Turn Learning into Action with "Spark, Shift, Share" Notetaking

Do you ever sit through a workshop, scribble endless notes, and then never look at them again? 

Discover a notetaking method that helps you capture what matters - and actually use it. Get ready to spark ideas, shift your mindset, and share your growth with others!

In this episode of the Practicing Connection podcast, Jessica and Coral introduce the Spark-Shift-Share notetaking strategy, a simple yet powerful approach for translating professional development into meaningful action. 

Instead of just recording information, learn how to capture what inspires you (“spark”), identify how it can change your practice (“shift”), and spread valuable insights through your network (“share”). 

If you want your learning to make a real impact, this episode is for you. Tune in for a practical walkthrough and ways to connect learning with action.

Links and resources from this episode:

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• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

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Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi, thanks for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica. Today we'll be talking about an innovative note-taking practice that can spark new insights and enhance your impact. And Coral will be sharing a practice with us. Hi Coral. How are you? Did you see what I did there? Teaser?

CORAL OWEN: I did, and our audience will find out soon. I'm great. Thanks for asking. I'm actually just coming off my first, and I'm air quoting here, “real” vacation in several years, where I actually fully unplugged, and it was incredible. Highly recommend. I just feel so much more energized and creative, and I think that really stems from just letting my brain decompress.

And yeah, just seeing some beautiful new places. So yeah, that's what we've been up to the last week.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That sounds wonderful. I think I shared with you just a couple minutes ago that I think it's been about 12 years since I've had like a [00:01:00] traveling full-on vacation, and I can't believe it's been that long. But I'm also glad that we haven't had any episodes about “taking vacations as a way to enhance your productivity,” because I would be a massive hypocrite when it comes to that!

CORAL OWEN: I think that might be a new episode idea though, about the importance of unplugging. So let's file that away for later.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I take vacation time. I just haven't been anywhere in a while.

CORAL OWEN: Indeed. Indeed.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, we'd love to hear what's inspiring you, so please drop us a line at Practicing connection@oneop.org. We see and respond to every message, and we can't wait to hear from you. 

- break -

Let's learn more about note taking with the Spark-Shift-Share method. Coral, can you tell us a little more about this practice and why you chose it?

CORAL OWEN: Sure thing. Thanks Jess. So in our last [00:02:00] episode, we kicked off a new series on making the most of professional development opportunities by talking about setting learning intentions before you go. So taking a few moments to ask yourself, “What do I hope to get out of this?” Today's practice builds on that idea, and so we're talking about how to take notes in a way that connects directly to those intentions, and more importantly, helps you move from inspiration into action. So a lot of traditional note taking methods were developed for academic settings. So think outlines, bullets, transcribing slides, things like that.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Which are like the Cornell, right? There's a Cornell Method or something like that, right, of note taking? I remember this.

CORAL OWEN: That sounds familiar. And yeah, you know, whatever methodology you've used for just kind of your classic note taking in the past, in learning settings, those are great for, you know, test prep or memorization or things like that. But the professional development setting really is different. 

And the challenge typically is not just remembering what was said, but it's knowing what to do with it. And so the Spark-Shift-Share method [00:03:00] is a simple framework that helps us move less from capturing everything and more to capturing what really matters for us and our work and our context and all of that good stuff. And then how to integrate those ideas into your practice and relationships and work.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, I am excited to hear about this practice because I tend to be the person who writes two words down and then later on goes back to it and is like, “What do those two words mean?” So, tell us a little bit more. Let's walk through the practice.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, absolutely. So as you've likely gathered, there are three steps to the strategy: Spark, Shift and Share. The first step, Spark, takes place in the session itself. Whatever learning activity or professional development opportunity, you're tapping into the second and third steps, shift and share respectively, they take place after the session is concluded and you've had a little bit of space to regroup.

So let's go ahead and just dive in on how to do all of this, shall we? Step one: [00:04:00] spark. This is really what stood out and inspired you. So instead of filling a notebook with like a play by play of what's being said, you're focusing your notes more with moments that grab your attention. These are like ideas, quotes, even questions that light you up and make you feel connected to what brought you to this session or talk in the first place.

And as we've already noted, you don't need to write everything down. Just jot down what is giving you, you know, maybe a phrase, a couple words, or, you know, a direct quote, paraphrasing what is giving you the most energy and direction. And again, you're doing this in the session itself. And it can be on a notepad or, you know, in the notes app on your phone or your tablet.

Just capturing the moment that you're in and just letting things as they hit you, just do little brain dumps, you know, along the way. So the second step is after the session is concluded, maybe you're on your flight home or regrouping on your first day back in the office. We're going to step into our [00:05:00] Shift. And this is, you know, how might whatever sparks you've captured, how might this change your thinking or practice? 

And so like we already said, you're gonna go ahead and, you know, grab whatever you jotted your spark notes on, and crack 'em open. And so once you’ve reviewed what you've captured that stood out to you, ask yourself a few questions, and you can do any or all of these.

So the first reflection point is, what could I do differently because of this? The second one, how does this change how I think about my work or relationships? And the third that you could reflect on is, where could I try this even in a small way? Hopefully this is the step where we are beginning to move from passive listening to more active learning.

And this shift helps you figure out what you might actually do with these insights that you've gained. And so finally, step three is share. And we begin to consider who else might benefit from this, this being your Spark [00:06:00] notes, or your insights and how are you going to share it. So as you may know, connection is a huge part of the learning process, and this part of the method invites you to think beyond your own work.

And so you might ask yourself, who in my network or team would appreciate this idea? Is it something that I could bring to a meeting, a mentoring session, a coffee chat? And thirdly, to consider how might sharing this idea deep in a connection or open up a new one, and just really bringing this all home.

This step is reinforcing this learning and it helps spread useful ideas throughout your community, your team, or your organization. And that's it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I absolutely love how this starts to turn note taking into a full circle learning tool. Earlier I said that I tend to be the person who writes like two words down and later on I'm like, “What do those two words mean?” But when you mentioned this is meant to shift from writing everything down that's being said to writing just what sparks you,

I [00:07:00] I realize that I kind of waffle between the two words, or writing everything down, and neither one of those is like super helpful. So, this is really turning note-taking into a full circle learning tool. And it's not just something then that you do during a session, but it's something that helps you keep learning and connecting after it's over.

CORAL OWEN: A hundred percent. And I apologize if you heard me chuckling in the background, Jess, because I am very much like you. I either am just capturing like a word for word, you know, record, or going, “Huh? I don't know quite what that Cliff Notes version meant,” but, yeah, so I've used this a couple times, in some recent learning opportunities that I've had, and it really is just, I know we say this with many practices, but it's so impactful. 

And, you know, even more so, it's just a way to stay present in the moment and reflect meaningfully afterwards. And it kind of has a ripple effect outward. You know, the cool thing is too, it doesn't take any special tools. You can simply jot like a [00:08:00] Spark-Shift-Share in a notebook or a WhatsApp on your phone, and really moving from an information overload type where you're just, you know, saturated in information, but being a lot more intentional in what we're taking forward with us that really is gonna resonate with our work. And then moving it into intentional action with those around us and having that collective impact together.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Wow. Thank you so much. That’s it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend. We'll be back next week with a special episode focusing on military kids and school communities. Until then, keep practicing. [00:09:00]

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of One-Off and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.