Learning is our Baseline for Growth

What does all the work at iF have in common? Learning. No matter if it’s a team meeting, client presentation, or performance review, ongoing learning is steeped into our work, culture, and values. Learning happens everyday, but it’s often unconscious. To be intentional about seeking new information and experiences and using them to grow is a less common, yet worthy challenge.

While it’s easy to settle into a job using skills you’re confident in, there is immense value in continuing to learn — especially when you learn together with peers. Learning can take effort and humility. We’ve found that before tackling something new, it can be helpful to have an idea of what’s really happening to the brain when we learn.

Adults Learn Differently

Adult learning (andragogy) differs from childhood learning because it adopts a humanistic lens, meaning it centers on personal growth, autonomy, and the learner’s individual needs.

Andragogy is rooted in five key pillars, developed by Malcolm Knowles:

1. Self concept
2. Adult learner experience
3. Readiness to learn
4. Orientation of learning
5. Motivation to learn

What does all this mean for working professionals? At its core, andragogy is often driven by a strong motivation to learn, or Knowles’ final principle. In the workplace, this could look like seeking to:

• Acquire the skills to become eligible for role advancement.
• Learn to work better with a challenging colleague.
• Become an expert at using a new tool.

There’s Power in Collaborative Learning

Learning doesn’t work as well in a silo — when it comes to andragogy, collaboration is highly beneficial. While collaboration and self-paced learning (the preference of many adult learners) may seem like opposites, they are closely linked. By collaborating with a group, individual adult learners are able to control their own education, while also benefiting from the support and feedback opportunities that come with a group setting. According to a Kansas State University study, collaboration with a group can, “extend the knowledge base, resources and critical reflection opportunities for each individual in the group to reach…[their] goal.”

By embracing a working culture of learning new skills, understanding mistakes, and exploring passions, we allow space for ourselves to be adaptable, take risks, and break through barriers. Because learning and teaching go hand in hand, a collaborative setting enables us to share new insights, ultimately creating more value. There are many ways we at iF are constantly learning and teaching.

• School of iF: Twice a year, we meet as an entire company to invest in learning a new skill together. We’ve previously gone deep into stakeholder mapping, journey mapping, and learning to create product demos for Intentional Learning sessions.
• Our work: We are fortunate to learn about a wide range of impactful topics through the projects we take on. We dive into these projects with curiosity, asking world-renowned experts pointed questions to advance our collective thinking.
• Team training: Our practices engage in team learning to broaden their professional knowledge. Recently, our Social Impact practice expanded this knowledge with trauma-informed facilitation with Reloveution, and the Education practice took an AORTA training to strengthen their facilitation skills in conversations and decisions relating to social justice work.
• Professional development: Each iFster has the option to work with their manager to identify reach areas and the projects, leadership opportunities, or training that will help them reach their goals.

How will our ability to learn alongside each other make us more effective? By being open to new discoveries, we can grow both professionally and personally. Growth takes a variety of forms; it could include mastering a tool, illuminating a different way to think about an existing problem, or improving your working relationship with a colleague. The more we learn, the more open we become to reaching for higher challenges and goals. With the ability to be a lifelong learner, the sky’s the limit.

Happenings

Other Things We’re Working On Include…

We’ll be co-hosting an in-person panel event in early March with local HR firm Reverb, hearing from experts on the future of work in our fast-changing world. Some of the topics at hand include: returning to office (or not), leading with empathy, managing a multigenerational workforce, and more. RSVP here.

We created a Regenerative Principles Card Deck to provide teams and leaders with a tool for beginning conversations about regenerative possibilities and transitioning from reactive mindsets to proactive, systemic designs. Sign up below to receive your own copy of the deck! Sign up here.

Our annual holiday gift aimed to inspire others to transform their relationship with technology. Using our custom, in-house created deck, users were invited to create powerful reflections, routines, and ideas.

In December, we kicked off a new house concert series with the local jazz/rock band Anonymouse. Clients and friends gathered for a casual, festive evening with live music, pizza, and drinks. Stay tuned for future concerts!

Debi spoke at the 2024 Global Washington Goalmakers conference, sharing her expertise on how storytelling can help us to think differently when addressing global challenges while staying focused on dignity and humanity.

We supported Project Liberty’s effort to create a fair data economy, one in which users have control of their personal data. The organization, led by Frank McCourt, has made headlines in recent months with its People’s Bid to acquire TikTok and implement a fair data backend on the platform. How would a fair data-base business work and make money? We developed a set of explanatory placemats that describe the transition from today’s platform-centric digital economy to an open, user-controlled environment. Check out the placemats here.

The Social Impact practice took a trauma-informed facilitation training to better understand how trauma can affect learning, growth, and healing. Led by Reloveution, the team explored the science of trauma and how it connects to equity frameworks, as well as learned techniques to minimize harm, foster trust, and support emotional and psychological safety while acting as a facilitator. The training has put Social Impact on a course to move beyond being trauma-informed to become trauma-reducing and healing when engaging with communities and clients alike.

Read, Watch, & Listen

Alison Gazarek, Director, Education — “Learn With Us”

Michelle Culver at The Rithm Project is doing some fascinating things around AI and human connection, in particular for and with young people. I loved this page of resources and readings they put together, including sections on ‘deepfakes and relationships’, bias and ‘solutionism’ in developing tech; and ‘the loneliness epidemic’. I find her work novel, inspiring, and necessary to push the field to think differently about the pros (and cons) of technology, especially for young people, in ways that go beyond “ban it” or “embrace it”. Check out the recent zine they published on human-chatbot relationships.

Jeff Lindstrom, Senior Strategist, Digital Strategy & Innovation — “The Grab”

Those curious about the impact climate change is having on societies, at scale — from a myriad of perspectives (e.g. governance, investment, national security) — might find this film by the Center for Investigative Reporting interesting.

Michael Dix, CEO — “Merce Lemon Immerses Herself In Nature”

My niece Merce Lemon is a talented musician whose latest album, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild, is beautiful, emotional, and haunting. Listening to Merce’s recent KEXP interview took me back to when she first started learning how to play and write when she moved out to Seattle and lived with me. So proud of her.

Work & Insights

Building A Student-Centered Vision for a Better School

Seattle: 2026 World Cup Champions?

Regenerative Business: A New Design Paradigm for Systemic Innovation

Thank You

To our clients, former and current; our fans; our colleagues; and our friends, we thank you for your continued support. Reach out to us anytime at info@intentionalfutures.com.