Your Learning – Needs and Methods

Helps You

• Learning with a friend or making new friends while learning including the opportunity to act as a mentor to others.
• Creating a plan for learning including fitting in studying or other course activities into your (often busy) schedule.
• Making unique connections between your own fields or ideas and new knowledge.
• Discussing rather than writing. For online courses, find a study buddy to share with or someone in your non-virtual life to share your new insights with.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Being turned off by data without “heart”. Try to connect theories with how you can use them to help others.
• Being overly sensitive to critique. Ask for a positive statement (perhaps first), and remember some Types will critique as a way of indicating interest and ‘worthiness’.
• Struggling with content without clear application. Seek the bigger purpose—what will this allow you to do more easily? – and drill down to applicable tactics.
• Feeling hampered by structure or too many rules. Use your creativity to use what is helpful and work around the rest.

Helps You

• Engaging with materials, forming ideas and connections, before discussing them with a group.
• Generating great ideas and insights that seem to come from nowhere.
• Coming up with unique ideas or solutions, unusual ways of synthesizing information, or unusual ways of applying what you are learning.
• Laying out personal goals and plans for learning, and following through.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Becoming overwhelmed by too much dry factual material. Take breaks, set personal challenges, use colorful pens.
• Feeling pressured to share without enough time to reflect. Try saying, “I’m still processing this, but perhaps…”if sharing partly-formed ideas.
• Feeling frustrated by the pace of information from videos or audio compared to reading. Check out graphic recording note-taking (such as The Sketchnote Handbook) to remain engaged.
• Disconnecting when materials aren’t as clearly aligned to human aspirations/needs as you would prefer. Form these on your own.

Helps You

• Movement and interaction. Webinars may be more enjoyable when viewed standing up or even on a walking treadmill.
• Talking-to-think since your best thoughts often come together as you share them with others.
• Seeing how new ideas will help others or help you further the causes or work you’re invested in.
• Using your creativity to change up, apply, amplify, or teach others what you are learning.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Staying at an overview level because you find everything interesting. Pick one or two ways to apply key information and apply them, concentrating on getting the details right before moving on.
• Disengaging due to not enough interaction – ENFPs may even forget their insights and ideas if not allowed to express them.
• Getting distracted by “shiny objects” before you’ve gone deep enough with current interests. Ask, “Is this a fad? Do I need to wait to pursue it?”.
• Overcommitting partly due to underestimating time needed. ID time available, how organized you need to be.

Helps You

• Knowing what you value so you can recognize when something violates a value and being able to rationally choose to overlook or ask for (or model) change.
• Working with and reflecting on materials before engaging in discussions.
• When harmony is present and everyone listens without interrupting and adds to discussions in ways that honor what everyone has said.
• When you can use your insights and creativity in writing and other independent pursuits.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Getting stuck because trust and respect aren’t in the forms you accept and prefer. Put self-protecting limits on what you share and model respectful interactions.
• When materials do not fit with your values; INFPs are seldom willing to “play the game.” Try to identify a higher purpose for getting on board.
• Shutting down or bowing out when the value of individuality and diversity is ignored. Ask whether this particular instance will matter a week or a year from now or can you still learn something?
• Becoming so focused in one area of deep interest that it keeps you from exploring the rest.

Helps You

• Logically presented ideas that can be put into action. Identify the consistent principles and actionable items in more random information.
• Being free to discuss pros and cons of what is presented, or pose “What if” questions without others feeling threatened. Try hedging phrases such as, “Just out of curiosity…”.
• Planning how you or others can use the information, and carrying out the plan.
• Confidently putting your own twist on how you will use the information.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Struggling when not enough of your version of interaction is included, including having to wait to share your opinion. If the learning is important, find a listening ear elsewhere for critiques or ideas.
• Working alone or in isolation or silence for too long. For webinars, consider standing or locating yourself where you can use a headset and still be around others.
• Being misjudged as bossy or critical. Ensure that your phrasing works for people who take differences of opinion as arguments or criticism.
• Too quickly dismissing others as incompetent or inferior. Step back and step into their shoes.

Helps You

• Working with the big ideas, only pulling in the necessary details.
• Being able to express opinions, pros and cons, competing ideas, and engage in logical arguments to clarify understanding.
• When learning goals are laid out so you can plan your work and work your plan.
• When teachers/facilitators demonstrate competency and expertise, yet respect the ideas and questions of participants.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Being turned off by being told what to do without enough Why. Consider asking for the research or information sources so you can explore more deeply.
• Becoming confused if learning targets or goals are unspecified. Set individual goals and pursue them independently to ensure meaningful results.
• Floundering if your ideas are dismissed or you try to rush understanding. Model finding merit in the ideas of others and use your intuition to make connections.
• Struggling when group learning turns into sharing opinions rather than facts or expert theories. Ask clarifying questions.

