Level 5 experiments
After baking the banana bread and opening the best bottle of red wine in the house during hard lockdown level five 2020, I decided to go for a career assessment. I resigned and reshuffled before the “great reshuffle” “great resignation” terms got coined.
The assessment used was the 1984 ELM - Experiential Learning Model developed by David Kolb and the Myers-Briggs personality types.
ELM level one has four problem-solving categories. Shortly.
Diverger is someone who asks “why” when they are learning/solving a problem. They look at the big picture and are creative with many ideas.
Assimilator asks, “what.” Abstract conceptualisation and building theoretical models. Academically inclined.
Converger asks, “how.” Practical implementation of ideas tends to specialise in a technical field like engineering or accounting.
Accommodator asks, “when.” They prefer to put plans into motion now and think on their feet. Strong sales acumen.
Level two dives into the learning preference. The notion is that we all prefer to learn in these four different ways concrete experiences, reflective experiences, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation.
There are many personality tests out there without actual scientific evidence. Still, I was somewhat intrigued by the work that has developed these theories, and further reading led me to the construal level theory (CLT).
“Construal level involves the degree of psychological distance people experience when making a decision (Trope & Liberman, 2010).”
The further away from an event, the more abstract people’s thoughts are at a higher construal level. As time passes, the construal level decrease, and more concrete ideas emerge about the event.
We are starting a business and changing careers.
When the idea hits, the construal level is high, abstract, conceptual. Sexy. As the research starts or building of the product concrete detail emergence. After the initial high, the emotional journey starts. The competition is more rigid than I thought, the learning curve is steep, they have a lot more money, people aren’t phoning me back, and the software needs maintenance.
I think this is why the challenge of changing career fields is extreme. Everything is abstract when making the decision, and then the learning starts. Not impossible, of course, but learning how to learn and how you learn best will help.
The value I got from the experiential learning assessment was the ability to name my weaknesses, what I need to work on, what kind of help I need. And the things I suck at, who can do that?
Resigning is step one, and one can eat only that much banana bread.
Photo by Evangelina Silina on Unsplash
P.S. Doing some research for my next article and would appreciate pointers. How many successful startups have teams that formed at a previous business?