Chapter Four

Building Style Flexibility

Things do not change; we change.

Henry David Thoreau

Your learning style helps you to be successful because you gravitate to situations that call for the skills associated with your style. Through repeated practice, you become more capable of dealing with situations that demand the capabilities of your preferred style. People seek stability, so they typically match their life situation with their preference in order to stay within their comfort zone. But what happens when your need for stability makes you feel brittle and uncertain? Or what if you avoid situations that can make you more successful or effective? You can increase your comfort zone by building learning flexibility.

Learning flexibility is the ability to use all the learning styles in response to various situations. You can use the information in this chapter to expand your learning style repertoire to include the styles you do not currently use. You will explore the many benefits of building learning flexibility for your own effectiveness in learning and life. Finally, you will have the opportunity to choose one learning style goal that will help you to become more flexible.

The following story about Anne Robinson illustrates how learning flexibility helped her to respond to challenges that she encountered and build a highly successful career.

Although petite, Anne’s striking presence and seriousness make her appear immovable and unshakable. She draws you in as she keeps her distance. She simultaneous screams “you want my approval” and “approach with caution.” Anne carefully cultivated this strong persona in the late 1990s when she became the “Queen of Mean” on a successful BBC and NBC television show The Weakest Link. The long-running series provided a platform for her quick, caustic wit as she infamously intimidated and rattled contestants.

Anne’s toughness was fostered by her mother who had been an unusual role model of how to succeed in a man’s world with no excuses. Her mother built a small market into the largest food chain in northern England. Every night at the dinner table, Anne and her mother would discuss how much money they had made, which customers they should keep, and which they should ditch. By taking some carefully managed risks, they built confidence unknown by many women of the day. Their goal orientation and commitment to success became a central part of their approach to life. Playing to her strengths, Anne further developed her ability to make a case and take a stand when she became a journalist, working for every major paper in Britain before joining the BBC as a broadcaster.

Eventually, Anne’s focus on toughness made her brittle and broken. The bravery that had allowed her to take risks turned into reckless, destructive behavior. At her lowest moments in her mid-thirties, she was a nonfunctioning alcoholic who had deteriorated to seventy-five pounds, too ill to keep custody of her only daughter. Eventually, Anne decided to use her natural toughness to work on herself, picked herself up, and used her journalistic talents to write a book about the dreadful experience, entered TV, and became one of the most recognized journalists in Britain. Following The Weakest Link, Anne hosted a prime-time consumer watchdog show for fifteen years and transitioned to making documentaries and championing a charitable cause.

During that transition, Anne decided that her strengths—decisiveness and toughness—were no longer serving her well. She sought to develop partnerships and engage others to join in her charitable cause, skills that require building lasting relationships. She had to moderate her “Queen of Mean” attitude by developing more soft edges and empathy. She learned to soften her smirk into a smile, balancing both grit and grace to make each quality exponentially more effective. Anne developed the ability to be flexible in her approach to learning through life’s challenges, helping her understand who she is now and who she wants to become.

Anne’s initial strong preference for the Deciding style provided a foundation for her success early in life. She was able to form strong arguments to make her case and then deliver it with decisive commitment. This stable and specialized approach focused on her strengths but left her with little access to the styles associated with other ways of learning. As Anne’s life progressed and her responsibilities increased, she needed to develop more range. She developed additional backup capabilities in Acting and Initiating, Thinking and Analyzing—the styles adjacent to the Deciding style on the learning cycle. These capabilities allowed her to plan strategically and take charge while driving her and others to extraordinary achievements. In her work for a charitable cause, Anne began meeting with donors to enlist their personal and financial support using the Thinking style to focus on how the charity adds value to society and on the Deciding style to set goals for getting their donations. Her direct, assertive approach was not working, so Anne needed to consider a different approach. She believed that she would be more successful if she connected with donors through her strong positive emotions about the charity by harnessing the Experiencing style. The Experiencing style would be a better match when she needed to form relationships that didn’t rely on her commands but on connections. The Imagining style could also help her seek the opinions of many stakeholders before she made decisions, and the Reflecting style could allow Anne to slow down and allow space for others to offer their perspectives in those situations. By adding these learning styles to her repertoire, Anne saw that instead of barking witty yet potentially biting off-the-cuff remarks, she could have more positive interactions with empathy, listening, and observing.

