Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular workdays. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about learning and education.

From Adi Gaskell: Speed Of Learning As The New Competitive Advantage

“Modern life is nothing if not fast paced and awash with change. Darwin famously said it’s the most adaptable that tend to survive, but whereas evolutionary change tends to happen over incredibly long timeframes, modern shifts are played out in ever shortening periods. It’s created a world in which the speed of learning is a competitive advantage, both for individuals and organizations.”

From Whitney Johnson: Your Organization Needs a Learning Ecosystem

“People can also grow in a workplace until they reach the limit on their resources for new learning. At the beginning, or the low-end of what I call the S Curve of Learning, there’s a lot of room for growth; but as we master our role and ultimately reach the top of that learning curve, we begin to flat-line. There’s less ‘food and water for our brain as we reach the carrying capacity of that curve. Growth slows then stops and we get bored. And if this is common in the organization, it will begin to flat-line too.”

From the London School of Economics: We are heading towards a skills-based, rather than degree-based labour market

“Skills indicate demand and supply at a more nuanced level than degrees, which become outdated by the time they are obtained, writes Jian Lu.”

From Fred Swaniker: How Learning Can Catch Up With Technological Change

“As I meet with senior executives around the globe, one concern haunts them more than any other: the deficit in the leadership talent necessary for their companies to compete in today’s highly dynamic, uncertain, and volatile world. Organizations of all stripes are increasingly realizing that the education system that propelled their success in the past is failing to produce the entrepreneurial and collaborative problem-solving talent necessary to thrive in the future.”

From Leah Belsky: Where Online Learning Goes Next

“Charles W. Eliot, who served as President of Harvard University for a record 40 years, charted a roadmap for education in his seminal essay, The New Education. Written in 1869, it made the case for continuously updating how and what students learn, so education could evolve in step with society. That approach remains just as relevant today, 150 years later.”

From Jane Farquhar: The Evolution of Self-Directed Learning

“A teacher friend of mine recounted a story of an education conference he attended, where each of the attendees was given a ‘Learn to Juggle’ kit with three bean bags and a step-by-step instruction book. The audience of over 500 attendees was given 20 minutes to see how far they could get in acquiring a brand new skill.”

Book Suggestions

Disrupt Yourself: Master Relentless Change and Speed Up Your Learning Curve by Whitney Johnson

College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students by Jeffrey Selingo

My ebook, Now You’re the Boss: Making the Most of the Most Important Transition in Business has chapters on “Learning from Experience” and “How to Get the Most from Your Reading.”

Every Monday, I do a blog post about business reading and business books. Follow this link to my review of Dare to Lead.