The Accommodator Style

People with an accommodative learning style are called Accommodators.  They are best at using the Active Experimentation and the Concrete Experience steps in the learning process.

General Characteristics of Accommodators 

• They excel in situations where they must adapt to circumstances.
• They have the ability to learn primarily from hands-on experience.
• They enjoy carrying out plans and involving themselves in new and challenging experiences.
• They may have the tendency to act on intuition, trial-and-error, and “gut feel” rather than careful analysis; they tend to be more risk-takers.
• They rely heavily on other people for information rather than their own analytical ability.
• When a thoughtful approach does not seem to be working out, they are quick to discard it and improvise.
• They may have the tendency to concentrate on the urgent aspects of a situation, favouring immediate utility over long-term understanding.
• They are at ease with people, but are sometimes seen as impatient and “pushy”.

Accommodators learn best from: 

• New experiences, problems, and opportunities. 
•  Being engrossed in short “here and now” activities such as business games, team tasks, and role plays.
•  Excitement, drama, crisis, unpredictability, and a range of diverse activities to tackle.
• The opportunity to “shine”, when given high visibility.
• Being allowed to generate ideas without constraints of rules, policies, and structure.
• They are thrown into a task that they think is difficult and highly challenging.
• They are involved with other people, brainstorming, problem-solving, and so on, as part of a team.

Accommodators are motivated by:

• Action-oriented or experiential learning.
• Group work.
• Field experiences.
• Interviews.
• Role plays, simulations, case studies, and games.
• Debates.
• Observation and demonstration.

Accommodators learn least from, and may react against activities where:

• Learning involves a passive role like reading, watching, and listening to lectures.
• They are required to stand back and not be involved.
• They are required to assimilate, analyze, and interpret a large amount of data.
• They are required to engage in solitary work.
• They are asked to assess beforehand what they will learn, and afterwards appraise what they have learned.
• They are presented with “theoretical” explanations for cause or justification.
• They are asked to repeat essentially the same activity over and over again.
• They must follow instructions precisely, without room for creativity.
• They are required to attend to detail (dotting “i”s and crossing “t”s).