What Can Learning Masters Learn from MasterChef Australia

MasterChef Australia (MCAu) has certainly caught the imagination around the world across age, gender or background. India might have the franchise's biggest fan base. While watching the latest episode of the series I was consumed with a learning program design for business executives. As the episode unfolded I could not help but notice that this episode (or any other) encapsulated the challenge I face in most of the analytics programs I offer! The executive program I was trying to design is no different from any of the other program any Learning Master professional sets out to design. I try to bring out the possible learning one could derive from MCAu for designing any learning program. As I set out this note, I realized that these are no different from the age-old adages, and sets a familiarity for the masters to design their program. Possibly in the context of MCAu, we could revisit them and rediscover their context in learning design.

Adage 1. A guru appears when the learner is ready!

Let me start by setting the common context here. Participants of MCAu are not necessarily masters of the art of cooking. They have had varied experience of the trade both as consumers and practice, possibly at best, as an amateur/hobbyist. They have also got some sort of a positive endorsement of this initiative. One thing that can't be doubted at all is that they are passionate about it and they would like to take it up as a profession in their life. They feel that MCAu gives them an opportunity to make it big in this profession. The belief among the learners that this program could make a significant impact in their life is a great starting point for the facilitators to work with the learners to achieve their goals. It is a good practice then to spend time and think from the learners’ perspective what is in it for them.

Learning for the Masters: Do you wait for your learner to be ready or in your learning offering, you take time to distill a few sure sellers and share them with your learners to make them ready?

Adage 2. Survival of the fittest (smartest)!

MCAu is a game and creating a tournament-like design for a learning program is an oft practiced approach to improving engagement, contributions and outcomes. But it is important to understand the way MCAu uses the tournament model to motivate and create a long-term impact for the participants. While MCAu has the grand benefit of a mega prize at the end for the winner, we do hear that the ones who get eliminated (even early on) retain their motivation and resolve to pursue the chosen line of work.

Learning for the Masters: Do you hope to kindle a similar spark in your learners to get the confidence and a passion for the subject as a minimum takeaway and set them of the smart path of being the fittest? Does your design assure every participant of some Eureka moments?

Adage 3. Love me, love my dog!

MCAu respects the participants’ status, aspirations and dreams. Like the masters, the learners bring their own set of bias and deficiency. It is imperative that these biases helped them to be who and where they are today. Being judgemental is easy but it is consistently seen missing from the MCAu sets. They appreciate the small biases, preferences and typicality that a participant brings. They help the participants find their own conviction and styles on those lines.

Learning for the Masters: Do you acknowledge your learners for their biases and stereotypes? Do you take time to understand and appreciate the current familiarity or biases that they have? Do you help the learners use it for improving their own learning and leverage the same in the session to help others learn better?

Adage 4. Well begun is half done

The MCAu kitchen is a multi-million set up to run an asset valued in Billions. It is a state-of-the-art work-space with resources, appliances, tools and implements. Besides giving the participants anything they can imagine, it also sets the mutual expectations between them and MCAu at a very different level. Not many of the facilitators can boast of such budgets but in the today's digital world, experiences can be borrowed cheap.

Learning for the Masters: When do you see that your learning process has begun? Are you fully prepped and ready to get into action well in advance? Is your repertoire of experiences, trial platforms, AV content and illustrations ready?

Adage 5. The Artist always has the masters in his eyes

The MCAu lead team take time to demonstrate their own capability and expertise. Their past reputation does get the initial respect but as the season progresses, they need to re-establish their pecking order. They do this by sharing, digging deeper and taking time to update themselves. They are always there to help and direct the participants before they get onto the altar of being the judges. They are as excited, anxious and sad with the participants. They resolve any issues or challenges that the participants face, and they also challenge the participants with their own ingenuity and experience.

Learning for the Masters: How do you think the learners see you? Going beyond your credentials, hierarchy and the sense of entitlement is the primary requirement to set a healthy learning environment and rapport with your learners. Do you review your experience as a learner after any facilitation session?

Adage 6. The master learns most intently and excitedly

MCAu has probably the resources, story and access to reach the who's who to ensure a good mix of external practicing experts. More importantly when an expert guest is in the kitchen, the MCAu hosts let their guards down and show their vulnerabilities. They let the experts take a lead and enable them to interact directly and conveniently. There have been instances in some of the episodes where the MCAu hosts have taken a backseat and allowed the expert to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. It has helped MCAu keep the idea of cooking, the skills involved and individual passion in the foreground and not personalities or egos. This also results in the participants' extreme respect and appreciation for the hosts.

