The connection between learning and emotions!

How people learn

Humans are being squeezed like never before. Squeezed for our time, our money, and our attention. It’s no wonder people are overloaded, overwhelmed and burnt out.

Yet the battle to learn more, do more and be more rages on unabated.

When working with clients to develop a learning experience, one of the first questions often asked is ‘how do we embed and sustain the learning post programme?’

They suggest resources, video content, learning surveys, follow up webinars and digital collateral. Finding what will make people truly want to engage with learning has begun to feel like a quest for the Holy Grail: we believe it exists, but where do we find it?

How can you ensure that people revisit, recall, and ultimately put into practice the skills, knowledge, and capability that an organisation has just invested a substanial amount in providing them?

It’s a question many L&D professionals ask when designing learning experiences. Whilst on the face of things, education and learning seem to be two sides of the same coin - educate people and they learn useful stuff - the latest research suggests that ‘education’ is quite separate from ‘learning’... wait, what?!

What if everything you knew about learning is wrong?

Learning and Performance Innovation specialist, Nick Shackleton-Jones, boldly states at the outset of his book ‘How People Learn’ that “everything you know about learning is wrong.” Bold words Nick. I’ll confess I was intrigued. Put simply, ‘education’ is about knowledge transfer - cramming as much information on a given topic into a person’s head (hello rote learning), hoping that some of it will be retained and put to good use. ‘Learning’ on the other hand, is about what sticks.

The roots of rote learning hark back to 1885. German psychologist, Herman Ebbinghaus, had identified the ‘forgetting curve’. The theory that information slips from a person’s memory unless conscious action is taken to retain it (a precursor to the old ‘use it or lose it’ adage).

His experiments sought to remove emotion from learning by exhaustive repetition of non-related data points and facts with the aim of increasing retention. Welcome to some modern education. Although, we can’t blame Ebbinghaus alone for seeking to surgically remove emotion from learning. As far back as Plato, educators sought to separate reason from emotion in the pursuit of knowledge.

Learning is everywhere - so what makes things stick?

According to the research by Shackleton-Jones, humans recall not so much facts and figures, but our reaction (emotional response) to things. Our capacity to have a reaction will be determined by how connected we feel to the topic (and teacher) at the time of discovery. These days ‘teacher’ might be a teacher, coach, manager, peer, parent, facilitator, mentor, author, podcaster or even a Youtuber - the list is endless. There is learning to be had everywhere.

Think back to those teachers or lecturers who made the biggest impact on you. They are the ones with whom you had a strong emotional connection. It doesn’t matter whether that connection was good or bad - the fact that there was a strong emotional reaction to the person, and the relationship you had with the person, means that (often) decades later, you remember and recall your interactions with that teacher.

Think about emotions when designing your learning experiences

The latest research backs up what many of our best childhood teachers instinctively knew. Create meaning, lean into tensions, encourage enthusiasm, make it real. All these elements are fertile ground for learning and embedding and sustaining that learning.  

Linking an emotionally driven (be it laughter, tension, inspiration, competition, compassion) event to skill and capability requirements, helps people form their own personal connection and meaning. Think of the stories people share as they recall the experiences of the day. This in turn provides a far greater innate motivation and drive to engage with further ‘education’ on topics related to memorable event.

There is a challenge here

Evaluating learning can be challenging. We need to deliver to multiple stakeholders, individuals, teams, leaders, and the organisational outcomes. When designing learning experiences, we can no longer pretend that emotions are irrelevant in the upskilling and development of our people. We must move on from outdated ideas that mandate force-feeding humans bulk information and expecting them to naturally absorb and retain what is necessary and worthwhile.  

A final word from a most ‘learned’ woman, Maya Angelou:

“People will forget what you said, and what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”