Get Smart

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(Adapted from Interaction Training blog post.)
The more we learn the more we will earn (most likely).  Learning gives us new skills that we can use to earn more, or be more effective in our other endeavors.  But we won’t truly learn unless we are first interested, engaged and see some value in what is being taught.
We forget most of what we hear.  Or perhaps we don’t really hear it in the first place.  We seldom remember the exchange of everyday conversation because our brain is chock-full of stuff already.  Conversations are all around us.  Stories are being shown on televisions and computers on walls of stores, coffee shops and restaurants.  People are engaging in conversation while walking by us or sitting next to us.  There are a whole lot of words being put in the air all day, every day. 
If the exchange is meaningful or helpful to you then there is a better than average chance you can recall it.  Engagement, getting involved in the conversation, creates a very distinct file in the brain.
When we only read, look, or listen, that information is instantly processed and filed away in our brain under the junk file marked MISC. It is very hard to recover information in this file of the brain because it is overloaded and info is tossed in there in no particular order. Like taking your trash and junk to the landfill. If you cleaned out that file, you could sort it into four piles: Don’t care, Don’t Understand, Won’t Ever Use, or I Need This. The last pile will be the smallest.
In training, the amount of information that needs to be transferred to learning is staggering if you look at the whole picture. The trainer must breakdown the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes into training modules that call for engagement, relatable stories, and discussion.

So when you look for opportunities to enlarge your base of knowledge make sure the info is taught in a way that is engaging to you.  Otherwise you will waste your time and money in a course that slips out of your brain just about as fast as you heard it. 

The instructors at Brooke Transportation Training are amazingly engaging.  I’ve heard their spiels for years and I still find them interesting, informative and entertaining.  Join us at a class near you.

Moving forward,

Jeff Roach

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