Units of learning: The best way to show progress

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By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Reading time: 6 mins

One Sentence Summary: A unit of work should = a unit of learning. A unit of learning should = simple accessible one sentence summary.

What allows humans today to build an iPhone vs not possible 100 years ago is accumulated ‘units of learning’. 

  • IMO one core way to measure the progress of someone at work is the new units of learning they generate. 

  • IMO one core way to measure the progress of a company is the new units of learning generated.

  • “The only sustainable barrier to entry is the pace of innovation.” Elon Musk. 

    • IMO one core way to measure innovation is ‘units of learning’. 

    • IMO one core way to increase the pace of innovation is to optimise for generating ‘units of learning’. 

  • Jingle: You make what you measure. Simple then, just measure innovation ;)

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Details

Job continuum: know what to do ⇔ don’t know what to do

  • What is a unit of progress for “know what to do” vs “don’t know what to do” jobs?

  • Unit of progress for “know what to do” job = unit of known output = often quantity * quality = value = charge by the hour

  • Unit of progress for “don’t know what to do” job = unit of unknown output = unit of learning = value = charge by unit of learning

  • How do you show a ‘unit of learning’? How do you charge by a ‘unit of learning’? 

The only way to fail is to fail to learn

  • Unit of work = Unit of investigation = Unit of learning = 

    • Option A: unit of what to do 

    • OR Option B: unit of what not to do

  • Learning what not to do is often as valuable as what to do.

  • “Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance.” Shane Parrish

  • One articulation of a business = the accumulation of valuable learnings

    • More learnings = better business

    • One goal I have is to double the number of codified and implemented learnings at Edrolo each year. While IMO it’s not possible to precisely measure learnings, that doesn’t mean you can’t optimise for generating units of learning! 

    • Each company is a ‘collection of learnings’. Value change of company = Incremental learnings added

  • You keep the ‘wins’ (learning what to do) and you stop the ‘losses’ (learning what not to do). 

  • What I try to do is maximise units of learning. This means each unit of work is the minimum size needed to get a validated unit of learning. 

  • What I used to think: get as much done as possible

    • This led to => speed but low observing what I was doing real time => low learnings

    • This led to => unit sizes of work being way too big as bigger size unit of work I thought meant I got more done => way too long between learnings

    • This led to => not taking enough time after a unit of work to reflect (you don’t learn from your experiences, you learn from reflecting on your experiences) => low learnings

  • What I now think: generate as many units of learning possible

    • Smallest unit of work size to get unit of learning

    • Don’t go so fast you aren’t able to spend the time to observe what you are doing (simultaneous systemising aka attempting to see metacognition real time)

    • Take the time to reflect properly after a unit of work

    • Make units of learning understandable, implementable and scalable => one sentence summary. 

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" 

If you generate a learning but you don’t write it down, did you generate a learning at all?

  • “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Newton 

  • I’m not really worried about having a perfect system to put all learnings in place and systematically interlink etc. I am however worried about not learning anything from learnings! 

  • Einstein taxonomy

    • L1: smart

    • L2: intelligent

    • L3: brilliant

    • L4: genius

    • L5: simple

  • IMO one should try and distil each learning into a simple ‘one sentence summary’. This is the simplest way I know to codify flexibly learnings. 

    • I find making a one sentence summary super hard… but super valuable. 

    • “If you can't explain it to a 6-year-old, you don't understand it yourself.” Einstein. 

      • IMO good one sentence summary = learning understandable to a 6 year old. 

    • It might take you 10 hours to generate a unit of learning… but IMO done well you can hopefully explain it in 10 seconds. 

    • “Simplicity = Complexity solved” Kat Gentry 

  • Framework for building units of learning

    • A unit of work => the minimum amount of work needed to generate a unit of learning

    • Writing => understanding + codifying the unit of learning after a unit of work

    • One Sentence Summary => the work needed to make the ‘Writing’ which generated the learning easily understandable by others and therefore repeatable and scalable 

If learnings are the core unit of value, then ‘One Sentence Summaries’ are the best way to show progress? 

  • If you are doing a job where you ‘don't know what to do’ and as such are figuring out what to do, then one core way to show ‘progress’ is ‘Unit Of Learning through One Sentence Summaries’. 

  • I think a great way to update people on your progress AND to help others learn from your progress is to write out the key learnings as One Sentence Summaries. 

  • Most projects have weekly or fortnightly updates. IMO in this there should be a ‘units of learning section’ which is eg 1-5x One Sentence Summaries. 

  • Most people have a weekly email they write as a ‘project update’ for themselves. IMO in this there should be a ‘units of learning section’ which is eg 1-5x One Sentence Summaries. 

How to build units of trust at work

  • IMO trust is built, faith is given. 

  • If you are doing a job where you know what to do then a unit of trust = can follow the instructions at quality and on time

  • If you are doing a job where you don’t know what to do then a unit of trust = 1. Given a problem space * 2. Can make progress (aka generate units of learning)

  • Flailing is not failing. 

    • Productive flailing: 1. Problem space * 2. Figuring out what to do => 3. Unit of learning => 4. Unit of trust built

    • No flailing: 1. Shown what to do * 2. Follow instructions => 3. No unit of learning generated

  • IMO one measure of a company is how many units of learning it can generate. In some respects this means what is the maximum amount of productive flailing is going on? 

  • Productive flailing = Building units of trust & Units of learning

  • Increased trust => Increased ability to give people opportunity => Increased ability to innovate => Company grow faster => Happier people at company => Happier world


If you only take away one thing

  • Human progress = units of learning (aka knowledge)

  • To grow faster, optimise for units of learning

  • To increase the quality of your learning, get good at distilling learnings into ‘One Sentence Summaries’. 

  • To help others learn from your learning, learn to make quality ‘One Sentence Summaries’.