Active learning
This is opportunity or problem-based learning. In establishing a new venture, you are faced with a set of novel problems and decisions to which you might not have immediate solutions. Insights can be gained from formal courses and from other people, but even after being guided by these, you must decide and act for yourself. Most learning in starting and growing a venture is active, and the new venture creation process is a powerful source of learning.
The results of your decisions and actions, whether successful or unsuccessful, need to be reviewed and learned from. It is important to try and discover 'what works' for you - remember the practical theory grid in Chapter 7? Iterative trial and error learning is often used where you could have found by investigation that 'expert' or well proven approaches to the problem already exist.
Experimenting and 'playing with ideas', for example developing a strategy or a new product, generate new insights through discovery learning. This is a powerful process. By working towards a reasonably you can try out defined goal, different approaches and combinations, going round the learning loop several times until a workable approach is found. Sometimes there are unexpected outcomes from the discovery process, leading to new possibilities.