions to look at a topic from a completely different, new perspective, you should perhaps take into account the visit of a museum or an exhibition (many also offer online rounds)).A change of perspective often helps to find your own way.Outside inspiration works particularly well when you start spontaneously and without a fixed plan.Surprising where the impulses will help you anywhere later - in meetings, in an interview or to support someone else in a project.
#17 The knowledge of many benefits
In every company there is a lot of collected knowledge.However, it is a challenge to make this accessible and usable for everyone.Nobody knows all colleagues, especially not their individual qualifications, hobbies and interests.However, it is often worth asking even extraordinary questions about internal communication tools such as Microsoft Teams or Yammer.More often than expected, you raise an unexpected “wealth of knowledge” because someone has already belonged to the subject, read, read it or even worked and researched it himself.
#18 Create a knowledge library
Anyone who runs through the world with open eyes is constantly encountering new information - an article here, a tweet there, a conversation at the coffee machine or an image on an advertising space: to process all of this directly, is almost impossible in normal work.It can help to create your own small library with tools such as OneNote and to capture impressions and ideas “for later” - nothing is lost so.
#19 Learn what is fun
Adults in particular tend to link the topic of learning and further training with professional goals or career.But if we only learn things from which we promise professional progress, we run the risk of losing the desire for new topics.The Christmas season is advisable to look to the left and right of the path and to discover something that interests you personally.Maybe you always wanted to learn sign language, or pottery, code, tile laying?Everything that is fun is allowed and helps you to claim your learning muscles.
#20 SHILDER IN THE OTHER SHITY
Someone visited an exciting conference, implemented an extraordinary project or hit an interesting personality?It makes sense to let the colleagues share in the learning and experiences and to pass on the curated knowledge.This can be without much effort, for example in the form of a post in the company network or as a short impulse in the next Morning Meeting.Make the start yourself and then pass on the “baton”, so that a kind of team routine can become of it.
#21 rely on quality, not on quantity
While you used to learn a lot of material in school in school, you can proceed more specifically today.It's not about getting as much knowledge and new information in your head as possible.Instead, you can take advantage of the so-called “aha moments” that each of us probably knows.If you have gained a new knowledge or insight, something happens in our brain that contains neuroscientists as the active part of learning - there are neuronal connections that then also make us think differently and act differently.
#22 Mix learning content
Our brain loves variety!In order to get more flexibility and foresight in your own thinking and acting, it can therefore help to deal with different learning content one after the other.With this technique, theoretical, technical and social disciplines are mixed.For example, if you have taken a programming course in the past few weeks, you may then be able to deal with creativity or communication techniques.
#23 Take time to reflect on
If you learn a lot, you should also take time to process what you have learned.For this you can think about what advantages you can draw from it in dealing with your fellow human beings, working with customers or on upcoming projects.This is the only way we can ultimately actively use the knowledge gained and make it usable for ourselves.
#24 become a learning model
Laughter is infected - learning too!Anyone who loves to discover new topics for themselves, never stop learning and makes this hunger of knowledge visible to the outside world, will motivate their fellow human beings to take this attitude itself.A great side effect if you have already internalized the lifelong learning for yourself!
A contribution by Mohanna Azarmandichief Learning Officer
Tags: digital education, digital learning, skilling
