Learning: The infinite journey
(3 min read)
In the 18th century, Lancelot Brown was probably the most revered English landscape designer, working on over 250 sites including the likes of Chatsworth House, Blenheim Palace, and Hampton Court Palace. Brown was affectionately known as ‘Capability Brown’ because of how he would tell clients their estates had great ‘capability’ to improve the landscape. He swept away the traditional formal gardens into a gardenless landscape with serpentine lakes, scatterings of trees and smooth undulating grass up to the house. The length of time it would take for these landscapes to fully come into fruition would take many generations, meaning we have been experiencing these sites in their full glory for only a few generations; Capability Brown and his clients were creating something for the generations ahead to build upon and enjoy, knowing they were unlikely to ever fully experience their own creations. In short, they had an infinite mindset, understanding our journey is endless and not a series of discrete or finite events. It would have been easy to create the then in vogue formal gardens which would likely be replaced in the future. But they chose something that has lasted the test of time. It is possible these individuals had greater fulfilment in the journey than the destination they were unlikely to ever fully see.
Stowe, Buckinghamshire, UK.
Capability Brown can teach us a valuable lesson in and around learning and personal growth. When we consider learning opportunities, we can choose to view it with a finite mindset, a discrete event with a start and finish point. We move on to the next event, ticking them off, failing to connect it to our higher purpose. Or we can choose to view it with an infinite mindset, a small step in a journey that has already started, without truly knowing where we will go next or end up but knowing today we are a little better than yesterday.
We have likely all experienced moments when, for whatever reason we couldn’t wait to leave an event or interaction with others. In that moment, we have potentially lost an opportunity of transforming an event into a meaningful experience. In a previous blog, I discussed the importance of readiness, willingness, explicitness, and clarity in relation to deliberate and active participation in learning. There is clearly a need for us to make a conscious choice to voluntarily participate. But the other side of the same coin is the need for learning design to liberate infinite mindsets in the manner in which we construct learning experiences or journeys. If we can stop viewing learning as a finite event with a discrete start and finish, while facilitate opportunities to allow us to transform content into our context, we can then start to identify what action we can take to make a change. Learning is as much about the application as it is the acquisition. Like Capability Brown, if we view the world with an infinite mindset, who knows what we could achieve!
If you enjoyed reading this and would like to read more around personal effectiveness, learning and learning, stay connected. No spam, just quality ideas and insights.