Flirting
The last couple of nights I've been reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath - what an interesting, well-crafted book. It weaves profound insights around fascinating stories to produce real understanding. Hard to beat that. I found one of the thoughts particularly interesting and relevant to what our company does:
"There is value in sequencing information - not dumping a stack of information on someone at once but dropping a clue, then another clue, then another. This method of communication resembles flirting more than lecturing."
Our company is in the training business - we produce and sell self-study, interactive training programs. Over the last few years we've been using what we call the Discovery Method. Instead of the traditional adult learning approach (tell 'em what you're going to tell them; tell 'em; and tell 'em what you told 'em) we've observed that people are more engaged, they have more fun and they learn more if we let them figure it out for themselves. Or, as the Heath brothers suggested - dropping a clue, then another clue, etc.
People have a lot of choices today - one of their choices is whether they're going to learn what you want them to learn. A lot of times the old ways of teaching are pretty much worthless - the old ways don't lead to much learning. Time to change.
More posts on: Made to Stick, Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Learning Theory
