A Passion for Learning!
by Danny Summers
To begin, can we agree... Sharing is a function of Leaning!
When you are outside The Group, you really don't know what goes on within. I have said this in other GROUPtalks and during The Fall Event... "Sharing is at the Heart of The Group experience." This is part of a constant learning process. It never ends. You never get finished. Here's a few quotes to illustrate:
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
― Socrates
“You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.”
“Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.”
In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review article titled "Make Learning a Lifelong Habit", author John Coleman refers to Edmund Morris’s first two Theodore Roosevelt biographies, where he describes the Past President as a “lifetime learner.” Learning became, for Teddy, a mode of personal enjoyment and a path to professional success. In the article, Coleman outlines 5 important guidelines for this learning path:
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articulate the outcomes you’d like to achieve
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set realistic goals
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develop a learning community
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ditch the distractions
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and finally, where appropriate, use technology to supplement learning
When I got to the part "develop a learning community" I stopped for an instance. I realized, that's a great description for The Group. We are a LEARNING COMMUNITY!
Julia Child's quote above is correct and it applies to us. No one knows everything about retail. It is ever-changing, fluid, and dynamic. It continues to evolve as our audience changes and the world in which we live changes around us. But, we can be assured that plants, the fundamental base for our sales, is an important part of a healthy life. Our challenge is to share the joys of this learning experience and share what is working and what's not through The Group!
To everyone in this Group... thank you for sharing and helping all of us learn more!
What can we learn today? This is an exciting question!
Danny