Helps You

• Starting with the big ideas and being free to think of ways to make them even bigger or apply them differently.
• Being presented with challenges and problems to solve that involve strategic thinking and creativity.
• Debating ideas to understand the rationale of different positions, with mutual enthusiasm about finding the optimal truth.
• Synthesizing what you are learning into a matrix, model, or process you can use to teach, lead, or communicate.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Failing to to get organized. Ask how long a task might take and plan backward, identifying where you can find the time.
• Becoming frustrated when there is not enough room for imagination. While seeking forgiveness instead of permission can work, consider trying the prescribed way and changing things up later on your own.
• Missing learning because your brain skips ahead to connections. Check out visual note taking techniques (such as The Sketchnote Handbook) to capture connections.
• Becoming confounded when factual information isn’t organized your way. Categorize it for yourself using a matrix or outline to make sense of it.

Helps You

• Engaging in deep learning on topics that interest you. Use more general learning to pinpoint where you’ll go deeper later.
• Determining words, ideas, procedures, or theories precisely.
• Putting your own spin on what you are learning, or how it is presented, or how you apply it to yourself or your situation.
• Enough structure in learning tasks that you can estimate how and when you will get them done, but plenty of flexibility in what you will do.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Feeling rushed. INTPs want to let ideas percolate and want to examine them from different angles.
• Running out of time. Many INTPs get caught up in perfecting ideas or processes and need to think “What is good enough for this situation since perfect can’t happen?”.
• Dismissing rules and routines out of hand. Look for the merit before rejecting or avoiding them.
• Becoming overwhelmed by too much interaction. Take notes, indicate when you’ll share ideas, and plan breaks when interacting a lot.

Helps You

• Clarifying tasks and goals and chunking down to smaller pieces, if required, to give confidence the task can be done.
• Playing a facilitative role, often unofficially, ensuring others feel included and encouraged.
• Setting a clear schedule, goals and expectations for yourself, even if materials don’t provide it (or it’s not at the level of detail required for you).
• Engaging in group discussion and projects as a part of the group.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Feeling isolated by working on your own and without interaction with others for too long – engagement is key to learning.
• Not asking for input early on to clarify task, expectations, that you’re on the right track.
• Neglecting to step back and survey the larger learning landscape to check you’re aligned with broader learning direction and vision – may concentrate too much on following exact procedures at the expense of a deeper understanding.
• Taking any critique as a personal attack. Remember some Types will critique to be helpful and/or signal interest.

Helps You

• Organizing your learning. Use the note-taking and filing strategies that work best for you.
• Seeing how new knowledge can help others. Grab a takeaway from your notes, explain to someone why you’re making a suggestion, and ask if they’re willing to try it.
• Harmonious atmospheres. Ensure you’re modelling this by pointing out how others’ ideas are helpful to you.
• Getting the details. Make use of session recordings and other tools to fill in anything that feels like a gap in learning.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Feeling lost in a crowd of learners or an impersonal environment. Reach out to another participant to learn with you.
• Not identifying personal learning priorities, trying to master it all. Pick two or three topics that are most related to why you are learning the material and study those first.
• Wanting the details before working with the theory. Restate the big idea in terms of how you can use it before trying to fill in all the details.
• Assuming that constructive critique means you failed to apply learning correctly. Remind yourself how the comments might further your learning goals.

Helps You

• Being active while learning. Use a standing desk, take stretch breaks, and/or ensure you’ve been active before settling in.
• Getting questions answered. Make use of chat functions during web events so you don’t forget your questions as you listen.
• Using what you learn to help others. Practice with yourself and find a friend to share with to establish real-world connections quickly.
• Being prepared without feeling stifled. Set aside a couple of options for study time and place so you follow through but still feel flexible.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Getting disoriented if the big picture or theory doesn’t immediately connect with real life. Look for how others plan to use the information.
• Getting hung up on a detail or two that seem to be missing. Step back and ask yourself whether the rest of the information makes enough sense.
• When discussion time is limited. Note your aha’s and talk them through later with a friend—or put them into action.
• Over-relying on others rather than self for feedback. Make a checklist of what successful learning looks like or what you will be able to do with learning.

