Learning with Michelle Lanchart / an NYU PhD 🎓
Learning about people’s experiences is a fantastic opportunity to expand your own thinking
Episode 49. Imagine you are Michelle, a young doctor with a PhD from NYU (New York University) in your back pocket. How would you answer our famous ‘learning inspiration’ questions? Here we go, discover Michelle’s answers. I hope you will extract a bit of inspiration from her interview. Personally, I have 😉
Enjoy this 4min read 👇
Who is your major source of inspiration? (Can be more than 1)
Sometimes just a great quote that a friend posts on Instagram can inspire me. My colleagues are so inspiring in what they do—all the issues their work addresses. I’m inspired by stories. Fictional stories help me think about how I want to be and act in this world. My friend’s real-life stories are also a good source of inspiration.
How do you keep learning on a daily basis? What are your learning routines?
Learning has been really important for me because I haven’t had a straight career path. There are so many things I want to learn and master. I identify a specific skill to work on or a course to take.
Set a special time for your learning. If you are passionate about a subject find a weekly time to read about it. Commit to reading a certain number of articles. If you’re taking a class, find a consistent time during the week to work on it. Work it into an activity you already do. For example, to maintain my French and Italian language skills, I listen to audiobooks in these languages when I go for my daily walk or when I commute to work. Learning has to be easy and realistic, and that will look different for each person.
What’s helpful? It’s extremely helpful to find other people to keep you accountable. You can do this informally by casually talking to people about the things you’ve learned. Bring it up as a topic of discussion with your friends. Taking notes helps me process information, even if I don’t look at them again.
Do a weekly check-in with yourself even if you think you don’t have time to fit in learning. What’s your motivation for learning?
Forgiveness is important. You may not stick to your learning plan, and that happens. Forgive yourself, recalibrate your plan if you need to, and recommit to it.
What are your favorite books and why?
There are so many books I love…
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Nobel prize in economy and psychologist). The book explains how cognitive bias plays a significant role in our decision-making. The way information is presented to us affects how we think about things. The circumstances of our decisions also matter—for example, we tend to not make the best decisions when we’re tired or fatigued. Realizing this helped me realize when to take a step back before making a decision that may be the result of fatigue rather than good judgment.
Leading Change by John Kotter is also a great book. It gives a good perspective about how things change in an organization and how to tackle various challenges, including, changing cultural norms within an organization and helping people adapt to new ways of working.
I love Neil Gaiman. He’s probably most famous for his graphic novel The Sandman and his novel American Gods, which are excellent. But I really enjoy his collections of short stories. “Murder Mysteries” in Smoke and Mirrors for example. I love that he portrays the darkness and the light of life. He has a really special way to communicate reality. You feel totally immersed in the story, and even though it’s fiction, and often fantastical, it resonates so much with what happens in real life.
What is your favorite podcast and why?
I don’t listen to that many podcasts, but I’ve started to watch Masterclass and it’s really great. You have different experts like Oprah, Ru Paul, Anna Wintour, Dianne Von Furstenberg, and you can learn about their stories and how they get where they are. Learning about people’s experiences is a fantastic opportunity to expand your own thinking.
How do you remember what you learn?
I write things down. When I watch Masterclass, I take short notes. I try to share what I’ve learned when I talk with friends. It’s really helpful and the fact that I repeat new information or ideas helps me remember it. I try as well to incorporate what I learn into my daily life.
What would you tell the 18-year-old version of yourself?
Don’t be afraid of not being perfect. This advice might resonate with many women who are often taught to be perfect in everything. It’s counterproductive because you are so focused on being perfect that you are afraid of failing. This fear can prevent you from trying and getting better at something you might love. You are not required to do things perfectly, especially the first time.
What is the most important thing you learned over the last months?
Learning how to work remotely was quite challenging. I started a new job just 3 months before the pandemic. So, I didn’t get the same in-person bonding with my team. It’s difficult to create connections remotely. You don’t have the same random moments and side conversations. Working remotely made me learn how to communicate differently in a way that you can develop bonds and set good habits within the team without seeing them in person. Now, for example, I’m especially careful to explain the context of requests I make or task deadlines. It helps people connect to you and what you’re trying to accomplish. Especially in this remote environment, interpersonal connections help others become invested in your goals.
What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome this past year?
Hiring and onboarding people remotely in different time zones. Especially for interns, creating a supportive and productive environment that allows interns to interact with multiple staff members is challenging as we’re not in the same space. I’ve found that giving them projects in which they have to consult other team members has been helpful for this. It’s important to create a space where people can have conversations that are not transactional and just to talk about what the team is creating or what team members are doing as people.
If you were to stay alone on an island and were only allowed one item, what would it be?
I would bring my iPod—or anything that can broadcast or make music, like a radio or a musical instrument. Music is a great source of inspiration; you can dance to it, be sad to it. It transports me.
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