Addition through subtraction
Happy Wednesday!
Bruce Lee, in one of his Kung Fu shows, said something along the lines of you must empty your cup if you are to drink from mine about teaching a student Kung Fu. I’m told that was his take on a Zen parable. It’s a cool story but mechanistically it’s wrong for adult learners, we can’t readily prune synaptic connections at the drop of a hat. Adult learning is about weakening and strengthening connections. Neurogenesis or synaptic pruning don’t come into the equation in part due to the speed of the work. So, how do you subtract an obsolete mental model? You have to take advantage of the existing frameworks. This article advances the Bonchek’s Unlearning Cycle: Recognize the current frame; reframe a new mental model that fits the new context; then reflect. Easier said than done. Our job as learning professionals is to provide the best context and environment for learners to approach their new context with the right mindset.
World Learning Content Cleanup Day (#WLLCD) is apparently March 21st. This podcast makes a lot of points as to why this is important and I agree with all of them. For writers and designers we’re very familiar with the concept of “killing your darlings.” But frequently in L&D you’re also killing someone else’s darling so you have to navigate the conversation very carefully. SME’s & stakeholders will come out of the wood work saying, wait, no! That’s load bearing training! Even for ancient training that hardly sees any usage. For me, if a training is not part of any particular program, that’s a great signal that it likely won’t be missed.
For my entire professional career and my entire childhood the drum beat has been technological modernization. I attribute some of my early career success to that trend. I could build a website out of highschool and that put me in a category of technical capability above some of my peers who graduated just a few years ahead of me which was a huge advantage in my career. For most people, young and old, our laptops, cell phones etc… are a huge drain on our cognitive resources in the workplace. So, get rid of them. In classrooms we tell people, laptops down but what about elearning? Ask them to walk away, write something down or whiteboard something out. Sure, some people click past it but you’d be surprised how many people welcome taking a step away from their perpetual distraction devices.
My friend Debbie forwarded this one. As a parent, I’ve been trying to figure things out as I go just like everyone else. I love that this guy has thought through the practicality of how you work with your kid on long division at the kitchen table while also teaching your kids to partner with machines that are intelligent to vibe code a video game. The point that he repeats throughout is one of constructivism. Scaffold. Make sure your kids learn the basics first on any topic and then encourage them to think first and then prompt. It’s important that kids (and people) are able to form ideas in their head and then use AI as a partner to improve them so they don’t fall prey to unwarranted cognitive offloading.
Affiliate Link: Getting to Yes
When we’re working with SMEs they often don’t see your project as their first, second, tenth or often thirtieth priority. This book helped me as an instructional designer to reframe my requests on people’s time for what might build mutual advantage and value not just for SMEs but for leaders who own my budget, critical stakeholders and even getting access to be able to do analysis on my audience. This book teaches a must have skill for learning professionals everywhere.
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