The rise of modern technology in the post-COVID era has meant that the world is changing faster than ever. With a constant fluctuation in trends, businesses are needing to learn better ways to manage their business and stay ahead of the competition.

How has the current environment affected and changed your business? Have you been taking time to reflect and personally develop?

If you have recently thought about personal development, then you have probably considered formal training courses. If this is the case, you have probably also considered the fact that not all learning materials would be applicable to you and your business and that when you do return to your business, you’ll struggle with applying theory to real-life situations.

If this sounds familiar, then we have a solution.

Experiential Learning uses a combination of looking at what happened, reflecting on how it applied to your circumstances, seeing how that experience fits in with conceptual management tools and techniques and then using that mixture of new knowledge and experience to apply it in the future.

We, as individuals, all learn differently. Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning takes this into account. Each part of the cycle applies to the different learning styles (from Honey and Mumford):

• Activists (Doing and Experimentation) prefer Concrete Experience
• Reflectors (Observe and Reflect) prefer Reflective Observation
• Theorists (Understanding underlying concepts) prefer Abstract conceptualization
• Pragmatists (Have a go – see if it works) prefer Active Experimentation

Everyone has their preferred learning style. However, for complete learning to occur, each stage of the cycle shown in the figure must be passed through. The learning takes place when the learner is involved in the whole process. Kolb found that there are two dimensions to the learning process: grasping and transforming. We grasp experience by feeling/doing (Concrete Experience) and by thinking/theorizing (Abstract conceptualization). We then transform experience by watching/reflecting (Reflective Observation) and by doing/applying (Active Experimentation).

This means that with experiential learning:

• You only learn about WHAT matters to you.
• You learn it at a time WHEN it will make a difference to you.
• You learn it HOW it suits you.
• You can learn WHERE you want.
• You understand WHY it is important to you.

So what do you need to learn to stay competitive?

Here is a blog post we have made for the top 72 marketing questions to ask to help grow your business.

Call 0333 050 9053 or email growth@kub-uk.com if you are a business leader and are interested in learning about management tools and techniques that will help you become a more effective leader at a time and place that suits you.