Learning Flexibility

You can use the nine styles of learning described in chapter three to transform your life. These nine ways of learning provide you with a complete set of skills to creatively manage any situation and learn in the process. Developing the capability to use them all enables you to tap the full power of the learning cycle, and your own full potential. Table 4.1 describes the nine ways of learning and their associated capabilities.

Table 4.1 The Nine Styles of Learning and their Associated Capabilities

Learning flexibility, the ability to develop capabilities in all styles of learning, allows you to creatively match your approach to the situation at hand. If you are meeting someone new, you may benefit from using the Experiencing or Imagining style rather than the Analyzing or Thinking style; however, if you are conducting a cost-to-benefit analysis, Experiencing and Imagining are probably not the best choice for this problem. You will probably do better by using the Thinking and Deciding styles. Learning flexibility and mobility within the learning cycle are antidotes for the rigidity of a specialized learning style. The more flexibility you develop, the more freedom and confidence you’ll have in meeting situations as they arise. Learning flexibility also sets you up to move toward an integrated life.

By taking the KLSI 4.0, you will receive a measurement of your learning flexibility. The Learning Flexibility Index of the KLSI 4.0 measures your ability to capitalize on the strengths of other learning styles. This score quantifies how much you “flex” to other styles and identifies which learning styles you use as a backup. See Appendix A for more information about the KLSI 4.0.

Like Anne, most of us have a dominant learning style and an array of backup styles that we use to more effectively meet the demands of various learning situations. This is important when our own preference is not the best match. If you have a strongly defined learning style, you have well-developed skills associated with that part of the learning cycle. At the same time your skills in some other styles and parts of the learning cycle may not be so strong. This often occurs with opposing style pairs on the learning cycle, the style that is directly opposite from your preferred dominant style. For example, an individual who is at home in the Thinking style may feel like a fish out of water in the nonlogical world of concrete feelings in the Experiencing style. When a situation arises that demands skills outside his home region, he faces a dilemma in approaching the situation with his comfortable learning style or trying another learning style. Over time, his most effective approach is to build strength in backup styles—to flex to meet the situation more effectively.

Consider Harry, who has a learning style preference of Analyzing. When Harry is completing his tax returns, he is well matched to the learning task that requires organizing and calculating financial data, being focused on details. However, when Harry plays golf, his Analyzing style preference may not be the best match for an enjoyable game. Playing golf may be better matched to those styles that link doing and feeling, such as the Acting and Experiencing styles. Certainly, Harry will benefit from using the entire learning cycle during his round—paying attention to his movement as he hits the ball, reflecting on his swing and the outcome, analyzing to make a plan, drawing on general knowledge, setting a goal for the next shot, and then repeating the process. However, Harry can be most effective if he leads with a learning style that best matches this situation. The switch from accounting to golf affected which part of the learning cycle was most critical to the situation and determined which style would allow Harry to meet it most effectively. Because his preferred style was not an ideal match for the situation, he can benefit by flexing to a backup style that more closely fits the context.

Building Flexibility to Match Situations

Awareness of the importance of learning flexibility alone may be enough to build flexibility in nondominant styles. Kyle, the chief financial officer of a rapidly growing tech company, had a strong attachment to the Analyzing style, an approach that supported his specialization in the high stakes of finance. Kyle was a one-man department performing numerous functions at a critical juncture for the organization. He rarely had a free moment and often took work home with him, especially on Wednesday afternoons when he left work early to take over the childcare of his two-year old daughter Sophia. Kyle tried to time his arrival just after his wife has put Sophia down for her nap so that he could work for an hour or two without the interruptions he experienced at the office. However, whenever Sophia did not fall asleep on schedule, Kyle felt his mood shift to frustration; this not only impacted his ability to enjoy being with his daughter, it also carried over into blaming his wife for arriving home late.

