ITOL

• What are the common elements in learning you have met all over the world and how do you use these elements when building the training programmes? (eg learning attitude, ability to learn or change, …)

A.K: Learning in a business context means nothing unless it results in a change in behavior, which leads to an improvement in business performance. The way adults learn is dramatically different from the way children learn. Adult learners are required to be ‘intelligent’ in multiple aspects of their interaction with the environment (their behavioral skills, the understanding of business, their linguistic ability etc). Therefore trainers should embrace the differences, needs and learning preferences of individuals as much as possible, and design learning interventions so that each individual can be reached in an optimal manner.

Catering for the diversity of the individuals’ needs, preferences and learning styles in a learning intervention is very difficult when you have a bigger audience. However, there are some universal adult based learning principles that enhance learning interventions. The principles that seem to work all over the world are the following:

Adults learn better when they understand the context of the subject matter or when the subject matter is explained to them within the context of their own reality. For instance, an MBA lecture is more successful when delegates can clearly see the applicability to their own working environment. Delegates want to understand the relevance for them and their organizations.

Confucius said: I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. This simple principle implies that people learn better when they experience the learning for themselves. Experiential and discovery learning methodologies, in our view, deliver a better probability of behavioral change.

It is sad that so many learning interventions take place without bringing about any behavioral change, and therefore making no significant impact on the success of the business. Behavior in the business context is largely a function of our paradigms, assumptions and instinctive responses to the business environment.

These paradigms, assumptions and instinctive responses are shaped and the brain is wired by our genetic make up and our exposure to the environment. Most business decisions are taken at an intuitive level, which is informed by paradigms that we are not necessarily aware of. Unless we assist the learners to critically analyze their paradigms and give them the opportunity to test the validity of their paradigms, no behavioral change will take place.

Eistein said: ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting  a different result is the definition of insanity’. This means that learning interventions need to help the learners to discover why doing things in a different way is necessary.

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