I scored Low on my Learning Agility Assessment - Now What?

One of our clients recently completed her Learning Agility assessment and received a low score. Below, she reflects on her results, her reaction and where she plans to go from here…

My Learning Agility Assessment

I’ve seen Learning Agility mentioned in a lot of HR magazines and conferences, so when I saw I could test myself via the HR Learning Agility study, I jumped at the chance. I really expected that I would score high - I’m a very competitive person - but I’m almost ashamed to admit that I scored pretty low!

Initially, I was quite upset by the results and I even felt a bit stupid. I understand Learning Agility to be all about flexibility in the face of change - I really thought I did that.

Understanding my Learning Agility in More Detail

I was fortunate to be able to speak to one of the psychologists at Lumenii, Jaintheran Naidoo, and had the chance to ask him more about my results. He helped me to understand why my scores were lower in some areas and what I could do about it.

Turns out, Learning Agility is not anything to do with a person’s IQ, and unlike IQ it can also be developed! That’s good news for me and I’m really glad I can work on some of my lower scores.

Jaintheran also explained to me that lower or higher scores are not “good” or “bad”, but that they tell me more about what learning approach I am likely to take in a new or unfamiliar situation. He indicated that low scores may mean that I prefer structure and familiarity over change and experimentation, and that I may need a little more time to accept new demands and adapt to them. This actually describes me pretty well.

Developing my Agility

So with all the research focusing on Learning Agility and performance, does a low score mean that I’m not effective at work? I did some research on this by myself and also spoke to my manager. It turns out that context matters quite a lot more than I thought it did. My manager said that my results are not having an impact now, but she did help me by pointing out one or two areas that may have an impact in future.

Even though a low Learning Agility score isn’t a bad thing, I’ve decided that I still want to work to improve my agility. According to the experts, by focusing on Self-awareness in particular, I can make significant improvements to my Learning Agility pretty quickly. I plan to re-take the assessments next year to see how I do. Wish me luck!