How to Coach Yourself and Others How To Perform On The Job Coaching | Page 59

These learning styles are the combination of two lines of axis (continuums) each formed between what Kolb calls 'dialectically related modes' of 'grasping experience' (doing or watching), and 'transforming experience' (feeling or thinking): The word 'dialectically' is not widely understood, and yet carries an essential meaning, namely 'conflicting' (its ancient Greek root means 'debate' - and I thank P Stern for helping clarify this precise meaning). Kolb meant by this that we cannot do both at the same time, and to an extent our urge to want to do both creates conflict, which we resolve through choice when confronted with a new learning situation. We internally decide whether we wish to do or watch, and at the same time we decide whether to think or feel. The result of these two decisions produces (and helps to form throughout our lives) the preferred learning style, hence the two-by-two matrix below. We choose a way of 'grasping the experience', which defines our approach to it, and we choose a way to 'transform the experience' into something meaningful and usable, which defines our emotional response to the experience. Our learning style is a product of these two choice decisions: How to approach a task - i.e., 'grasping experience' - preferring to (a) watch or (b) do , and our emotional response to the experience - i.e., 'transforming experience' - preferring to (a) think or (b) feel. In other words we choose our approach to the task or experience ('grasping the experience') by opting for 1(a) or 1(b): 1(a) - though watching others involved in the experience and reflecting on what happens ('reflective observation' - 'watching') or 1(b) - through 'jumping straight in' and just doing it ('active experimentation' - 'doing') And at the same time we choose how to emotionally transform the experience into something meaningful and useful by opting for 2(a) or 2(b): 2(a) - through gaining new information by thinking, analyzing, or planning ('abstract conceptualization' - 'thinking') or 2(b) - through experiencing the 'concrete, tangible, felt qualities of the world' ('concrete experience' - 'feeling') 59