So many learning and development initiatives today involve the use of online interaction via video chat.
There are more and more apps and online tools for this all the time, and I agree that discussion and debate can be a good thing, allowing us to learn informally from peers.
Yet …
“Hanging out in a chat” can also be a lot like high school socializing.
And if we never want or need to do any more for the world than we did while hanging out next to our lockers in high school, that’s perfectly fine.
But if we want to pursue goals with more of an impact on humanity than that, we can’t spend most of our time kibbutzing.
We need –
- time to focus,
- time to think our own thoughts,
- time to reflect,
- time to plan,
- time to be creative and productive and actually DO the things we dream about.
Training time spent on social learning isn’t wasted, but its value is diminished if it’s not guided by an overarching purpose.
Self-discipline is a good thing.