Learning agility requires proper action identification

As stated in the focal article, learning agility refers to ‘‘the ability to come up to speed quickly in one’s understanding of a situation, and move across ideas flexibly in service of learning both within and across experiences’’ (DeRue, Ashford, & Myers, 2012). A critical element of learning agility, then, is making connections between experiences, especially experiences that occur in seemingly distinct and unrelated situations. DeRue et al. highlight three cognitive processes as being important for making such connections: cognitive simulations, counterfactual thinking, and pattern recognition. Together, these three processes capture, respectively, individuals’ abilities to imagine possible future situations, consider how past situations may have differed, and to ‘‘connect the dots’’ between past and future situations.