Hyper-Learning
Learn how to adapt at the speed of change in order to stay relevant in the digital age by excelling at higher-order thinking and emotionally connecting in ways that technology cannot.
Download your free My Hyper-Learning Journal, the companion workbook with activities to help you put it all into practice!
Also available from these sellers.
Prologue Available!
We’re excited to make the prologue available as a preview to the book.
Click to download as a PDF.
Visualize the Hyper-Learning Journey
The journey follows a path that leads to a future enriched by meaningful relationships and meaningful work. See how you can join with others on the path to a more human workplace and collective flow. Read More
Table of Contents
PART 1
Hyper-Learning Requires A New Way Of Being
Chapter 1: Achieving Inner Peace
Chapter 2: Adopting a Hyper-Learning Mindset
Chapter 3: Behaving like a Hyper-Learner
Chapter 4: The Susan Sweeney Personal Transformation Story
Chapter 5: The Marvin Riley Personal Transformation Story
PART 2
Hyper-Learning Requires A New Way Of Working
Chapter 6: Humanizing the Workplace
Chapter 7: Creating Caring, Trusting Teams
Chapter 8: Having High- Quality, Making- Meaning Conversations
Chapter 9: EnPro Industries: Enabling the Full Release of Human Possibility
Chapter 10: Hyper-Learning Practices
Chapter 11: The Adam Hansen Personal Transformation Journey
What People Are Saying
Endorsements
“We are on the cusp of a technologically hyper-driven new era where the current ways and norms of our lives will no longer apply – regardless of how fast we run or try harder. Ed Hess’s Hyper-Learning is uniquely practical and is the essential starting point for charting new ways of thinking, living, working, leading, and being fulfilled in our new world.”
— Gary Roughead
Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired) former Chief of Naval Operations
“Hyper-Learning is the “how-to” roadmap for leading in the Digital Age. Enhancing one’s learning agility is the only way to thrive in a world of ever accelerating change.”
— Fernando Merce
former CEO & President of Nestle Waters North America
“Hyper-Learning is a unique book. Reading this book is like having a candid conversation with a wise close friend who cares deeply about you and about your happiness and success. It invites you on a journey that is actionable and science-based that can increase the probability that you will have continuous meaningful work in the Digital Age because you have learned “how-to” be a Hyper-Learner. And, as importantly, it illuminates clearly how to build meaningful human relationships. Its workbook format will engage your mind and your heart. Enjoy!”
— Sean Ryan
President, McGraw Hill
“Hyper-Learning is a wonderfully comprehensive and enlightening book. For many of us, the pace of the technological revolution seems dizzying, dazzling and hell-bent on destroying the jobs and professions that define us. Like many others worried by this seismic change, I’ve wondered how any of us can possibly compete with smart machines in the long-run? In, Hyper-Learning, Ed Hess offers a distinctively human strategy and a science-based path to enduring relevance through self-reflection, self-development and the practices that are required for learning faster and transforming our abilities at the speed of change. Ed’s work demonstrates that we must truly love learning to become hyper-learners, and that we must also have the emotional peace and humility required to learn from others and to unlearn some of our ideas as readily as we learn new ones.”
— Peter Rodriguez
Dean and Professor, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
“The book offers a comprehensive and stimulating path to Hyper-Learning, capabilities for continuous learning at the speed of change. A must-read for anyone who wants to thrive in volatile and uncertain times.”
— Maryam Alavi
Ph.D., Dean and Stephen P. Zelnak Chair and Professor, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology
“If Inner Peace, Otherness, and Hyper- Learning do not seem to you to be key Digital Age Skills, then you’re in for a big surprise. Ed Hess takes you on a journey designed to enable you to continually adapt to an ever-changing world where jobs will be automated at a dizzying rate. Meaningful work and a meaningful life will be intimately tied to you developing the capacity to practice a “New Way of Being” that enables you to excel at doing the types of work that the technology won’t be able to do well. Hyper-Learning is a wonderful practical guide to help you stay relevant in the Digital Age workplace.”
— Amy C. Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School, and coauthor of Building the Future
“Hyper-Learning offers readers fresh insights into how to learn, behave, and thrive in an era of unprecedented digital challenge and change. Professor Hess—through insightful commentary, rich research, and illustrative case studies—shows us how we can become better, fuller versions of ourselves, and tells us why it is imperative that we do so. Hyper-Learning is psychologically astute, refreshingly pragmatic and designed to help us move forward in a new and uncharted era.”
— Ming-Jer Chen
former President of The Academy of Management and the Leslie E. Grayson Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business
“As an educational leader, I believe no book is more relevant to the times in which we are living than Ed Hess’ Hyper-Learning; and no workplace needs Hyper-Learning more than America’s school communities. Ed’s own self-described journey to find empathy, kindness, and warmth in his personal and professional life illuminates what it takes “…to bring our Best Selves (our hearts or souls) to work every day in the pursuit of meaningful work that creates value for others.” (p. 183) Imagine how different our communities and workforce would be if all the high school seniors in America graduated with Hyper-Learning behaviors.”