After being introduced to the learning way, Kyle quickly identified his own preference for the Analyzing style. He saw that all the steps in the learning cycle were necessary to the financial decision-making process and how his most successful outcomes included every step in the process. Kyle recognized that his preferred Analyzing style was the best choice in his work as a CFO, yet it left him and his family short when he used it to approach some situations at home.

Armed with this information, Kyle decided to improve his time with Sophia by embracing a different learning style. The following Wednesday, he left his briefcase at the office and went home with a plan to “show up and be present” for whatever Sophia needed rather than arriving with a rigid plan for how he would spend his time. He entered the situation using the Experiencing style by being present in the moment, connecting with his daughter in a way that he had not been able to do when he was distracted by work. He played with her, rested with her, and did chores around the house with her at his side. He even gave her little tasks in the kitchen so that she could “help” him make dinner. When Kyle’s wife came home braced for the usual barrage of complaints, she was mystified and amazed to find a happy child and a relaxed husband. Not only did Kyle find a new way to relate to his family, he discovered that he was more effective when he returned to work later in the evening to briefly tie up loose ends.

As Kyle continued to practice using the Experiencing style at work, he realized how deeply engrained his Analyzing style was. His first inclination was to see problems and seek data everywhere, even in relationships with colleagues. As he focused on appreciating his relationships with others, he began to catch himself if he became critical or rigidly attached to a plan when it was unnecessary and not the best style match.

Kyle’s specialized Analyzing learning style helped him to become successful in his career by giving him a firm foundation for work that was a good fit: he enjoyed the world of finance and was exceptional at mastering strategy and tactics. However, Kyle’s specialized learning style had limitations, too. He found that his Analyzing approach was not such a good match for building relationships at home or at the office. As Kyle’s company grows, he may expand his department and begin managing teams. His preferred Analyzing style is not the best approach for setting departmental goals or coaching individual contributors to reach those goals, making learning flexibility even more important for Kyle’s continued success. By building flexibility in the Experiencing style, Kyle is setting himself up to build flexibility in other styles, too.

Another flexibility-building strategy is to stop overusing your own preferred style. Catherine did just that. She dampened the effects of her strong preference for the Acting style to flexibly connect with a client who had a different learning style. The Acting style had allowed Catherine to make it in a man’s world when she became one of the first female litigation partners in a prestigious midsized law firm. The approach continued to serve her well as she developed new business while maintaining her exemplary win-loss record in the courtroom.

When Catherine first became aware of the learning styles, she exclaimed, “Now my client makes sense to me, and I understand why she is frustrated with me, too!” Catherine described a client interaction that involved a person with a preference for the Reflecting style. Catherine had been trying to get the person to file a time-sensitive lawsuit; the more Catherine pushed, the more the client hesitated. Catherine said, “I have been trying to do what I do best, only harder. The more I try to move her to action, the more she entrenches in reflection. We are both retreating to our home styles from the urgent pressure just at the moment when we should be more flexible.” The next time Catherine called her client, she held back from interrupting or telling the client what to do. She later reported that by slowing down her process and even changing the pace with which she spoke, she was able to listen carefully to her client’s concerns. This shift allowed her to build rapport with her client in a way that had previously been impossible. Catherine also admitted to learning some new information about the case that the client had been too embarrassed to reveal, information that ultimately proved invaluable in the courtroom.

Catherine applied her understanding of learning styles to situations at home, too. She recognized that her husband had a style preference that complemented her own. Even though it made them two halves of a perfect whole as they approached the learning cycle, it also meant that she was frustrated by his cautious orientation toward risk taking. In order to connect with him more deeply, she stopped herself from relying on the Acting style to employ what she had learned about leading with the Reflecting style. Whenever she initiated a difficult conversation, instead of launching into the discussion with a declarative statement, she began with a carefully crafted question that sought his perspective and feelings.

