Why Lectures Fail, and How to Fix It

"If I lectured it, you've just learned it."

That's a myth, and we all know it.

K12 Schools

Back in your K12 school days, you sat in a classroom and listened to teachers talk.

You fidgeted.

Doodled.

Zoned out.

And thought to yourself:

"I'll just read the textbook later."

College

Now you are in college.

More sophisticated. Yes.

But one thing stays the same: You are still listening to lectures.

If you...

Yawned for 3 seconds...

Zoned out for 10 seconds...

Daydreamed for 40 seconds...

Yikes--You've just missed an important piece of information that'll appear on the exam.

"Ugh! This is crazy", you thought to yourself. "There HAS TO be a better way to learn than listening to someone talk!"

Professional

Fast forward to today, you are now a professional.

Your boss asks:

"We've got 3 new hires today. Can you train them?"

"Yep!" you replied, and went on to...

Book a conference room...

Prepare PowerPoint...

Then......

......

......

You "lectured".

Yikes.

And you see the same look of confusion you used to have... on your trainees' faces.

You Cannot Avoid Lecture

And that's the cold, hard truth.

Therefore, I’m not against lecture.

Instead, I think we can apply some "Best Practices" to make lectures more effective.

Best Practices for Lecture: 3 Tips

Tip 1: Chunk your lecture into approx. 5-minute bits.

Tip 2: Interject activities (e.g., simulations, skits, discussions, etc.) between each bit to give the learners some active mental exercises.

Tip 3: While lecturing, don’t just cover talking points. Add "thinking points" in there as well to keep the listeners' mind active and curious.

These tips are not all that you can do, but they are good starting points.

WHY Do People Lecture?

Here, we'll look at the underlying causes behind lectures. There are many, so I’ll just list 3 common ones.

#1 Cause: Convenience

We love convenience. I mean, just look at how Amazon and Redbox dominate the marketplace.

Lecture is convenient and requires less prep work—especially for those who are already comfortable with public speaking. 

#2 Cause: Some Confuse "Training" with "Branding"

This is a very common mistake in organizations.

They have accidentally blurred the line between “training” and “branding”.

First, a disclaimer: I want to acknowledge the fact that training and branding work well together in synergy.

For example, it’s often good to insert a small branding element into training to get the trainees excited about the organization.

However, when we confuse the two, that's when we we start making a big mistake.

Branding's Aim: Positive Feeling

Branding's #1 aim is to inspire a "positive feeling".

For example, a good branding piece may be a video short of the CEO talking about the company's contribution to local communities. This makes the viewers feel "inspired" and "glad to be there".

The viewers may forget a lot of the details, but that's OK… because for a branding piece, it has achieved it's primary aim of "inspiring positive feelings".

Training's Aim: Learning

However, if you apply the exact same branding design criteria to training, you will likely end up with an ineffective training. This is because training's #1 aim is to create learning.

Key Symptom of Training-vs-Branding Confusion

So, how do you know if a company has accidentally confused branding & training practices?

There are many tell-tale signs, one of which is when you see a recorded video lecture by a person. This branding-design method does not work well for training design.

#3 Cause: Childhood Experience in K12

Admit it:

We are all prone to teach the same way we were taught.

Because most of us grew up sitting through lectures, as much as we hate it, we have subconsciously equated lecturing with instruction.

Summary

To sum up, it’s actually OK to lecture—we just have to do it correctly. 

The following would be great starting points for improving the lectures:

1. Chunk your lecture into approx. 5-minute bits.
2. Interject activities (e.g., simulations, skits, discussions, etc.) between each bit to give the learners some active mental exercises.
3. Add "thinking points" (not just talking points) into your lectures to keep the learners actively thinking and curious. 

As you know, these 3 are just starting points, and you will likely progress well beyond them. After all, sky is the limit, and we want to...

Keep growing, keep growing, keep excelling.

See you at work!

Appendix: Scientific Data on Human Attention

If you happen to be interested in the nitty-gritties, below are some scientific findings that help grant insights on lectures:

1. A lecture that lasts more than 20 minutes is ineffective. However, considering humans’ limited cognitive load, it is still safer to make it even shorter.
2. Human average attention span is 8 seconds. (Used to be 12 seconds but has decreased in recent years. Thanks, digital mobile devices for messing with our brains.) Therefore, inserting “thinking/dialogue” points within a lecture will help maintain the audience’s focus.