Unleash the power of intentional learning with the 3x3x3 approach. This innovative method, rooted in cognitive science, offers a structured path to knowledge acquisition. Discover how to harness your cognitive abilities for effective learning and personal growth.
Key Elements of Effective Learning
A defined number of clear and immediate goals: focus on a few concrete goals at any one time e.g. 3x3x3 encourages you to define three development goals, over a three-month period, engaging three other people to support you in those goals and hold you accountable.
Three other people
Socializing a goal also creates opportunities to celebrate and reinforce growth with others.
- When teams make it the norm for each person to share individual development goals, the result is often a rich ecosystem for learning and growth where all members help one another
- Choose people who will have enough exposure to your work and progress in the specific domains in which you have set your development goals.
Three goals
Focus on no more than three goals at any given time
- This will allow you to develop new habits and bring the right level of intentionality to improving your performance
- When people set too many goals, they often fail to make real progress on any one of them
- Having a few development goals enables us to better leverage the full set of experiences we want to learn
- Aiming for three goals will land you in the sweet spot
Three months
This is the length of time you should set to achieve development goals
- Provides enough “runway” to make tangible progress against a goal through cycles of practice, feedback, and (where needed) formal training
- Forces us to be concrete and specific in our goals, which decades of goal-setting research show is critical to goal attainment
- A three-month period aligns with many of the natural rhythms of the organizational world