—Dr. Pam Moran, Executive Director for the Virginia School Consortium for Learning and retired Superintendent, Albemarle County Public Schools, Virginia
“Hyper-Learning, shows us how to stay relevant in the Digital Age. It is a field guide for navigating the new ways of being, thinking and behaving essential for teaching us to do what machines can’t. Synthesizing a vast swath of social science research, its advice covers every facet of the journey, from the intensely personal– to strategies for humanizing the workplace. Along the way, its vivid examples and hands-on workshops provide us the opportunity to begin our journey, which our future depends upon.”
— Jeanne Liedtka, United Technologies Chaired Professor of Innovation and Design Thinking at the Darden School of Business
“Hyper-Learning is a masterpiece “how-to” and “why to” book that takes us on an instructional journey to a future where learning must change in profound ways because of advancing technologies. This book helps the reader reflect deeply about feelings, mindsets and behaviors to discover things about themselves in a way that sticks. The powerful goal of “thinking behaviorally” is a great way to describe this book which also helps leadership move from “command and control” to “inspire and support”.
— Gary S. Calabrese
Ph.D., Senior Vice President & Director, Corning Global Research, Corning Incorporated
“A must read! Digital technology touches all aspects of life and Hyper-Learning will be a major factor in everyone’s well-being and success.”
— Chris Baer
former Vice President, Leadership Development, Marriott International
“Ed Hess is prescient in identifying a challenge that all of us will encounter—the need to become hyper-learners—that is, to become more agile, quick, and efficient in our ability to learn and adapt to the future. His workshop-based book will engage you deeply in a Hyper-Learning experience that will grab you, enlarge you, and change you in ways that will help you become more like your best self.”
— Kim Cameron
William Russell Professor of Management & Organizations, Ross School of Business & Professor of Higher Education, School of Education, University of Michigan
“Once again, Ed Hess is one step ahead, redefining the way we look at our technology driven world that is evolving faster than our previous models have prepared us to handle. These technological advances are like an accelerating train that we will never be able to catch if we don’t change and adapt. Instead of a dystopian view, Ed provides a humanistic and learning centric framework for us to effectively develop the skills and behaviors that will be necessary to be successful leaders and build high functioning organizations. As the head of a sixth-generation family business looking to the future, I encourage other leaders to pay close attention to Ed’s wisdom and embrace the concept of Hyper-Learning before it’s too late! “
— Frank H Foster, Chairman Hixon Properties, Founder of the Legacy Center at Graziadio Business School, Pepperdine University
“The future will require us to be more human, to continuously reinvent ourselves, and to excel at doing the things that technology cannot do well. Ed Hess gives us practical tools, based on learning science, to learn a ‘New Way of Being’ and a ‘New Way of Working’ that will enable human adaptation and life-long learning in the Digital Age. We all will need to excel at: knowing how to learn, unlearn and relearn (Hyper-Learning); how to effectively collaborate; and how to manage ourselves in order to do our best work and to live a meaningful life. The workbook ‘learn by doing’ approach in this book is a winner!”
— Alex Hernandez, Dean, University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Book Reviews
“Hess shares his take on hyper-learning, defining it as continual learning, unlearning, and relearning. He posits that it is necessary to keep up with change and to stay relevant in the digital age. The first half of the book focuses on creating a hyper-learning mindset, choosing and embracing the relevant behaviors, and adopting daily hyper-learning practices. For the second half, Hess focuses on how to humanize the workplace to optimize this learning method. His workbook approach—complete with chapters designed for active learning with reflection and activity prompts—makes this exploration of the topic an interactive and enlightening experience.”
— Association of Talent Development
“…best leadership books to be released in September 2020… The Digital Age will raise the question of how we humans will stay relevant in the workplace. To stay relevant, we have to be able to excel cognitively, behaviorally, and emotionally in ways that technology can't. Professor Ed Hess believes that requires us to become Hyper-Learners: continuously learning, unlearning, and relearning at the speed of change. To do that, we have to overcome our reflexive ways of being: seeking confirmation of what we believe, emotionally defending our beliefs and our ego, and seeking cohesiveness of our mental models. Hyper-Learning requires a new way of being and a radical new way of working.”
— Leadership Now
“…Hyper-learning, says Dr. Hess, requires us to learn, unlearn, and relearn, all the while working and living outside our normal comfort zone. AI, integrated automation, virtual and augmented reality and big data plus analytics are already common workplace tools. The kicker is that these technologies are now embedded in millions of jobs, from law and accounting, through manufacturing, healthcare and even recreation services. Those of us who want to keep working have no choice but to selectively and carefully learn and let the right technologies into our lives. (read the full review at Blue Heron Journal)
— Blue Heron Journal
“…I mention all this to create a context within which Edward Hess completes a brilliant analysis of what he characterizes as "Hyper-Learning." That is, the "human capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn continually in order to adapt to the speed of change." He invested seventeen years in wide and deep research -- 500 articles and 180 books -- as well as his own wide and deep experience in the areas of organizational and individual performance and leadership. In this context, here are two observations that are compellingly relevant: Charles Darwin in 1859: "It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself." Alvin Toffler in 1984: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." I agree with Hess that the need to adapt by learning, unlearning, and relearning is far greater now than at any prior time that I can recall. … ” Read Robert’s full review.
— Robert Morris, Amazon Hall of Fame reviewer
Ed’s Posts about Hyper-Learning Concepts
Available at the following stores:
