Much has been written about how people learn. The very mention of learning styles is guaranteed to catch the
eye and the interest of HR professionals. In part this can be attributed to the excellent work of Peter Honey and
Alan Mumford in 1982,' which is still highly relevant today. In this article, I will explore two main themes: first,
that there are 'more' learning styles than Honey and Mumford's original four of 'activist', 'pragmatist', 'theorist'
and reflector'; and second, that thinking facilitates the learning - in other words, the thinking comes first.
Although this is recognised by psychologists, I believe that this fact has gone largely unrecognised by the field
of HR.
It seems rather obvious to say that the ways in which we prefer to think profoundly affect the ways in which we
will prefer to learn. If this is the case, why do HR managers continue to send delegates on learning-tolearn
workshops rather than on learning-to-think workshops, which explore the different ways in which we think and
how these thinking preferences influence the ways by which we can learn most effectively?
To begin with, though, let me tell you a story. Many years ago when I was at college studying saddlery, our tutor
gave us a piece of work to stitch that would eventually fit somewhere on the saddle we were each making as
part of our course. Our tutor was very detail conscious and wore thick, horn-rimmed glasses. He would bend
down very closely over his work and focus intently on each small task.