The Lightbulb Fallacy

Systemic shocks like COVID-19 give us the opportunity to question assumptions even about training. The nature of work and education are currently being challenged and I'd like to add to the discourse by drawing attention to what I call "The Lightbulb Fallacy".

Training professionals have heard it for years. It's become a canned answer for almost every interview. When asked why a trainer loves training, the answer we get back is some variation of "I love seeing 'the lightbulb' come on when they finally get what I'm saying!"

The problem I have with this notion is that it's not real. It has become a fallacy that plagues adult training and even education. Here's what I've observed:

1. Adult training participants are veterans of contemporary education. While GenX learned to "cooperate to graduate", GenY/Millennials and the Zoomers have grown up with "No Child Left Behind". Our model of social progression in school has been with Americans for at least 4 generations, probably longer. We've taught kids first and foremost how to survive in a system. Learning is indeed a great byproduct of our education system, but it has arguably always been a byproduct of that system.
2. "Instructor Observation" is lazy evaluation. When we discovered that test writing was a complicated discipline and individual presentations took up much of our limited time, we punted and started writing down "Instructor Observation" in place of real evaluation. With no test, no project, no presentation, and no demonstration, the only thing left was the trainer's searching gaze. We desperately sought the non-verbals that would give us our Level 2 data and the primordial brains in front of us learned that all they needed to do to redirect our predatory stare was to offer an open posture, an open-mouthed smile, and an arch of the brows.
3. The rush from "the lightbulb" moment clouds all we do. The non-verbals of "the lightbulb" rewards trainers in the most basic biological ways. That's why we use emotional words to describe it - it's a psychoneuroendocrinological event (yes that's a real word) that prompts us to keep chasing a high instead of doing our jobs. If you think the biological high isn't addicting, then I ask you to tell your most popular trainer that you're replacing end-of-course surveys with end-of-course exams. Their reaction should tell you all you need to know about who "the lightbulb" moment is really for.
4. Which leads to misconceptions about learning. If 2020 has challenged nothing else, it has challenged the notion that work, education, and learning need to happen at a place or a set time. While we were supposed to have learned that fact with the emergence of the knowledge economy, we didn't. We simply replaced machinery with cubicles and even laptops that are literally chained to desks. But we shouldn't beat ourselves up too much - #3 above reminds us that we haven't evolved that much. COVID-19 can help us welcome in the post-post-industrial age of learning and wean many trainers and teachers off of the dangerous high that comes from seeking "the lightbulb".
5. Training is not fun. Yes, yes... I get it. Training can have fun elements, it should be engaging, and can even tug on your heart strings (again, see #3 above), but let's get real. Unless you've artfully woven affective objectives into your dynamic curriculum, then the business goal of training is simply to address a performance gap by improving KSAO's; which is about as fun as it sounds. Feeling great about a person's apparent learning is not why the instructor is on stage and having fun is not why the trainee is here on overhead - they're both here to reach objectives. If you doubt this point, then please go ask a veteran how "fun" basic training was.

Chasing "the lightbulb" has reinforced some structural problems that got built into our society long before we got here. With the shock of COVID-19, I hope we can use this as an opportunity to question a few of our old assumptions and realize that learning is less about seeing "the lightbulb" and more about reaching training objectives.