Learning Environment

The last few weeks have involved a whole lot of new situations for me. Together, my wife, my mother-in-law, and I are pursuing an investment in real estate for the first time. Offers to purchase, cap ratio, inspections, zoning, fire code, legal conditions, asbestos, tax implications, tenants, wiring and plumbing, commercial, residential, boarding house... Wow! 

I love complex systems and strategies, but this time I know enough to know that I don't know enough to make a good decision, yet... I have a lot to learn.

On the subject of learning, I am fascinated by how people learn individually and how groups of people learn together. I read recently that there are three important components for creating a learning environment - that is an environment that facilitates deep learning.

Freedom to express ideas and opinions

Freedom to make mistakes

Freedom to invest time in learning

So let me tell you how this is challenging me...

First, am I creating an environment for myself that allows me to learn? Many of the constraints that limit me are self-imposed. Do I listen to the ideas I have and give them room to develop? Do I impose conditions on myself so there can be no risk in an idea before I consider it to be acceptable? Do I rush myself so there is no time to understand and master the new things that I want to learn?

Second, am I creating an environment for others in my team to learn? Do I value other's opinions and ideas and make room for them to develop? Do I graciously take a chance that other's ideas may result in what I consider to be a mistake, knowing that I regularly make mistakes of my own? Do I allow others to go at the speed at which they learn, neither holding them back or rushing them along?

Back to real estate investments, we make a good team, the three of us. We definitely move at different speeds and have a different tolerance for the chance of making a mistake. We spend a lot of time talking things through and, at times, move too fast for some and too slow for others. I think that each of us has a different idea even of what success looks like. But we are all learning together and that is a good thing.