ATD ICE 2016 Session Recaps – Day 4

Today I’m only attending two sessions, so it shouldn’t be too overwhelming a post to read. Albeit, it should be informative.

Session 1

For session 1, I’m attending Discover 7 Techniques to Enhance Learner Motivation (and 5 ways to avoid squelching motivation), and it started with a giveaway worth $20,000 of services, so not a terrible way to begin the morning. There are also clickers, so I think they’re overestimating everyone’s alertness at 8am…but we’ll see.

There’s a lot going on in this session – Becky is a fantastic presenter; she’s loud and engaging, and no-nonsense (it seems). Curiosity is motivation to acquire new knowledge; we want the brain to be prepared for long-term memory. People are better at learning things they’re interested in (or are curious about). Curiosity and extrinsic reward motivation create more effective learning experiences.

Curiosity has a significant influence on academic performance. – Becky Pike Pluth

Next up, Becky had us play a very loud quizzing game about curiosity, which was great, but I really hope no one was attending with a hangover haha. At the end of the game, we received a 60-day trial of  the same game developed by the Bob Pike Group.

How do you engineer curiosity? Becky provided a very handy workbook that has a ton of creative training techniques to enhance learner motivation. I wasn’t lucky enough to win any of the giveaways, but I’m alright with that!

Session 2

The second session I chose to attend was The Neuroscience of Change, with Britt Andreatta – Director of Learning and Development at Lynda.com – this one was a full house!

Change at work – Change is fast-paced, constant, and coming from all different places, all of the time. Your role/team/job/personnel/technology/processes may change – change is always happening!

Not all change is created equal, but the distinction is:

• How long does it take to acclimate?
• How much disruption is there?

Change is hard to measure because it’s personal for each of us. If we chose the change, it’s a lot different than having someone else dictate the change. There is a change curve, where there’s the current state, and current level of productivity of moral. When a change is announced, the change curve begins, and the change curve indicates how easily we can adapt to the change. What happens on the road to accepting, embracing, and supporting the change.

Change can be overwhelming, because change is happening all of the time, and individuals may have just accepted a 1 change, when they become presented with another change.

When we learn something new, an MRI can pick this up. The Basal Ganglia is responsible for habit formation. It takes 20 repetitions for a neural pathway to become created, and 40 repetitions is when the basal ganglia lets us take less energy to do the task. So if we’re doing something daily, the change will occur faster than if it’s something we only do occasionally.

We have a portion of our brain that focuses on failure: the habenula – this portion of our brain helps us make better decisions. It guides decision-making and action by restricting serotonin and dopamine. With this restriction, we feel bad for a period of time, which will prompt us to make a better decision at a later time, and when that happens, we will receive an increase in serotonin and dopamine/happy feelings.

When it comes to change, we should:

1. Help our leaders implement change easier, and help them understand that the emotional response to the change is not personal.
2. Be transparent about the change, and give people a heads up that the change is coming.
3. Problem solve instead of set goals – If we embrace change as a series of phases of problem solving, it turns on the rewards section of the brain.
4. Measure change fatigue – make it someone’s job to look at data points (e.g. marketing has had 3 changes so far this year, maybe we should roll out the next change to that department last instead of first).
5. Enhance adaptability – start with why, share the roadmap, create safety, have patience, celebrate milestones, encourage self-care, maximize mindful, and leverage learning.

Mindfulness allows your brain to reduce stress and change the structure of your brain. People who meditate for 10 minutes a day are less reactive to stress, and compassion also increases.

There is nothing that is happening in change that learning is not going to support. We can learn mindfulness, we can learn how to problem-solve, we can learn how to improve our emotional intelligence. This is a great way to end my experience at ATD 2016 – keep learning!