Responsibility for learning

Who's really responsible for my learning what you're presenting?
We are. It's a two person job. Either one of us can drop the ball. I'm completely responsible for my contribution and you're 100% responsible for yours.

What if I want to blame you for not telling me what I need to know, not making it clear and not making sure I understood what you presented?
Two can play that game. If you blame me, I'll blame you for your lack of commitment to learning, involvement and follow through. You can feel sorry for yourself and I'll throw a pity party for anyone who will suck up to my side of the story. You can be my "customer from hell" and I can be your tormentor.

How can we escape that trap without becoming over-responsible and taking every obligation off the other side?
By my taking responsibility for providing useful information. That commitment restores our mutual responsibility. I cannot make information useful heroically. I need to be in the loop with the learners. I need feedback on how the information applies to lives other than my own. The situation calls for "a little help here!" from those I'm helping.

What if you're presenting information that is inherently useless, purely academic and an obvious indulgence of your inflated ego?
If you're responsible for using useful information, you'll disrupt that useless waste of your time and energy. You'll help me get back to providing information that seems useful to your frames of reference. You'll restore the context of getting information that applies, relates, serves a purpose or connects the dots.

What if I become disheartened and defeated by your omnipotent display of expertise and say nothing?
That would be a "systems crash" where the entire situation needs to be rebooted. More of the same will only make things worse. The meltdown into cynicism and despair calls for a time out to debrief what has occurred, reveal hidden assumptions, and get oriented with a new map.