Recognizing what each situation calls for increases your learning effectiveness. While you will be most successful if you build all the capabilities of the learning cycle, you will benefit from leading with different styles in various contexts. In some situations an emphasis on Experiencing may produce the best results, while others may require logical analysis. For instance, decision making in general is an evaluative, thinking activity focused on choosing the best outcome or course of action. Yet, a decision about what restaurant to go to might demand a focus on the Experiencing style while a decision about which stocks to buy could benefit from the Analyzing style. Similarly, planning in general may rely on the Reflecting, Analyzing, and Thinking styles when you organize a systematic plan of action; however, the specific plan you need to make might influence your approach—planning a party may require the Experiencing style while planning a budget would call for the Thinking or Analyzing styles.

A typical approach to building flexibility involves deeply exploring your own style and gradually trying out a nondominant style. As you become aware of using your learning style, you can begin to expand step by step, using the learning cycle as your guide. For example, Juan, who is strongly attached to the Reflecting style, carefully planned his learning experiments to improve his ability to use the Acting style, especially when he was meeting in groups. Rather than observing, he wanted to participate by offering an opinion. He used his powers of observation to watch role models, and then he practiced in his head before acting. While practicing, he noticed his experience and then reflected on what went well and what he could do better. From there, he set a new strategy and tried again, creating a new experience and a new spiral of the learning cycle. He was patient in his approach, but he needed to push himself to try new behaviors as he built his capabilities in the Acting style. For instance, Juan found he was more at ease if he offered an opinion early in the meeting rather than waiting until the last minute when he pressured himself to perform. Regardless of when, he knew that the practice of using the Acting style was critical to his learning.

This is a different approach from Susan, who preferred the Deciding style. Susan was able to commit to building her Imagining style capabilities such as being empathetic and generating novel ideas. Because Susan leans more toward the Thinking and Acting styles, she objectively measured her results against a standard and then tried again. For instance, Susan noticed if she was able to feel empathy for every person on her team as she was building her new skill. If she did not connect with someone, she engaged in a conversation to get to know her or him better. She needed to remind herself to connect with her own experience and to remain open to new ideas as she drives herself toward self-improvement.

Your learning mindset will be important as you begin to experiment with new learning styles. You will be temporarily out of your comfort zone. Seek ways to intentionally practice your desired style by planning ahead, and pay attention to what works and what you need to revise.

Building Flexibility from Experience

Regardless of which learning style you are trying to develop, remember that learning is a process, one that requires knowledge of the learning cycle and your own style. You start by focusing on your own experience. While you can read about concepts and theories, your individual experience in the world is unique. Therefore, begin with your own experience and use the strengths of your style to guide you through the full learning cycle. Be aware of when you need a backup style to more successfully meet the demands of a situation and try using it.

Learning flexibility—the ability to use all nine learning styles based on the situation at hand—helps individuals to be at the top of their game: the leader who approaches issues with both wisdom and courage; the physician who can connect emotionally with a patient while providing technically sophisticated care; the entrepreneur who can create a product and sell it, too. These individuals have a dominant learning style and backup styles that include many of the other learning styles, perhaps even those that are opposite from their preferred style. You are capable of acquiring this well-rounded, adaptable presence if you choose to develop all the learning styles. No expression of a style is right or wrong; you will find your own way of using each one. In the short term, you may choose to surround yourself with people who complement your preferred style in order to compensate for the skills you have not yet developed. Over the long term, you will be well served by developing the capabilities associated with all the learning styles.

Access to an expanded repertoire of learning styles allows you to expand your comfort zone. People who have high learning flexibility have greater overall flexibility in life. They see more possibilities in any given moment, they experience less conflict and stress, and they are able to handle more complexity. Flexible people also are more self-directed, so they are more likely to make changes that help them adapt to unexpected situations. Last but not least, they are happier!

When Is It Difficult to Develop Learning Flexibility?

If flexibility is so beneficial, why doesn’t everyone develop it easily? The deeper we are attached to our preferred learning style, the more we may see the opposite style as foreign or negative. So, how can we get unstuck when inertia has us locked into our preferred learning style? We must recognize that we value the upside of our preferred learning style so much that we overtolerate its downside. We tolerate the downside of our preferred learning style because we fear the downsides of other styles. For instance, Ellie, a marketing manager, had a strong preference for the Imagining style. She thrived on keeping her choices open so that she would not miss opportunities. However, Ellie often had trouble reaching her goals. Ellie was so attached to her preferred style of Imagining and the skills of appreciating diversity, feeling empathy, and being open and receptive that she overused this style. Her focus on the Imagining style caused her to underutilize the Deciding style, the opposite style on the learning cycle. Her inability to make decisions impacted her effectiveness, but Ellie overtolerated the downside of the Imagining style because she is avoiding the downside of Deciding style, one that she perceived as being closed to new ideas and obsessed with efficient goal achievement. What Ellie had failed to realize is that by seeing only the downside of the Deciding style, she missed out on the upside: setting goals and priorities, evaluating ideas and solutions, and committing to one course of action. She had lost a valuable resource and a source of creativity and power.

Once she committed to developing her flexibility by using the Deciding style, Ellie began to connect with the style’s upside and the difference it could make in her own effectiveness. Ellie could not fully express the Deciding style right away because it was so unfamiliar; instead, she approached the task creatively by using her preferred Imagining style. She devised experiments that allowed her to discern, approximate, and hone intentionally. With more practice, Ellie was able to add Deciding style skills—firmly committing, critically evaluating, and objectively judging—to her repertoire.

Sharma and Kolb found that people who prefer the abstract styles of Reflecting, Analyzing, and Thinking and work in professions that require science and math competence (engineering, medicine, and law, for instance) seem to have more difficulty building flexibility than those people with styles of Initiating, Experiencing and Imagining.¹ Due to situational demands and learning style preference, individuals with abstract learning styles become entrenched in the scientific problem-solving mentality and find it difficult to build the concrete, feeling-oriented, and active skills associated with concrete learning styles. Kolb and Wolf found engineers often experienced difficulty moving from the role of individual contributors, which allows them to focus on the strengths of their learning styles, to the role of manager or leader, which requires them to flex to other styles. Many engineers reported feeling underqualified for their managerial role.²

If you are strongly tied to a specialized learning style, it helps to connect with the upside of the style you are seeking. Do you avoid speaking in front of groups? Just imagine if you could communicate with ease. Do you shy away from difficult conversations with your colleagues? Think how you could prevent upset feelings if you could initiate those discussions. When you connect with the benefits of the style you are trying to develop and recognize that your own learning style has a downside, too, you introduce a catalyst for the learning process.

You may find that developing a nonpreferred style can be like picking up a slippery fish—it’s is difficult to capture on one try. The deeper you are attached to your own style, the more unfamiliar the opposite style becomes, so developing the capabilities of that style requires learning over time. Actively trying to build strengths in a new learning style is half of the equation; try also to contain and minimize the inhibiting effects of your preferred learning style on the style that you are trying to express.

Developing the capacity for Experiencing. Experiencing requires fully opening yourself to the present moment and paying attention to your feelings without worrying about what they mean. Meditating and focusing are two means of developing experiencing skills. Overthinking an experience can inhibit your ability to directly sense and feel the immediate moment. This presence and attention are particularly important for building relationships, leading a team, managing emotions, and being present to others.

Developing the capacity for Imagining. Imagining requires both contemplating experiences and reflecting on them to consider a wide range of options. Judging too quickly can inhibit your ability to use the Imagining style. Seeking the opinions of others and keeping a curious mind are important for generating new ideas and being comfortable in ambiguous situations.

Developing the capacity for Reflecting. Reflecting requires space and time. Impulsive desires and pressures to take action can inhibit reflection. You can enhance your ability to reflect by deliberately viewing things from different perspectives and striving to feel empathy. Meditating can also foster deep reflection. Gathering and making sense of information can help you develop the Reflecting learning style.

Developing the capacity for Analyzing. Analyzing requires both logical thinking and reflection to organize information and create a plan. An extreme focus on details enhances Analyzing, but diversion and interruptions inhibit your ability to analyze. Coming up with theories, analyzing data, and integrating information to get the full picture can help you to develop the Analyzing learning style.

Developing the capacity for Thinking. Thinking requires the ability to represent and manipulate ideas in your head. Intense emotion and sensations or pressure to act quickly can disrupt the thinking process. Engagement in thinking can be enhanced by creating scenarios for action. Using numbers to analyze problems, making independent judgments, and framing arguments with logic can also aid in the development and expression of the Thinking learning style.

Developing the capacity for Deciding. Deciding requires making an independent judgment through thinking and committing to one course of practical action. Ambiguity and remaining open to new ideas can inhibit deciding. Determining standards of success and measuring your progress toward that goal develops the Deciding style.

Developing the capacity for Acting. Acting requires commitment and involvement in the practical world of real consequences. Acting brings the first previous learning styles of Experiencing, Imagining, Reflecting, Analyzing, Thinking, and Deciding and tests them in reality. Spending too much time in the other learning styles can inhibit Acting. Checklists, timetables, and taking even a small action toward a goal can help you develop the Acting style.

Developing the capacity for Initiating. Initiating requires trial and error based on feelings to seize new opportunities. Too much analysis inhibits Initiating, while bouncing back from temporary setbacks and motivating others enhance Initiating. Improvisation, positive thinking, and redefining your definition of failure can help you develop the Initiating style.

Developing the Balancing style. Balancing requires moving between acting, reflecting, feeling, and thinking as the situation demands. A strong adherence to one specialized learning style inhibits the Balancing style. Uncovering blind spots and adapting to people and situations can help you develop the Balancing style.

Table 4.2 lists questions that people tend to ask themselves when using each learning style. You can use these questions to guide your learning process when trying to adopt an unfamiliar style.

Table 4.2 Questions to Guide Adoption of Learning Styles

Source: Adapted from David A. Kolb PhD and Alice Kolb, PhD. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory 4.0. Experience Based Learning Systems, Inc. 2016.

Embodying Your Style

Learning styles are deeply engrained; they are evident not just in how you think but also in how you feel, perceive, and behave—even in your gestures, posture, and movements. Building awareness about your own learning flexibility can be elusive, but you can use your physical behavior to gain insight into your learning style. Physical flexibility may provide a way for you to gauge your general flexibility in life and learning, too. People generally embody their learning style by moving in ways that are characteristic of the skills and attitudes of the learning style they favor. After all, an individual who gravitates toward the Acting style will need be quicker, stronger, and more free-flowing in movement than someone who spends more time in the Reflecting style, where the movements are more minimal, sustained, and controlled.

For example, Lance, an accountant, prefers the Analyzing style. Lance spends most of his day sitting behind his computer, crunching numbers for his clients. In fact, once he paid attention to his movements over the course of a day, he found that he was in only a few positions for about eighty percent of his day. Lance sits in a chair facing forward—typically with his right leg crossed over his left leg and his arms narrowly reaching out to his keyboard. He keeps his lower back rigidly straight and his shoulders slumped forward. His movements are slow and controlled; in fact, he often keeps his body in the same position for minutes at a time and senses tension in his shoulders. His vision is focused intently on the computer screen. His breath is shallow and high in his chest. At least three days per week, Lance enjoys running to get exercise. When he runs, his movements are rhythmical and repetitive in a front-to-back motion. Lance rarely moves from side to side or in ways that require a twist at the waist. He recognizes that it has been a long time since he moved with any free, easy spontaneity like he might have as a child on the playground. Like most adults, Lance spends so much time doing the same things everyday in habitual activities that his movements are habitual, too. He might even find that he only moves in about ten different ways on a regular basis, unlike young children who move in hundreds of ways.

