Building Excellence Through PeopleÉThe Learning Individual
Learning Styles and Performance Practices
Susan M. Rundle, CEO and President,
Performance Concepts International, Ltd. -- International Learning Styles Center, USA,
Dr. Colin Hankinson, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
In todayÕs fast, complex, and shifting environments, there is an ongoing need to increase
productivity, develop new skills, change behavior, and learn new and complex material.
Thus, people face the formidable task of adapting to the day-to-day challenges of having
to learn and do more, better, faster! Performance Concepts InternationalÕs response to
this challenge is a return to basics.
When people have access to resources that help them with these challenges, you will find
that learning time decreases, motivation increases, there is a positive shift in attitude,
and performance improves Ñ all of which equate to increased profits. The Building
Excellence Inventory¨ (BE) (©1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 R. Dunn and S. Rundle) and its
resultant report, The Guide to Individual Excellenceª (GIE) (©1997, 2000 S. Rundle), are
two such resources. BE identifies and measures twenty elements that either hinder or
stimulate learning and performance. GIE focuses on learning and performance practices
using a system that helps align individuals with a common purpose, while at the same time
maximizing their differences.
By providing individuals with a self-reflective analysis of how they learn new and complex
information and how they perform tasks and improve systems, they will develop strategies
to enhance communication skills, study skills, team interactions, and work processes. The
ultimate goal is for individuals to develop confidence such that they will advocate for
their natural learning needs and performance strengths regardless of the environment.
BE and GIE afford people:
¨ An opportunity to identify their (individual) natural learning strengths and link those
strengths to performance.
¨ The freedom to explore their untapped potential and experience their individuality.
¨ The choice to become enlightened with new information or to amplify and validate what
is already known.
¨ An opportunity to discover, advocate, and achieve educational, business, and personal
success based on self-awareness.
GIE provides people with a framework for understanding:
¨ The specific factors that will help them build a state for learning; the optimal state
in which they are able to concentrate on, process, absorb, retain new information, and
develop new skills.
¨ Their preferred methods for making decisions and solving problems.
¨ Their preferred way of processing information.
¨ The stress factors that affect the ability to concentrate for extended periods which,
in turn, decrease productivity.
¨ Their preferred working atmosphere (immediate surroundings) when concentrating.
¨ The most productive strategies for each of their strengths.
¨ The specific learning and performance competencies that create higher job performance
and educational achievement.
¨ How applying the optimal learning and performance practices can enhance
self-motivation.
¨ Diversity beyond race, class, and gender.
¨ That strengths and preferences vary from person to person.
¨ How to manage and coach people with a greater awareness of differences by understanding
that the strengths of their employees create the strengths of the managers.