Human, Not Octopus: How to Add Learning to your to-do list | by Vikki Graham

My team speak a foreign language 80% of the time. 

To my mind at least. They hear detailed technical language; I hear white noise. Not that they mind; my role is akin to a bridge between all things data-techy and our operational teams. I work in a well-established Performance Analytics team, to be avoided as opponents in a pub quiz setting.

But over time, I, myself started to mind that I couldn’t follow their conversations. Yes, I was performing in my role and was very much part of the team, but I wanted to learn their language; if not to actively speak it then at least to understand it. And in all honesty, I had also reached the limits of my knowledge and was becoming frustrated at having to ask others for assistance on more stretching data analysis work. 

And then along came the opportunity to do an apprenticeship with Multiverse. I couldn’t wait to get started; got myself some shiny new pens and a notepad, polished my desk and invested in some high-end caffeine which I believe to be a vital study aid.

I won’t lie. The course is a stretch for me and the content has been technical. I became anxious when I wasn’t able to absorb and remember the course content; and I wasn’t too far away from thinking that I had bitten off more than I could chew and that the course was too challenging, which was a horrible state of mind to be stewing in. 

I have to thank my children for unintentionally getting me out of my ‘slump’. They got me thinking that I really wasn’t approaching learning in the right way. In fact, I needed to learn to learn again.

My 10-year-old is an easily distracted pragmatic activist with energy to burn. The younger one is determined, focussed and in possession of a sponge brain and a strong desire not to feel left behind. Wish me luck.

They get music lessons from the same teacher, and last week she commented:

“My teaching experience with them is so different – THEY are so different. The older one, you can only discuss one thing at a time, any more and the focus goes. But I can tell she has been practising because her guitar playing is exceptional for her age. The younger one, you can spend time discussing the theory in detail, she remembers it all and applies it straight away.”

And if I didn’t spend all my pennies on said children, then one would have dropped when I heard this. I needed to revisit the HOW of learning and identify what wasn’t working for me. 

I’d like to share what I did at this moment of realisation and hope that my experiences might provide some comfort and guidance to anyone else who might have been doubting themselves. It’s not a rocket science approach, but I am now liberated of anxiety regards embedding knowledge and am bursting with renewed enthusiasm to smash my course!

How do you like to learn? What does and doesn’t work for you?

Are you a reflecting activist with pragmatic tendencies with kinaesthetic leanings? Or are you a solid theorist who loves the information but struggles to put the theory into practice?

Having an awareness of your style(s) can be powerful, but what works in a practical sense when most of us are juggling life like a crazed octopus?

For me, I went back to how I learned at school – rote learning I suppose (I’m from the olden days, pen and paper for me, somewhat ironically) – writing out the relevant course materials in my own style. And now, I might not remember the full definitions of all things technical, but I feel familiarity, and I know where to look when I need to – and when I write them out again, the material will fully stick. I’ll do the same with YouTube – I have two go-to experts for all things data – one delivers and explains slowly, clearly, and methodically; the other at super speed but MUCH more technically detailed. I never expect to remember everything after one viewing and forgive myself for having to watch each video several times, often while concurrently putting their ‘course content’ into practice.

We have so many learning resources at our fingertips – I was putting definitions into a spreadsheet, emailing myself snips from materials, watching catch-up videos, listening to podcasts, firing through learning videos on YouTube, and ordering (rubbish) books from Amazon. Too much! 

Are you being kind to yourself? What is actually important?

“You can’t do it all”. Heard that many times!

But I genuinely think we can! As long as you are honest with yourself and realistic about what achievements truly matter to you at this moment in time. We don’t need to do everything right now, and we are allowed to change our minds! A go-to mantra of mine which some wise person once said to me is:

 “The good news is, you don’t need to do it all today.”

Of course, I want to get up at 5.30 am, do a crazy gym workout, endure the simultaneous practising of guitar and piano for an hour, make cupcakes, be outstanding all day at work, be studious with my course materials, and spend 2 hours making a gastronomically delightful meal for my family. Yes, I can do all of these things, but they’re unlikely to be of any level of quality and are very likely to leave me exhausted. 

I don’t need to do all things, all of the time, all right now. I’m looking forward to having takeaway tonight and I really don’t need to be eating cupcakes anyway. 

Ask for help but don’t be offended

When it comes to gaining confidence, it is vital that we ask a variety of people to proofread your work. Be open and honest but don’t take offence when changes are recommended. My coach, my team, my partner and my manager all have a vested interest in me doing well on this apprenticeship, both professionally and personally. They might suggest changes or improvements to my project and their feedback might feel brutal when you’ve spent hours or days building something, but I didn’t ask them to read my material just to hear ‘awesome work, Viks’, I asked them to provide their feedback to help me make improvements.  

My coach has been extremely supportive and open to my ponderings on the root cause of my learning anxiety. A summarised example of a recent conversation:

Me: ‘The pace of learning on the calls is too fast for me and they’re making me feel anxious’

My lovely apprenticeship coach Rute: ‘You do what you need to, and let’s book in time to discuss what further support I can give you.’

The root cause of anxiety: Gone. 

Parting words

I’ve used some acceptable poetic licence with the use of ‘exceptional’ around the guitar playing. A parent's prerogative. I AM going to encourage Ines to start learning a new song though. Maybe a Rolling Stones one. ‘You can’t always get what you want’ perhaps. 

Just to remind myself that I can.

Vikki Graham is a Data Fellowship Level 4 Apprentice and because all the technophobes at home show ZERO interest in sharing her exciting world of data, she has instead entered the world of blogs. Here's more about Vikki:

"Hello hello. I'm Vikki and I spend my days immersed in the ever-changing world of fraud. It's like a grown-up game of hide and seek - who or what is hiding, where is 'it' hidden, and how do we find it?! I'd like to think it was only yesterday that we used paper and pen to find suspect activity, but alas I have to admit that my role in fraud began when we also used said paper and pen to guesstimate our fraud data. I now work in a cracking analytics team with a ridiculous range of technical skills which I am in awe of, but what I bring to the party is insight gained over time; and I'd like to share my experiences of working in a team where my role is very much bridged between data, technology and operations.