We believe that all education is self-education. No one can learn us anything. Awakening to what it takes to learn new things of this caliber, as adults, might feel a little stretched at first – yet all of us are scrambling to figure out how to navigate our increasingly complex environments. Jane and the team are guiding, but you and your colleagues are doing the heavy lifting. It is fun and a relief to discover insights into how the world works and how we can improve. We can continue to review and weave insights across individual Labs and Arenas. We have all the time we need. We leave ourselves free. Practice breathing!

We believe that if we understand what we are trying to do, we can self-assess on how well we’ve engaged, discovered, learned, extended our thinking and insights. Conventional schooling passes the responsibility for assessment to the authority figure. “If I got a 90%, the teacher thought it was good, so it must be good even if I hardly worked on it.” Assessment empowers the one doing the assessing. That person needs to be us. We can invite feedback from others, of course, and we can jointly assess. But we abdicate our freedom if we let others, alone, be the judge. If we didn’t know enough to know if it was good, maybe we didn’t know enough to do it in the first place. We are also big fans of mapping our process, multiple drafts, and phases. They help us have a realistic view of the scope we’re taking on.

In conventional higher education, as a student, I am not expected to feel responsible for a poor grade or performance by any of my classmates. In the Catalytic Thinking Labs, we believe we need to raise the bar, and to take some responsibility for the learning of those on our team or in our pod. We’re not into grades, but we are into achievement. To help strengthen our fellow student’s understanding, patience, careful attention, and an insightful question will not go amiss. A culture of learning is a culture of thinking, respecting each other, and caring. Social learning has no space for arrogant posturing. We’ve all been vulnerable to destructive confusion and criticism at times. Out of empathy we can step up to the challenge of a true social learning community. We can reach out, learn more, and make new friends!

After each Lab, you are invited to join a WindTunneling project (at a sister website, WindTunneling), that invites you to exchange your insights, questions, ideas for applications, and recommendations with participants around the world. You are privileged to read their contributions and respond to them. They are privileged to read your ideas. Take time to express yourself clearly. No one knows who shared which idea – it matters that these ideas live in the commons. They come from those who are striving to strengthen their thinking so as to make more of a contribution to a world needing our help. Share generously!