When you really want people to learn, the secret is simple:
engage their emotions. Connect to a person’s emotion through knowing what turns
them on and they will have a far deeper and more meaningful learning
experience.
Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a neuro-scientist, claims in
a recent New York Times article that “it
is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you
don’t care about.”
The opposite then would be true as well…that “deep
understanding depends on making emotional connections between concepts.” Her
view has been proven not only anecdotally but also by using a functional M.R.I.
scanner that shows heightened brain function when a learner is emotionally
engaged. “When students are emotionally engaged,” she said, “we see activations
all around the cortex, in regions involved in cognition, memory and
meaning-making, and even all the way down into the brain stem.”
It makes sense. Think back to your school days. How much fun
(yes, fun) it was to learn from a lively, enthusiastic teacher or coach in a
subject or sport you loved! And then think about how much more you remember of
that experience. For me, much of chemistry has long been forgotten but reading
and writing have been passions that have continued into my adult life.
For those of us in the workplace who focus on ensuring that
there is transfer of training from a training workshop to the job, this
research has important implications. It shows that if we can connect what we
are trying to teach (knowledge, skills and behavior) to something that has
relevance to an employee’s real world situation, deep learning can occur. That
is what we must be able to demonstrate…true, personal value for each individual
employee in a way that aligns with the needs of the business.
Once you have clearly identified the critical few behaviors
you want to change and the desired performance improvement related to those
behaviors, you need to clearly articulate how learning those behaviors will
improve life on the job at the individual, team and company levels. Employees
need to be convinced that there will be real and meaningful personal and
professional benefits to the new behaviors.
For significant learning to take place, employees need to
enthusiastically agree that it makes sense for them to make the effort to learn
and change behavior. Once the learning is understood to be personally relevant,
you can look toward real change…mastery and learning that lasts.