Learning for the Masters: Do you show your keenness to learn or do you believe that your session is not a place for you to learn? When you have co-facilitators do you truly learn and elaborate what you learn from them?

Adage 7. If you want to be exponentially better, be cooperative

It takes two to tango. When they collaborate, they spare no efforts to bring in their best and when they compete it's a no holds barred showdown. MCAu is a copy book demonstration of coopetition. An ideal environment for learning is the natural outcome of this scenario. The opportunity and motivation to learn is multiplied exponentially as everyone brings in their most prepped and determined self to the learning platform. Even when the participants are not in an elimination round, they show extreme involvement in appreciating and contrasting the assumptions and actions chosen by the contenders. For a viewer this makes the perfect blend of emotions and excitement to follow MCAu; for the participants it makes them honest, humble and committed at all times.

Learning for the Masters: Do you take time to help the learners engage themselves mutually in a session? Do you encourage “n-to-n” connections (among all the learners) or do you always keep “1-to-n” connection (with you in the center)?

Adage 8. Feedback is the breakfast of champions

The most engaging phase of the show is the final act when the judges evaluate the performance of the participants. While there are some simple and clearly laid out rules of the game, there are multiple aspects that a participant is judged on. They do it episode after episode and season after season, but one can notice genuine excitement in the judges with the learner results. They point out the positive for everyone and take time to explain the negative. For the harshest ones that leads to the elimination of the participant from the competition, they give comparative feedback restricted just to their dish. Also after the negative, they immediately turn back to some of the most proud and golden moments for the participants. They don’t hide their emotions or their genuine fondness for the person. This approach while giving the critical dramatic play, ensures that the participants continue to work on their strengths and conviction and pursue their passion for cooking.

Learning for the Masters: Do you take time to evaluate and assess your feedback before you share it? Do you ensure that you maintain the learner’s excitement and passion to improve and excel using your feedback?

Adage 9. He who never failed never tried anything new

MCAu is built on the premise of pushing the limits. The show is designed to get everyone to push the limits of endurance, creativity, discipline, experimentation and belief. This is consistently communicated through regular acknowledgement and rewards. They even make the celebrity invitees vulnerable by introducing constraints that make them revisit their premises and comfort. Above all, they always reward the experiments that succeed disproportionately and acknowledge the courage shown by the experimenter even when they fail.

Learning for the Masters: Do you promote experimentation and reward the ones who do? Do you go beyond your vulnerabilities and allow your learners to break the conventions? Do you ensure that they understand the significance of failure on the path to success?

Adage 10. Rome wasn’t built in a day

The show takes one step at a time. They ensure that they take time to integrate the region, community and the uniqueness Australia is known for. They take time to immerse the participants into the fine art of ingredients, prep, cooking, plating and serving. Before the cook-off the participants are given time to familiarize themselves and be ready for the test. They have the background work (like detailing a recipe with clear instructions) done when they need to create time pressure. They make sure that the smart and sincere participants would get the desired results.

Learning for the Masters: Are you sincere, keep focus and encourage patience among your learners? Do you offer direction only when needed and let the learners figure the way out even it takes a bit longer?

If one takes the MCAu example, they certainly have the benefit of a second take to ensure that the final outcome is perfect. In the context of live learning instances, this luxury is not available. It therefore mandates that the master plays out as many scenarios based on the ten known learning adages above and creates a fail-proof approach to attaining the goals.

It is important for any learning master to see through the end goals of their learners. Quite often, the master needs to start with the idea of setting the mutual goals clearly in the mind of the learner. In the face-to-face learning instances, the masters also need to have the awareness, interest and capability to actively configure the learning offering as she receives the feedback and understanding of the progress that the learner is making.

Remember, MCAu is only successful because they get the best of participants, working in the best of the kitchens, with the best of masters and a huge back-end team that scripts and adaptively produces an episode that captures the imagination of the audience. A learning master might not be endowed with such resources, but the expectations of the final audience is not tempered with these limitations. It’s a call that each learning master needs to make – do I want to play “safe” by playing the limitations or take up the challenge by leveraging my available resources to make my offerings the winner?