Transformative learning has been around for a few decades. During this time, experts have been able to find it useful in a number of situations in life, personal and professional. In the professional arena, transformative learning is especially useful. It has been proven supportive in the following job-related situations-
Contents
Job shadowing-
Job shadowing is a type of professional training that comes into being when senior professional lets a junior follow them around, to get a feel of what all the position entails. This type of shadowing helps the trainee in recognizing the type of efforts and skills that would be required for the job. And gives them time to get additional knowledge and buck up to fill in the shoes of the senior official. Transformative learning is required here to help the trainee adapt to the new power and position paradigm.
Cultural adaptation at a different place-
The job can sometimes take you to a totally different cultural situation, maybe in the form of permanent transfer, or temporary displacement of training, or even a meeting. A different place generally translates to a different culture that needs to be adopted and adapted to for a better outcome. This displacement might mean a different city or in some cases even a different country altogether. For example, if you are transferred to your company’s branch in Japan, it is important to learn about their culture and customs to be able to work without any issues. There might be a few things that you need to understand before going there and assimilate them into your behavior at least for the duration of your stay. Some of the habits that are acceptable at one place might be considered offensive at others. Thus, actively choosing transformative learning to understand the culture as well as work culture is important.
Career change-
In the above-mentioned pointer, we talked about cultural adaptation in a different geographical place. But, in the case of career change too, there needs to be active transformative learning including navigating through the change in the career landscape. For example, if you are a lawyer that wants to pursue a career in writing, you might be in for a surprise. The work culture of these different career choices is also going to be vastly different. Legal work generally means a fixed time to start and close the day with overtime due in some cases. Whereas, writing is a creative profession, does not necessarily mean fixed timings. Also, the attitude of the industry as a whole might be a little overwhelming. Thus, it is important to be pre-informed and learn about it beforehand. It is here that transformative learning is important. It might be required to equip yourself with a new skill for your work or adapt to the new work culture altogether.
Working with different departments-
When your work starts to require you to liaison with different departments within the same company, transformative learning might be beneficial. The company as a whole has a work culture but different departments might have different working styles because of the human element. Different department heads have different temperaments and different working styles. Thus, navigating through different departments requires you to adapt to their working style and consider their manner of working to be able to accomplish your job with the least hostility and issues.
Scenario-based learning-
When a senior official tries to train you by giving you different case studies or scenarios to train you in those, it is called scenario-based learning. It also supports new ideas and problem-solving. Transformative learning can help you better adapt to this situation too.
Conclusion
For gaining any new knowledge or skills, like in the above situations, online training is a fantastic way to do so. LMS like Bridge app training can help you acquire these skills in your own time at your own pace.