Page 86 - Learning to Learn

READING EXPERIENCE 4: SELF -ASSESSMENT: THE ENGINE OF SELF-GROWTH
86 L EARNING TO LEARN: BECOMING A SELF-GROWER
Action Plans
When you’re working with Areas for Improvement (in an SII Assessment), the ability to create high-
quality action plans is critical. Without action plans, all we have is hope. And though hope is a nice thing,
it doesn’t get us very far at all. Think about taking a trip: the better your plans for arriving at a destination,
the more likely you are to get there. Sitting at the airport (or in your car or at home) and simply hoping
you eventually get somewhere isn’t likely to bring you any closer to your chosen destination. It is the
same with action plans. When we want to improve our performance, it is essential that we create a plan
for the actions we will take to make the improvement happen. When we create an action plan, we must
use abilities such as assessing, analyzing, researching, and planning. Creating an action plan requires us
to reflect, assess and analyze past and current performances using external resources, examine where we
have been, and decide where we want to go.
Action plans require that we identify the key differences between the outcomes we planned from the actual
outcomes. It requires that we decide which characteristics define an improved performance and choose
the skills and processes that lead to those characteristics. (For example, think about when you were little
and learning how to color within the lines. We could say that an improved performance in coloring means
coloring within the lines. In order to achieve that characteristic, we need to improve skills such as motor
control, hand-eye-coordination, and maybe even being patient and not rushing our coloring job.) Creating
an action plan also requires recognizing, based on things we already know (previous knowledge), what
new information and actions are required to change behaviors. (Back to our coloring example: If we only
have a yellow and blue crayon, but want to color something green, we can use the fact that we already
know that colors, when mixed, make other colors. Maybe then we could find out if we can mix two colors
to make green.) Action plans require that we determine what the new objective is, decide on a path to
get us there and construct a plan for doing it. Just as hoping to get to a destination doesn’t get you there,
having a great plan and not following it doesn’t either. That’s a bit like having plane tickets, sitting at home
as the plane takes off, then wondering why you never got to your destination. A strong plan means that we
both design and define the steps we need to take in order to reach our objective. Finally, a strong action
plan should include the standard that must be met to show new skills have been mastered (e.g., that we
have learned to color within the lines).