Your own flexibility—in life and learning—may be evident through your own movements. Are you typically loose and relaxed, or more controlled with some tension? Do you make your body narrow by crossing your arms and legs, or are your shoulders wide and arms open? Understanding your movement preferences—your postures, gestures, tension levels, and even the way you breathe—can change the way you experience the world and the impact you have on others.

To explore various movement styles, you may want to watch other people and compare their movements to your own. As you experiment with different forms of movement styles, notice which ones are comfortable and which feel foreign. When you build flexibility with your body by moving in different ways, you also build learning flexibility by creating an experience of standing in the space of new styles. To learn more about how learning styles are embodied, see the Style Sheets in Appendix B.

Challenging Yourself

Think of one thing you would like to change in yourself that is most critical for your success—just one, no matter how small. Find a highly motivating self-development goal that will help you make that change. This may be a quality or capability that you would like to acquire. For instance, do you need to become more attuned to relationships, more practical, or more analytical? It may be a strength that is overplayed or a weakness that holds you back. This will be a goal that increases your flexibility to use a learning style that is not as familiar to you. This one step will be the beginning of a lifelong quest to increase your ability to use all nine ways of learning. When you feel stuck in a rut, being aware of your preferences and broadening your comfort zone will help you see new possibilities toward greater flexibility, capability, and success.

Learning flexibility and mobility within the learning cycle are antidotes for the inflexibility of a single specialized learning style. The more you can incorporate the nine learning styles, the more flexibility you will develop and the more freedom and confidence you will have in meeting situations as they arise. You will be better prepared for challenges and transitions if you have the response range that learning flexibility provides. Learning flexibility also sets you up to manage the inevitable challenges of adult life including that of specialization, the topic of the next chapter.

Learning Flexibility Checklist for Action

When developing learning flexibility, you may find it easiest to add one style at a time to your repertoire. Follow these steps to get started:

Choose one learning style that will up your game.

Using the Style Sheets in Appendix B of this book, identify the capabilities that are expressed in that style.

Using the learning cycle as a guide, begin to learn how to use that style. Be mindful of experiences, imagine new possibilities and benefits, reflect to make sense and take perspectives, analyze to create a plan, think to use general concepts and facts, decide on a goal, try new behaviors, and seek feedback regarding your progress. Begin again. Monitor your progress toward your goal.

Enlist help from others who will be supportive. Tell them of your learning goal and ask that they hold you accountable.

Practice Using Learning Flexibility

Think of a situation in your life where you are currently learning or a project that you are currently working on. It could be, for example, a career or relationship challenge, a project, activity, or event you are planning; or a new hobby that you are starting.

Now Follow These Steps:

1. On a blank sheet of paper draw a large grid to create the nine learning styles like the one in Figure 3.2.

2. Decide which learning style or styles you are using in your current project or learning situation.

3. In each part of the grid, write some notes to capture how you are applying your chosen learning style(s) to your project or situation.

4. Next, using the questions below as a guide, jot down other approaches you might take to enhance your learning.

Am I using only my preferred learning style(s)?

Am I moving around the learning cycle and using learning styles that are not typical for me, or am I staying close to my preferred learning style(s)?

What difficulties am I encountering in using other learning styles?

When I look at things from the perspective of different learning styles, how does it change my understanding of my project or learning situation? Does it reveal other factors or issues that I can address?

What can I do to increase my ability to use different learning styles?

What three things can I start doing?

What three things should I stop doing?

What three things can I do differently?

Reflection on Using Learning Flexibility

You may find it helpful to journal about your use of the learning cycle. Below you will find prompts for your reflections.

Consider a situation that you have recently encountered. Use the following questions to assess your ability to use all the learning styles:

Which styles are most comfortable for me?

What do I gain from using these preferred styles?

What do I give up when using only these styles?

Which learning styles do I seem to avoid using?

What do I gain from avoiding these nonpreferred styles?

What do I give up by avoiding these styles?

Which learning styles would I like to use more often? Why?

Does my learning flexibility profile match my self-assessment?

Draw a mind map based on Flexibility. The center of the map would be “My Goals for Increasing Flexibility.”