Over the past few weeks, I’ve had three different types of learning experiences. Reflecting on the processes used and the results brings me insights about myself and the teachers.

In each of these intense experiences, I discovered that the process—what we were doing and how we were set up to do it—was critical to my engagement and feelings. 

A few of my faves from the two dozen paintings…

In the watercolor class (an asynchronous experience/pre-recorded), I noticed that the teacher’s expertise sometimes made her forget to explain or show how she was achieving the results we saw—for example, mixing colors off-camera. While I learned new information and techniques in every lesson and created more than two dozen paintings, the learning just wasn’t enough… 

With the Gaia Music Collective, a pop-up singing experience, we received the sheet music and recordings of the various parts in advance so we could come together having practiced the part with which we were most comfortable. I walked in feeling quite confident that I could step into an experience I’d never had before–singing with over 200 people I had never met and with a Music Director who was unknown to me in the basement of a church in Bushwick. (See the video of our singing here on instagram—it is AMAZING!)

As I sat down for three days of training, I steeled myself for a lot of one-way communication. While there was more of that than I’d like, there was also the most effective uses of Slack I have ever encountered. We were placed at “tables”/in groups and had a host, and perhaps ten times over the five hours per day, we were prompted to respond to questions and to comment on others’ ideas, questions, and suggestions in Slack. I always responded to the prompts (which were an application of what we were learning) and read through others’ responses. Given the group size and the time allotted, I rarely read through more than half a dozen responses (my takeaway was that the group was too large, though I could have read more later). There were also multiple designated channels for the event within Slack which were well hosted—what was going on live/on stage, our takeaways, help, and questions about the upsell. I was impressed. 

All of these process pieces impacted my overall experience and the end result… I

• wouldn’t take another course from the artist
• will absolutely go back for more fun with @GaiaMusicCollective
• have stepped into the next level of work with this company—and I’m excited for the impact on my future!

What about you?
How do the various components of a learning experience affect your final impressions and thoughts? 

In my mind’s eye, I see a teeter-totter… I have learned that I am equally interested in the journey as the destination—which surprises me! I’d love to hear your thoughts.