(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
