Thread by @D_Brat

Episode 2 of #WhatIf (Podcast - anchor.fm/debu-mishra/ep…)
#learning
Transcript:

What If we needed to abandon Learning & Development as we know it today?

I am suggesting we rename Learning & Development as Try, Refine, Learn. But the forces are stacked against it.

Who will object?
The global corporate learning market is estimated to be $ 18.5 billion in a couple of years. How good is it? Well, given the size of the market it is pretty good for the product and service providers. But for the learner it is the exact opposite.

Whereas the objective of learning is to ‘create new knowledge’ almost all corporate learning providers are designed to package ‘existing or old knowledge’ and share it with learners. I would rather say ‘Forced Learners’. Content packaged as ‘knowledge’ and delivered to employees.

I looked up the definition of ‘knowledge’. Here it is – “facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.” Not surprising that ‘knowledge’ and ‘learning’ are interrelated...

...and have one thing in common – the past or what already exists.
‘Skills’ on the other hand is about ‘doing’. In the future or now. All the knowledge of the past is irrelevant in the blink of any eye. Look at COVID and you will get what I am saying.

In my view, the real definition of learning is captured in the acronym –TRL. Testing, Refining, Learning. That creates new knowledge. Knowledge for the future. Not a drag from the past.

Here is my favourite example. Over the years in my work as a talent management consultant...

...I have never had a meaningful response to a question I ask every client – “What do you call your campus recruits? Why do you call them ‘trainees’? Management Trainees or Graduate Engineer Trainees how does it make sense?”
The response is without fail either ...

“Because we train them.” or “They are on probation for a particular period….” and so on.

I fail to understand this logic. I am a big fan of Steve Jobs views on this piece wherein he once said “It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; ...

...we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” He was talking about Apple.
My biggest complaint is related to Standard Operating Procedures. Standard Operating Procedures, should only be deployed in technical manuals of critical equipment and machineries.

When it comes to what people should do? Standard Operating Procedures is like saying “Thou shall do work in this manner and this manner alone. Don’t try to be smart and create your own method.”
Why? Because we don’t trust you to be smart? Isn’t that the case?

What If we adopted ‘Do & Learn’ principle here &said instead – “Take a look at this procedure. Do you think you could do this better? Take your time but do see if this can be improved. We would love your views.”
You have put the person in their very own zone of creative tension.

You have given them a playdough to shape something better. That is learning and motivation rolled into one. The procedure is still there but now you have converted it into a learning challenge.
I used to use this as an exercise while recruiting new people into my team when ...

...I was heading a business in Middle East. It was a new setup and it was a small team. New joinees would typically ask “So, what kind of HR policies do you have?” And I would tell them that “We don’t have any HR policies. What policies would you like to have? ...

...But I will evaluate you against you expectations.” That would typically make them backoff but some came up with great ideas. Over time I have always found implementing ideas from the users themselves is probably the smartest thing you can do & it really works brilliantly.

I have worked as an Innovation Consultant as well & saw the relevance of machinelearning & automation when you want people to follow rules. You don’t need humans in such scenarios. A simple app ‘If This Then That’ can replace most employees if rules are needed to be followed.

I have also seen startups up close. If someone asked – “What makes startups successful?” I would say “The very absence of legacy knowledge or experience makes startups disruptive forces for large traditional players. And they are focused on learning with an eye on the future.”

I say this because startups are very good at TRL – They Try, they Refine and they Learn. They are way faster than large corporates with Corporate Training functions that have invested millions of dollars into ‘knowledge on the cloud’ or ‘a virtual campus’.

Instead Stratups run hacks. They are great at hacking away at things and learning from it.
Sadly, most of the new-age learning technology startups don’t seem to imbibe this very insight into their own offerings in learning & development tech.

They are simply the digital version of – old knowledge served to new employees. The features are identical to the 70s/80s era simply now it is digital.
Indexing of content, Size of content Library, Availability of content, Subject Matter Experts. These are the cutting edge ...

...features. Still. Sorry. I forgot ‘the cloud’. That’s the new cool feature. We went from physical libraries to storing them on computers. Now we have taken a leap from a device to storing it on the cloud. Awesome progress. Sorry to sound cynical.

What is the future then?

Let me take some insights from neuroscience &take a shot.
Dopamine - The fundamental reward system of humans. Our brain discovered the basic mechanism of learning from reward long ago. So any system that doesn’t trigger dopamine release has little chance to deliver true learning.

Quick recap of how dopamine works - Our brain is designed to constantly set expectations and evaluate reality. Dopamine is the reward for how reality turns out against that expectation. If things turned out better than expected the reward is an extra release of dopamine.

If the reality is worse than expectation then there’s a reduced release of dopamine.

If we were to scale up learning as it should be, we need to master dopamine activation. That begs the question - what triggers dopamine?

1 - Novelty or challenge which has a risk of failure. That is at the heart of dopamine activation. Neither too easy nor impossible. There is no dopamine release without action. You have to ‘play’. Not observe.
2 - The human brain assigns higher value to rewards ...

...right in front us than those we merely imagine in the future. Thus dopamine release requires immediate feedback or rewards. A bottle of cola which is cold, sweet & quenches my thirst is always valued more than the future health benefits by avoiding it. The trade-off is simple.

3 - It requires a finite time within which the challenge needs to be attempted and reward earned. This increases perception of risk and enhances reward.

Think about it. All these are elements that are basic elements of game design.

And we all know how engaging and addictive well designed games can be. Confession - I play 8 Ball Pool on my mobile and can’t shake off the urge to play even after 4-5 months that I have been playing it. You will also find these elements in #hackathons .

The future of learning needs a fundamental rethink and hackathons are the future. Just say no to expensive learning platforms. Rebadge your Learning Function as the Hackathon Function and see the magic happen.
If you want to tell me that learning curriculum, content, ...

...structure, tools, etc. are important and cannot be ignored? I have only one thing to say to you – use that framework to teach machines. Not people.

Do share your reactions, feedback or ideas. This is my attempt at learning and my dopamine is slave to that feedback 😉