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Features

Published September 2008

Lifestyle Learning: Improve the Bottom Line With Behavioral Education

  Agatha Gilmore

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Academic education and professional degrees can impart the technical expertise necessary for on-the-job success, but ultimately, work styles and techniques are what drive productivity.

In today’s knowledge economy, with lightning-fast Internet connections and an increasingly globalized marketplace, information reigns supreme. Modern, user-generated tools such as Wikipedia.com and blogs have not only made communication easier and faster, they have emphasized the importance we place on sharing knowledge.

For this reason and more, education is a hot commodity. Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees help those in the workforce acquire the theoretical knowledge and technical expertise required to get a leg up on the competition. But even in today’s world, a degree can only take you so far.

“The notion of a degree or a certification or a certain educational level really is [just] the price of admission into a job or job function,” said David Collins, vice president and general manager of the training products division at Tracom Group, a provider of workforce performance solutions.

Once an individual has the knowledge, it’s the way he goes about doing his work — his organizational, time-management and behavioral skills — that ultimately drives results.

“Proven knowledge and skills are often necessary conditions for people to be high performers and to be successful. But the will-do, the motivation, the engagement facets really play a role in whether or not you will deploy what you’re capable of doing,” said Dr. Kenneth Nowack, a licensed psychologist and president and chief research officer of Envisia Learning.

Keeping this in mind, learning organizations can leverage the work styles, choices and techniques of successful employees to elevate curriculum and improve the overall productivity of the workforce.

Successful Social Styles
Nowack said success can be conceptualized as a scorecard that involves four independent elements: happiness, values, achievement and relationships. A successful person is fruitful in all four. But how does he or she do it

“The most successful individuals possess a set of personality qualities and practice lifestyle behaviors that facilitate continuous growth and learning,” Nowack said. “Some of these include being conscientious and achievement-oriented; identifying and deploying signature strengths; practicing forgiveness and expending less energy [on] remaining angry; actively acknowledging stress and practicing stress-reduction techniques when experiencing work and life triggers to reverse the fight-or-flight response; utilizing support of others, as well as expressive writing to let feelings out; maintaining a regular sleep cycle; [and] taking time to become physically active.”

Nowack added that a recent Harvard Business Review article, titled “How the Best of the Best Get Better and Better,” also offered insight into this topic.

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