Helps You

• Experimenting or learning in safe environments. Preview materials or try out your ideas with those you trust.
• Learning from real-world examples or hands-on activities. Ask yourself what you can do immediately with what you are learning.
• Adding personal creativity. Look for ways where you can put your own spin on ideas, suggestions, exercises and activities, and processes.
• Setting aside time to make materials personally meaningful. Reflect to relate information to your values, relationships, and needs.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Struggling to finish the last 5%. Keep up energy with a completion reward.
• Getting turned off too quickly when a value is challenged. Know your values so you can quickly ask, “Is this a deal killer? Will it matter next week or next month?”.
• Wishing everyone had your deep listening skills. Model responding personally, acknowledging how others are helping you, and share your new learnings with friends.
• Feeling that you are lacking rapport with facilitators or other participants. Create the personal touch by applying or discussing information with friends, clients, or others you can help.

Helps You

• Clear schedules, goals, charts, and checklists—make your own if they aren’t provided.
• Identifying logic and principles. Reframe notes using if/then, pro/con, objective criteria, etc.—and then solve problems with it.
• Having the details to complete a task correctly. Efficiency is key so reviewing information before acting on it lessens the chance that missing pieces may result in wasted time.
• Talking through ideas. If group learning time is limited, find an interested friend or colleague to continue discussions.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Keeping learning at arms length by not incorporating more subjective data (including what you like and are enjoying about new ideas) into your learning.
• Needing bigger challenges. Set an audacious goal for putting information into practice, for yourself or for use with others.
• Over-thinking information and decisions when working alone. Go with your gut if a solution is “good enough” and stick with it.
• Seeing gaps and inconsistencies at the expense of appreciating the positives. Step back from any “It won’t work for me” thinking and put your problem-solving skills to work by identifying a way to overcome each of your objections.

Helps You

• Receiving complete, sequential information. Take notes, including questions, and leave space for answering them later.
• Finding ways to put new knowledge into practice immediately, quickly turning head knowledge into experiential knowledge.
• Using organizers–notecards for important discoveries, a short list of questions for making a decision, or matrices, charts, mind maps.
• Naming your rules or principles, defining precisely how you wish to put new knowledge into use.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Getting stuck because material isn’t at your preferred level of specificity. Ask for steps in the process or observe how others undertake tasks to provide a starting point.
• Becoming stymied if the theory isn’t quickly or readily understood. Ask for or seek through observation examples.
• Fixating too long on one skill or piece of knowledge you haven’t mastered, letting perfectionism get in the way of seeing – and using – all you have learned.
• Demanding certainty, being uncomfortable with principles that sometimes work or ideas that involve information that may change.

Helps You

• Moving and interacting while learning. Consider sitting on a stability ball or using a standing or treadmill desk.
• Combining work and play. Learn with a friend or identify a fun and active way you’re going to use the information.
• Working backward from deadlines to understand when you need to start, perhaps asking others how long something might take.
• Touching, trying, experimenting, seeing, or otherwise finding ways to make learning come alive. Situate yourself where you can see things that are connected with what you’re learning.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Getting fidgety or frustrated if required to sit or read or listen for an extended period. Get in your workout first or meet with others beforehand.
• Being turned off if connections to the real world aren’t immediately obvious. Think of concrete way to try something out.
• Giving all information the same level of importance. Rethink this by setting two or three goals for the information, seeking answers to questions on just those topics.
• Getting too caught up in logic or linearity. Not everything is cause/effect and feelings or values may be as important to decisions as cost/utility/time involved.

Helps You

• Knowing the Whys. Listen for theories or experiences that support the concepts being presented.
• Seeing structures or how information is organized. Label notes with daily topics and subtopics, using graphic organizers or mind maps.
• Identifying which details are important. Master the details that support your learning goals to add efficiency to study.
• Learning by doing. Put new principles or processes to work immediately, capitalizing on your ability to make them even better.

Hinders You + Strategies

• Disengaging because you don’t have enough expertise. Pick an important area to practice first and be patient with yourself as you take a listen/learn role on other topics.
• Dismissing anything not immediately pragmatically useful. Pair up with someone imaginative, or ask, “What else could this mean?”.
• Staying motivated for long-term goals. Identify mini-steps that move you toward each goal and celebrate reaching those.
• Disliking ambiguous information while learning, yet wanting freedom/individuality. Remember that you excel at taking underlying principles, cutting the red tape, and reworking them to be personally useful.