Blog: Learn like a child: it’s crucial to your business!

Children are natural learners from the moment they are born. Their brain is like a sponge and they always use their gut instinct and make decisions based on impulse.

They are energetic, playful and instinctively inquisitive. Typically, children want things ‘right now’ which is a great trait to have – a sense of urgency!

For a minute, just imagine being able to take these great qualities that children naturally have and mould them to combine with adult behaviours –  being more cautious, thinking before acting and having a deeper sense of understanding.

Learning can be more effective when your number one focus (like a child) is always to have fun. Children never seem to stress when they’ve made a mistake, and they don’t constantly assess themselves. Perhaps, as adults, we could learn a thing or two!

In a business, wouldn’t it be great if someone had all these basic traits plus their own personality.

We ask children to do for most of a day what few adults are able to do for even an hour.

At some point, everyone is guilty of being too stressed, and it’s not always a bad thing as it shows you care about the work you’re doing. However, as a result of this constant behaviour it can create negative feelings relating to the work, and you can destroy your own motivation which is disadvantageous for the individual and the business.

To summarise how you can learn like a child, you should:

• Encourage your employees to go with their gut instinct – the decision may be wrong, but you (and they) can always learn from their mistakes
• Be curious – it only shows you’re interested, and you never know…you might learn something!
• Why not try and make things fun? Why does adulthood have to be so boring. Even something as simple as having a walking meeting. If it’s a nice day, take a stroll around the block, whilst letting off some steam. Your body will be buzzing with endorphins instead of sitting in a stuffy meeting room
• Be energetic – don’t be ashamed of having some passion. It means that you are excited and have a positive energy that can be shared with others. Happiness is contagious!
• Having a strong sense of urgency is not always a bad thing
• Try not to get too stressed – there will always be another way!

If you have children, the next time they aren’t able to do something right away, observe. They will try, try and try again.