In the ever-changing world of modern business, one constant is the need to learn. With the rapid pace of change and the unpredictability of technologies and markets, there is no way to teach all that is necessary prior to entering the workforce. And continued learning once on the job, is a must. Being able to facilitate rapid learning at significant scale has become a central pillar of the new workplace.
In 2010, Davachi et al. outlined four principles from the neuroscience of learning about how to make ideas stick: Attention, Generation, Emotion, and Spacing, which we called the ‘AGES’ model. Since then, a large body of learning and development practitioners around the globe have learned these basic principles as a foundation for understanding, improving, and reinventing approaches to developing and delivering learning. More recent studies are suggesting new ways to hone the AGES model. We report on the ways that these lessons from neuroscience can add to our toolkits for making learning stick. We suggest that if these principles are addressed, regardless of the other factors in a learning experience, that experience can be one that leads well to lasting learning.
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When the leaders of a major retail pharmacy chain set out to enhance customer satisfaction, market research told them that the number one determinant would be friendly and courteous service. This meant changing the organizational culture in hundreds of locations—creating an open, welcoming atmosphere where regular customers and employees knew one another’s names, and any question was quickly and cheerfully answered.
The trend is clear. Increasingly more learning programs are occurring in small chunks. Technological delivery improvements and more challenging schedules seem to make the move inevitable as online learning lends itself to brief, modular, learning. On the scheduling side, with a combination of travel, remote work, and general overwhelm, getting buy-in for dedicated, intensive programs is hard. For better or worse, learning budgets reflect this understanding, and we all know that trends follow the money.
ASTD’s 2013 State of the Industry report shows that 39 percent of formal training is occurring via technology, with signs pointing toward an upward trend. And there seems to be little institutional support for holding onto old ways of conducting learning.
A 2008 CEB report reveals that 56 percent of managers believed they would see better performance, or at least no worse, if learning and development were to go away. The good news is a trend toward smaller, modular chunks can have benefits for making learning last. Two lessons from neuroscience suggest how to chunk learning most effectively: working with attention, and addressing the time between sessions and building across them.
The way we manage performance in organizations needs a dramatic overhaul. According to data gathered by leading Human Capital research organizations, only 8 percent of HR executives thought performance management made a significant contribution to performance (Institute for Corporate Productivity). Fourteen percent thought that “no changes were needed” to performance systems (Corporate Executive Board). And 23 percent thought that performance systems reflected employee contributions (Conference Board). An average of these comes to 16.2 percent. In other words, around 86 percent of companies are not that happy with performance management as it stands. Read more…
I was baffled. It was years ago, during my first semester as a physics and math teacher at a last chance Brooklyn public high school. I could be as clear as day about my intentions, what I wanted from the kids, my reasons, and the consequences for non-compliance, and yet the kids did whatever they wanted. But after a while, they started to fall in line.