The Evergreen Truths of Training
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The Evergreen Truths of Training

A new year means a new set of articles predicting the future of training and development.

These articles have the usual predictions of training innovations but now have a flavoring of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to spice up building and delivering training programs and courses. Fads constantly plague the training world. For example, remember how microlearning was the “latest and greatest” innovation in the mid-2010s? I use microlearning concepts now as part of my training toolkit instead of the entire toolkit.

Innovation should be welcome in training. However, innovations shouldn’t mean we throw out well-established concepts and practices that have served us well since people began teaching other ideas and skills. When examining the latest training innovation, consider how it fits into the five evergreen training truths. All the following are adopted from Dr. Medina’s Brain Rules :

“We don’t pay attention to boring things.” I learned early on that I could bore students just as effortlessly with microlearning as I could with a three-hour course. No amount of innovation can make up for training that doesn’t have a point and benefits the student with new knowledge and skills. Whether you use generative AI to build a training video or role-playing game mechanics to create an in-person experience, have a point and a “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) for the learner.

“You’ve got just seconds to grab someone’s attention – and then only 10 minutes to keep it.” Resetting attention is why I like Sharon Bowman’s 4Cs Map . Ten minutes (or less) of content and then an exercise – concrete experience – to practice what you learned from the content. A well-crafted and relevant story helps to keep attention and remember the lesson.

“Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.” I tried an amazingly realistic virtual reality game that simulated a haunted space station. After five minutes, I could hear my heart pounding, and I shot at everything that moved. I couldn’t wait to get out of the simulation. I’ve seen role-plays and group exercises that put undue stress on students to the point where they only learned not to do that again.

“Your brain is built to deal with stress that lasts about 30 seconds. The brain is not designed for long-term stress when you feel like you have no control.” Having students step outside their comfort zone can be good learning, but be careful about overstressing them.

“Repeat to remember.” Package the learning for maximum retention. A good story, job aid, diagram, or mnemonic are great ways to help students learn and use what they learned. The best way to help students demonstrate that they “get it” is by having them teach the new concept or skill.

“We are powerful and natural explorers.” If the innovation forces the student into a passive content receiver, I will reject it. I recently experimented with a popular application that uses AI presenters to create training videos. Fascinating technology, but the demonstration videos were a series of talking heads telling me things. Great for delivering knowledge, but how can I use the application to have the student actively experiment with their new knowledge?

I think this is why I wasn’t impressed with early microlearning attempts. The short videos only proved that you could bore me as effectively with a one-minute video as you could with an hour-long recorded webinar.

Accepting New Training Innovations

Here are some questions you can use before adopting a new training innovation:

1.?????? How will innovation work with how people’s brains function when learning something new?

2.?????? Does the training innovation answer the student’s question of “What’s in it for me (WIIFM)?”

3.?????? Does the training innovation move students out of their comfort zone while providing a safe environment?

4.?????? Does the training innovation encourage active engagement with new knowledge and skills?

5.?????? Instead of looking for a problem for the new training innovation, does the training innovation solve an existing problem or an emerging problem?

Training and development professionals should always be ready to add to their training toolkit. However, not every training innovation benefits your particular training and development situation.

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