How to Avoid the Dreaded "Learning Cliff"
A deep-dive into the problems with modern development, where it's impacting you, and how to set yourself up for success.
In this letter:
I go deep this week into a single topic - the "learning cliff." This career barrier is holding millions of professionals back from achieving their career dreams.
Let's talk through it. Then, figure out a solution.
Sound good?Why is Everyone Stuck?
Here’s some startling data:
An Oracle survey found that 75% of professionals feel stuck in their careers.
25% don’t see opportunities to grow.
22% feel too overwhelmed to make changes.
Sadly, I’ve seen this trend in the professionals and students I work with. Many have amazing, untapped potential and a drive to succeed.
But they feel stuck in place.
What’s going on?
There are external market factors at play.
Companies don’t create pathways.
Managers don’t develop their employees.
Technology and market swings are unpredictable.
But these factors don’t account for the overwhelming number of professionals who feel down-and-out about their career prospects.
There’s got to be something else.
Something we can control.
And there is.
I call it the “learning cliff.”
Let’s Roll Back the Clock …
Picture the first day you started kindergarten. You didn’t realize it at the time, but you walked into a structured learning environment.
It featured:
A dedicated teacher 🧑🏫
An organized curriculum 📝
Grades and feedback 💯
Built-in learning partners 😊
In other words, you were told where, what, when, and how to learn. You were given a learning system to move you forward.
This structure carried through your formal school days. Middle school, high school, college, and even grad school.
As long as you were in a school, you had a system.
And then something happened. A sudden change.
You graduated.
Meet: The Learning Cliff
At graduation, the system is pulled away.
One day, you’re told the where, what, when, and how of learning. The next day, you’re told, “Go figure it out.”
This is the learning cliff.
Professionals who enter the workplace shift from a learning mindset to a doing mindset. They hand over concepts and quizzes for projects and performance reviews.
Development changes.
But more than that, professionals are left to build their own learning systems. Without the safety and structure of formal education, it’s a sink-or-swim dynamic.
Where should I learn?
What should I learn?
When should I learn?
How should I learn?
Suddenly, that’s on you.
Why Do We Do This?
Schools don’t mean to leave us hanging.
They were designed during the Industrial Revolution. A time when knowledge worked differently. A time when learning and work were separate.
Today, learning and work aren’t separate.
They’re intertwined.
Take one look at LinkedIn’s Future of Skills report and you’ll see why this matters.
Check out these data points:
Skills have changed by 24% on average globally since 2015.
Highly valued professional skills are on pace to change by anywhere from 39% to 44% by 2025.
By 2025, we’re likely to see 3 new skills in the top skills for a job.
It’s not enough to learn and stop. It’s not enough to piece together a Frankenstein’s monster of a learning system.
We need continuous and predictable development.
Casualties of the Cliff
Sadly, many professionals fall off the cliff.
Without a system to rely on, they struggle to move their career forward.
Do they stop learning altogether?
No, absolutely not. Most professionals I know care about development. Most professionals invest where they can.
The problem:
They don’t grow consistently.
They don’t grow fast enough to keep up with change.
They don’t grow fast enough to stand out in the market.
Instead, they slip into random acts of learning. Stopping and starting online courses. Picking up one-off business books. Relying on inconsistent on-the-job training.
Sound familiar?
The impact doesn’t show overnight.
But fast forward a few years and 75% of professionals feel stuck.
They don’t have a predictable learning system.
They aren’t making the progress they want.
The market isn’t supporting them.
No wonder folks are struggling.
What’s the Solution?
The solution to the learning cliff is straightforward.
We need to replace the learning system used in school with one that’s tailor-made for busy, working professionals.
This leaves two options:
Build your system from scratch.
Adopt a proven system and run with it.
Option 1
Some professionals piece together their development system and use it to power their career or entrepreneurial efforts.
Warren Buffett reads 5-6 hours per day.
Bill Gates shares annual book reviews.
Satya Nadella is an avid reader and promotes a “learn it all” culture.
They’ve built systems from scratch.
You can certainly do this.
But I’ll tell you from experience that it’s no easy task. Most hand-built systems fall into one of two buckets.
They either require A LOT of time (Buffett’s 5-6 hours).
OR they require A LOT of in-depth knowledge.
If you’re going to tackle it, here are some starting tips …
3 System-Building Tips:
1. Study habits. Understand the science of how we form and change habits. Read Atomic Habits and The Power of Habit.
2. Study learning. Identify the key learning methodologies that can help you learn faster and more efficiently. Read How We Learn (to start).
3. Study the market. Know which skills are rising and which ones are falling. Build this into your system. Option 2
Develop Daily helps you skip this step.
Simply put, Develop Daily is a professional development system made for the modern worker. It comes from my 15+ years helping professionals and students grow their careers.
Develop Daily features:
Habit and motivation cues.
Cutting-edge learning science.
Practical solutions for the busy worker.
In this newsletter, I share pieces of the Develop Daily system.
You’ll notice it in actionable steps, the easy-to-use LinkedIn Content Library, and the learning plans I include at the end of every newsletter.
These are learning best practices.
And they work.
At a high level, Develop Daily walks you through:
How to set S.M.A.R.T. learning goals.
How to break the goal down into 20-minute chunks.
How to dedicate 20 minutes of deep work each day.
How to build a community of accountability.
A strong system is how you avoid the learning cliff.
It’s how you move your career forward at pace.
Want to Learn More?
Here’s the deal …
I’m building out Version 1 of the full Develop Daily system.
And I’d love your input.
I’m pulling together a small feedback group. Folks to review the Develop Daily material and share their opinions.
What did you like?
Is it crystal clear?
How could it be better?
If you’re interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look, please reply to this email. Let me know why you’d like to be involved and how you plan to put Develop Daily to work for your career.
Thanks, and I look forward to sharing more soon!
P.S.
Don’t forget to spend time in the LinkedIn Career Content Library this week. I just added 5 new posts, including a PACKED list of job search resources.
And, if you’re looking for someone to talk through your weekly learning plan, drop me a note. I’d love to connect and build with you.