Challenges for designing and delivering learning

- We all have them, those common challenges that we fear of bored learners, too much information, or a really dry topic that even you can't get excited about. What are your current challenges with designing and delivering your training? I'm going to give you a minute to brainstorm this on your own. Pause the video and write a list or maybe mind map all those things about training that keep you awake at night. Here's an example of what can happen in your learner's brain to create some of those challenges. Often understanding a mechanism helps us to discover solutions. Imagine you're in a warm room 20 minutes after lunch should've started and I'm the world's expert on neuroscience. I know all the deepest detail. I've been talking to you for at least two hours and I've got a monotonous voice. First of all, your brainstem's reaction to the situation. What does your brainstem do for you? It keeps you alive, regulates sleeping, monitors respiration, heart rate, thirst, hunger. It's primitive and basic. It's saying. - Hungry, hungry. - What about your limbic system in the middle of your brain, where your hippocampus subconsciously processes memories? It remembers that last training course where there was. - Chocolate. - But memories and emotions are linked and emotions are processed largely by your amygdala, which is also part of your limbic system, and it's very spontaneous. It's feeling happy. - I love chocolate. - But what about your higher level conscious thinking brain, your cortex? You probably know it's split into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere processes details and is quite likely to be working well with my complex descriptions and analysis in neuroscience. - Yes, neuroscience is very logical. - However, your right hemisphere prefers the big picture and the gist of an idea, and it's struggling with processing all this data. It can also be imaginative and has been noticed to be a bit pessimistic, constructing big ideas out of scraps of information. It's heard the messages from the rest of the brain, and it says. - Oh, chocolate gives me acne. - So right now, how much of your brain is paying attention to me, the world's expert on neuroscience? You're right, very little of it, because each part isn't getting what's important to it, and it's distracted. And this just got more complicated because your left and right cortex are connected and continually communicate through a big bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum. Your left and right hemisphere both know what's happening on the other side, so most of the noise in your brain now is all about chocolate. The left side hears this message, and it, too, knows an interesting fact about chocolate. - Chocolate contains serotinin, which helps you to persist. - Now let's hear how much of your brain is focusing on the neuroscience? - Chocolate is great. - I love chocolate. - Hungry. - Helps you persist. - I love chocolate. - What about a hangover? - I love chocolate. - The serotonin really helps you persist. - I love chocolate. - Shhh. Pretty much all of it is interested in the chocolate and not my fascinating talk about neuroplasticity. What does this mean for you and L&D? Reflect on the challenges you listed at the beginning of this video. How many might be caused by somebody's whole brain not being involved constructively in the process? Perhaps the environment, physically or psychologically, is distracting them. Perhaps they aren't emotionally engaged. They're bored, while their emotions are taking them elsewhere. It could be they can't make memory links between what they know and what they're learning. Or perhaps there's too much detail and not enough context, big picture, or signposting. Take a few minutes now to reflect on the PDF exercise, with some prompts for your thinking, and some ideas from me. Remember, brains are designed for learning, and your job is to design learning that works with them and not against them. And always thank your brain for working hard. Thanks, brain.