Are You Helping or Hindering Your Employees’ Brains When it Comes to their Performance?

Originally Published on April 8, 2016

A learning professional’s job is to help improve the odds of employees acquiring and retaining the information they need to perform their jobs. Sometimes, however, I feel like I’m watching folks blindly chasing shiny objects, not realizing there’s a wall in front of them. (Although, the image of them hitting the wall and then hitting the floor does make me giggle a bit!)

I firmly believe that you need to learn to walk before you can run. Yet I still meet “learning professionals” who just don’t get it. So, instead of discussing the latest unsubstantiated instructional fad (shiny object), I will attempt to take us back to our roots.

Cognitive theories and concepts abound. However, the one that every learning professional should have a firm grip on is how the brain processes information. Specifically, it determines which information to dump and which to pass on to our long-term memory. (That’s assuming, of course, there’s an actual need for your employees to memorize the information. Hmmmmmm.) Let’s get started.

How the Brain Processes Information

As you may know, we’re constantly taking in information from our environment through our senses. However, you may not know that our brain receives tens of thousands of bits of stimuli (information) every second that must be processed and assessed.

Since we can’t give our full attention to all of those thousands of inputs all of the time, our brain uses the sensory register to help screen all that data based on what’s important to us at any given moment. In just a few milliseconds, the sensory register can determine the level of importance of each individual sensory input. Most of the information is unimportant, so it’s immediately dumped. For information to make it through this first “gatekeeper,” it has to have some importance. If deemed noteworthy, the sensory registry will pass the information to our short-term memory (The bane of our existence!).

It’s here that our short-term memory will perform two key functions. First, it analyzes the information deeper while comparing it to any relevant past experiences/memories we may have. At this level, information regarding safety/survival and our emotional state is given the most attention and in that order.

If our brain receives information about these specific areas at any time, most, if not all, brain processing will be devoted to those thoughts so we can take appropriate action if necessary. If all is well, it’s then and only then that any information regarding learning will be processed. It’s important to note that higher-priority inputs (safety/emotion) will interrupt the processing of lower-level inputs (learning). For example, if a fire breaks out or something triggers a negative emotion in the employee, the brain will shift its processing to those new inputs, and learning will shut down.

The second function of our short-term memory is where we can play a key role. This is where our brain determines whether or not to move the information into long-term memory so it can be recalled at a later time. It makes this decision by connecting to our past experiences and attempts to answer two key questions:

1. Does the information have meaning/relevancy? (Is the information relevant to me? Why should I remember it?)

2. Does the information make sense? (Do I understand the information based on past experiences? Does the information fit in with the world as I see it?)

These two questions are independent of each other, meaning you can have one without the other. And of these two questions, “relevancy” has more impact than “understanding.” However, if our brain decides that the information both makes sense and has meaning, there’s a stronger chance that it will be stored in our long-term memory.

That’s it in a nutshell, albeit at an ultra-high level. Helping your employees make sense of learning content to understand its relevancy to their jobs should be at the core of every business learning project. (If not, you’re wasting time and effort.) With that said, here are a few things you can do to help facilitate understanding and relevancy in your next learning project:

1. Determine if employees actually need to memorize the information versus simply knowing how to find and use the information. It’s been my observation that many organizations waste a lot of resources conducting training on information that can be, or worse, must be referred to in operating procedures, job aids, or some other type of performance support system. (Yes, Virginia, there’s “muda” in learning and development.)

2. Conduct good audience analyses to help determine your employees’ backgrounds and experiences and integrate that information before, during, and after the learning event. Remember, our brain looks for some connection to help make sense of what it’s receiving. That doesn’t mean you can’t create one.

3. Create scripts for leadership that can be used to talk to employees before the learning event starts regarding the importance of the training and how it will be used back on the job.

4. When using examples, case studies, role plays, etc., phrase them exactly how the employee would encounter them on the job. Research has shown that transfer of learning is more likely to occur when new knowledge and skills are acquired within the context of their application.

What do you do to facilitate understanding and relevancy in your learning projects? Let’s add to the list and grow our toolboxes.

Cheers!

Feed your mind.