“Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences.”

This is a great definition of learning but there is something missing.

With everything we learn we should have a purpose.

I often look up information to feed my curiosity or to provide myself with the knowledge I need for a task, but there is a purpose to my investigation.

The same applies to your business.

You set out to learn something that you believe or know to have a purpose, and that is to help you grow a successful business.

When it comes to our team we want our team to learn with a purpose as well.

When you have a real purpose in your business, you must action what you learn so you can start to see gradual results and improvements.

When you learn with no purpose and no end goal then really there is no point in learning.

I know you may be thinking that learning for the sake of learning is still useful. Well maybe for that trivia night coming up!

I say learn with a PURPOSE. Learn with an END RESULT in mind.

Why waste time learning what is never going to have any real use to you and your business.

I meet a lot of dentists and other business owners who have invested lots of time, energy and money into their business and have a whole lot of passion for learning and using what they learn.

But how do business owners get their team to have the same amount of passion?

Each year teams attend courses, seminars, workshops and yet nothing changes. Everything they learn or most of it is tucked away on a shelf and never used.

Do you have a shelf full of folders with amazing resources and information that could be used but never has?

So how do you get your team use what they learn?

Of course you do always want a team that are hungry to learn and get your passion but it doesn’t always start that way.

Loving what you are learning is always preferred so you want to ensure the people teaching your team are passionate, empathetic, empowering and help your team get what they are learning.

It is natural for teams to feel daunted and concerned as well as excited when they are learning.

Always frame up what the expectation is before your team learn anything. It does help for them to buy in and be ready for any type of learning. When your team know the specific purpose of what they are going to learn then they will stay focused and be ready to use what they learn.

When you “get” or “understand” what you are learning, and how you can use what you have learned to make a difference, you continue to use it. This is true action!

I see so many team members scratch their head in confusion about what they are doing and why. They have no idea what they are really trying to achieve and of course, no purpose to their learning.

Learning with purpose is the essential ingredient to successfully using what is learned.

Another ingredient is to check your team are on track, so don’t be afraid to make them accountable for what they are learning.

You want to be able to help your team use what they have learned step by step in small achievable amounts.

I see too many practices trying to rush everything when it comes to learning. Fast track learning will never give you the same results. Your team will burn out, feel like they have achieved nothing and go back to what they were doing before.

Also something else to be aware of, each person in your team, learns differently. Some people will learn quickly, some slowly and some will need it explained differently.

So keep track of each individual person on your team and watch how they action what they have learned.

And always remember, bit of patience and praise goes a long way when your team are learning and taking action.