They are comfortable using a toolbox of various learning strategies and already have experience reflecting on their learnings.
<ul>
<li>Needs the team to listen to the learner and perhaps develop new projects or new project styles.</li>
<li>Often strategic learners are smarter about their learning process than the collective intuition of their team and that needs to be recognized/managed.</li>
<li>Feels empowered by invitations to share their learnings with their team.</li>
<li>Benefits from and enjoys interactions with a “sparring partner” to exercise strategies, reflect on learnings etc.</li>
</ul>

Learning Styles: Strategic Learners

This might occur with people who are unsure about who they are in relationship to their team and their organization.
Anxieties about personal validation, dignity, and respect.
<ul>
<li>Needs the team to spell out explicitly that diversity is celebrated.</li>
<li>Benefits from “fireside chats” where other team members share their experience of learning, and how their unique traits helped them</li>
<li>Benefits from being seen and respected outside of work assignments</li>
</ul>

Anxieties: Self-Affirmation Anxiety

This might occur with people who are hyper-aware of power dynamics and are afraid (or legitimately at risk) of being penalized by the group; either from past trauma, upbringing circumstances or ongoing experience in other social spheres.
<ul>
<li>Needs the team to spell out work responsibilities explicitly and upfront.</li>
<li>Needs the team to spell out governance rules explicitly: who is responsible for what, in particular:</li>
<li>who is responsible for offering help or support in case something unexpected happens.</li>
<li>what process to use to disclaim responsibility about an area of work.</li>
</ul>

Anxieties: Social Safety Anxiety

These are people that think they know what they don’t know yet and have had success with a particular learning strategy in the past. They are eager to start working or studying in a way that was successful in the past but often dismiss/fail to recognize alternative strategies.
<ul>
<li>Needs the team to figure out how to shape starter projects in a particular way that works for the individual at the beginning.</li>
<li>If the learning strategy is not compatible with the beginner’s expectations, that may cause anxiety and distress.</li>
<li>Benefits from “fireside chats” where other team members explain how they learn.</li>
</ul>

Learning Styles: Unbalanced Learners

Chaotic learners are those that do not know what they don’t know yet, and also do not have a meta-model for their learning best practices. That is, they might know how they learn best, but in any case, they don’t know how to explain that to others.
<ul>
<li>Needs the team to deploy a diverse set of teaching strategies upfront to see “what sticks”.</li>
<li>Needs frequent and explicit push to reflect on what they’ve learned and how.</li>
<li>Might experience anxiety at proposals to share their learnings with their team.</li>
</ul>

Learning Styles: Chaotic Learners

This might occur with people who are unsure about their self-worth and relate their self-worth excessively to their performance at work.
Anxieties about performance validation, “how much is good enough”, impostor syndrome.
<ul>
<li>Needs and enjoys frequent performance feedback with both praise for achievements and constructive suggestions for areas of improvement.</li>
<li>Benefits from clarity about the reward structure.</li>
<li>Benefits from clear project outlines and strategy.</li>
<li>At risk of over-work and poor work-life balance</li>
</ul>

Anxieties: Performance Anxiety

How to deal with different learning styles and anxieties

Say, you’re tasked with onboarding a new teammate, a new co-worker. You don’t know them well yet, but you want them to become effective at what the team does, quickly. You also want to quickly shore up their confidence, if that’s also needed. How to get there …