I’ll start with a statement: Most people don’t know how to learn. It might sound like an odd thing to say, but most people couldn’t definitively explain how their brain best absorbs and retains knowledge. As adults in the workplace with competing priorities vying for our attention, it is critical to our careers that we understand the most expedient way to learn and upskill ourselves. I’m referring to cognitive learning: the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through understanding and problem-solving.
Unlike traditional methods of learning, cognitive learning focuses on the individual’s cognitive processes and how they learn best. In simple terms, it is learner-specific. The learner is (or is trying to be) actively aware of the ways in which they are learning. This means understanding how their own unique brain absorbs, processes, and retains information. They can then discover the best way to approach learning and to maximize their brain’s potential. We call this metacognition.
At AlignOrg, we strive to help individuals and organizations understand their unique challenges by facilitating learning across the spectrum of organizational design. This often means we have numerous stakeholders in the room, each with their own learning styles and degrees of metacognition. As with any task on company time, we must deliver ROI in the most efficient way. No one likes to feel they are wasting time on something they cannot readily apply to their own situation.
Four Methods for Cognitive Learning
How do we do this while still ensuring we reach an audience with diverse learning preferences? There are several methodologies we use to ensure impactful experiences:
Multimodal Learning
Information is presented in multiple ways – visually, audibly, tangibly (in AlignOrg’s case, through activities) – to ensure understanding.
Micro Learning
As attention spans continue to decrease, it is critical that learning is delivered in short, high-value lessons so that engagement, sense of accomplishment and ROI are quickly attained.
Spaced Learning
This methodological principle calls for the repetition of key concepts at targeted intervals to increase the movement of information from short-term to long-term memory.
Experiential Learning
Perhaps the most important and successful methodological principle for adults, experiential learning requires individuals to work together to solve a real-world problem.
AlignOrg’s skilled facilitators adapt and implement these methodologies throughout engagements so we can deliver high-impact learning experiences that participants can draw on whenever they encounter an organizational design need. These principles empower learners to take charge of their own progress and develop the confidence to be advocates of organizational design. Still, metacognition is a critical self-reflective activity that’s needed to really maximize learning potential.
Metacognition Through Self-Reflection
How do we facilitate this important step? It’s best to start with a challenge couched within knowledge the learner already has.
Ask Questions
Start by asking questions that push the learner to explain their approach and thought process. This drives them to be aware of the problem-solving techniques they use, the knowledge available to them and the consideration of deeper meanings that might be behind what they choose to do.
Present Variables
Present variables that give them the opportunity to make mistakes or require them to pivot their approach. Ask the learner to express their response in language like ”I’m doing this because…,” “This strategy will be successful because of…,” or “This doesn’t make sense to me because… .” The idea is to help the learner understand their thought process. Verbalization can help bring clarity to this.
Share Your Approach
Give the learner the opportunity to step away from the task and reflect independently on their mental process. Then, ask them to better describe it to themselves. After some self-analysis (depending on how your teams and organization operate), it can be a powerful exercise to hold a group workshop where everyone thinks aloud together to solve a problem, articulating the way in which their approach and their understanding can best address the challenge. This will not only foster better teamwork but create a deeper level of empathy and collaboration.
The way one individual’s brain works may be entirely different from the way another team member’s brain functions. And that’s great. We want to know that. But we also want to understand each other, how we come to certain conclusions, and why one person prefers one pathway over another. It’s important as leaders that we help our team to see different thought processes not as a point of contention, but as a positive and powerful tool. They allow us to be more creative, thought-provoking and critical.
The ROI of Cognitive Learning
Why is all this important? If employees are able to understand and leverage their brains to learn more efficiently, it means more than increasing the baseline ROI of a test being passed or a course completed. The longer term value of the employee also grows because they will be able to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways, grow it to improve existing skills, expand opportunities, and be more collaborative, innovative and insightful. They won’t be hampered by the lie that we can’t learn things as we grow older. Rather, they’ll be empowered by the fact that not only can they learn something, but that they won’t have to kill themselves in the process.
In essence, the ROI of cognitive learning is almost infinite. By developing self-awareness around the way our brains operate and leveraging that to develop ourselves, we don’t just change our relationship with learning. We give ourselves the opportunity to excel.
