This tweet will link you to an article in Mind/Shift which talks about the changing nature of learning. If you think all there is to know about effective learning has been discovered, think again. The very nature of today’s rapidly connecting world is changing the way people learn, and the way people use what they learn.
One important change is that today’s learner must move beyond content/skills mastery to what Jennifer Goff calls “adaptive expertise”. Goff puts it this way, “You may be proficient but without adaptive expertise, you will get stuck very quickly as the world shifts”. That means committed learners who have mastered skills will be left behind in the future if they do not learn how to adapt their expertise to a changing world.
Churches need leaders and learners with “adaptive expertise”.
One of the things I hate to watch is a 50 yr old leader come to the realization that the expertise gained in her 20’s, 30’s and 40’s doesn’t necessarily set her up to succeed in her 50’s and 60’s. By the time today’s leader is 50 much of the leadership she has mastered can be operationally antiquated if she does not adapt her expertise to a changing world.
Please don’t be a church leader who hears the words “adapt…to a changing world” and starts quoting “Come out from among them” verses. “Adaptive Expertise” is not about rewriting doctrine anymore than it is about rewriting mathematics. It’s about developing the capability to adapt “what is known” for use in unforeseen future environments.
Join the Conversation: What are some of the ways you work to adapt your expertise?
