Positive Leadership Engages Employees

Updated August 1st 2023

I am involved in, committed to and enthusiastic about my work and workplace…does that sound like you?

Gallup (a US workplace research company) have been studying employee engagement for years. The above is how they describe an engaged employee. A recent article by Mann & Harter (2016) illustrated that worldwide only 13% of employees in organisations are considered to be engaged workers.

Additionally, did you know that managers who are optimistic are more engaged and are more likely to manage teams that produce better results? This is according to a study by Arakawa & Greenberg. The study also showed that managers who valued their employees strengths, who had a positive perspective and regularly provided recognition of accomplishments, had employees who were themselves optimistic and engaged. Positive leadership is shown to be related to employee engagement and performance. This illustrates the importance of optimism in the workplace.

Arakawa & Greenberg found that employee optimism was related to their engagement in work which was linked to their project performance. These findings “suggest that managers who currently embody positive leadership are contributing to the effectiveness of not only their employees, but also the organisation as a whole.” (Arakawa & Greenberg, 2007).

There is much evidence showing that leaders need to reflect on the emotions that they are portraying at work every day, as their mood will be reflected by their team. And as Barsade & O’Neill suggest, leaders need to focus less on their ‘cognitive culture’ (teamwork, performance etc.) and develop more their emotional culture using (as mentioned in recent blogs) companionate love, joy and pride. Hold out for our next blog to learn more about how to do so.

How Can We Help Our Leaders become ‘Inspiring Leaders?’

Updated August 1st 2023

In the past week, I have spoken with a number of people across diverse organisations who are experiencing what could best be described as bullying. All of them are extremely bright and committed individuals, (a mixture of senior managers, director and chief officers) and two of them are considering resigning in coming months. I guarantee that their potential resignation will be a blow to their teams and have wide rippling effects cross-functionally and beyond.

If only this was an uncommon situation. However, unfortunately it is not. Think about it. Me, one person who had 3 separate conversations in the space of one week with 3 people who lead large teams and who are all experiencing some form of bullying from their reporting manager…this does not bode well!

If you read our last blog, you will recall the mention of Kinjerski and Skrypnek (2006), who explored what they term ‘Spirit at Work’ (having high feelings of wellbeing, feeling like your work matters and feeling connected to your colleagues; all helping to provide meaning and fulfillment in work). You will also recall that there are a number of factors required to develop ‘Spirit at Work’.

One such factor, indeed the most important factor, according to Kinjerski & Skrypnek is ‘Inspiring Leadership’

“Inspiring Leaders:

Create a caring culture.
Are caring in the sense that the welfare of their staff and work relationships are important.
Embody behaviours that match those of the organisations’ philosophy and intentions.
Encourage and help staff to reach their goals.
Communicate tasks clearly.
Involve people in the decision-making process.
Delegate responsibility so workers can make decisions about their work on their own.”

Kinjerski and Skrypnek (2006) found that a positive workplace was important in creating ‘Spirit at work’. Positive working environments help people develop a sense of spirit at work where they feel good during work, they are happy with their organisation and they focus on tasks required during work.

The people I mentioned above are experiencing the exact opposite of ‘Inspiring Leadership’.

As we all know, the workplace culture reflects the leadership within the organisation, the relationships among colleagues, the opportunities and priorities in an organisation, and how people are viewed in the organisation.

i.e. don’t expect people to show up in certain ways if you are not leading by example. A positive workplace is one where care, teamwork and support are displayed and developed by senior staff; this creates a workplace where people are able to work to their best/perform best.

Pamela Quinn (MD of Kuehne + Nagel Ireland, one of the worlds largest logistic companies) states: “I believe that people mirror behaviours and they tend naturally to follow the behaviours they see around them.”

How have your reflections been re. the Open/Arena Area (the Area known to self and others), of Johari’s Window? Are you taking the lead in this one?

If you are reading the current blogs and thinking this is all fluffy stuff, have a look around you and consider my experiences in the past week. Three people in three different organisations, two of them considering resigning. They are most definitely not working with leaders who are exhibiting ‘Inspiring Leadership’, ‘Spirit at work’ or ‘Companionate love’!

Conversations With Your Employees; Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Updated 31st July 2023

It may seem obvious, but an employees well-being and happiness plays an important role in the performance of an organisation.

Obvious, but is it being taken seriously enough, I ask?

The results of numerous studies shows that there is a relationship between employee happiness and workplace engagement. Happy and engaged workers are a lot more likely to have positive relationships with their managers, and are better able to handle new challenges and changes. They also feel valued by their employer, and as a result can deal with stress more effectively and overall are more satisfied with their lives (Krueger & Killham, 2005).

Throughout the past week, I found myself in various situations, from collaborating with groups in organisations, to engaging in heartfelt conversations with friends about their struggles in different relationships outside of work. These experiences served as poignant reminders of the challenges many of us face when attempting to have honest conversations that foster positive and flourishing relationships. It became evident that avoiding these crucial conversations can lead to a great deal of unhappiness and stress, underscoring the importance of addressing our communication barriers head-on.

Some of us skirt around the issue that we should be discussing, others ‘tell’ people what to do, and hence miss an opportunity to let the individual take real ownership of the solution. Sometimes people avoid having the conversation at all, and we’ve all seen examples of what happens then, at work and at home…

The thing is, we don’t have to be perfect communicators. We just need to listen, ask questions to understand, stop making assumptions and stop planning ahead in the conversations i.e. be present with and to the person in front of us and to the conversation that is actually happening.

I love the simplicity of the message in this TED talk, well worth a watch!:

STOP Treating The Symptoms: Part Two from David Mullins-Tennis Coach

Updated July 31st 2023

Part Two from guest blogger, David Mullins, Head Women’s Tennis Coach at the University of Oklahoma (OU)

You are probably eager to know what diet I am going to recommend or how you should become a vegan, follow a paleo plan or something along those lines. I definitely do not recommend diets to my athletes, or anyone for that matter.

All I advocate is that you experiment with what works and doesn’t work for your body. However, there are four foods that all our digestive systems will have a negative encounter with:

Artificial Sweeteners – diet sodas and sweeteners for your coffee/tea. These products stimulate your appetite by disrupting your body’s ability to know how many calories it is consuming. This can obviously lead to weight gain and higher blood sugar levels.
Alcohol (sorry!)– it kills the good bacteria in your gut. Also when you consume alcohol you are more likely to crave the worst kind of foods
Any products containing Azodicarbonamide – it is a whitening agent in flour that you will find mostly in some white bread product such as bread rolls, Danish pastries and croissants. This is the same compound that is used in the making of yoga mats, say no more!
Be careful of you sugar intake, the recommended dose is 5-28 grams per day, depending on the study, but most people are up around 40 grams each day. Sugar can irritate your gut, which may at times manifest itself as an autoimmune response. There is also evidence suggesting that depression is linked to inflammation in the gut.

I also advise people to take a good probiotic supplement (with at least seven unique strains of bacteria) twice per day after meals if possible. Don’t rely on your morning yogurt for your probiotics as the amount of sugar in those little tubs cancel out any probiotic benefits the product is advertising! We like Dynamic Nutrition PureBiotics as they are allergy free and have no preservatives or artificial ingredients. If you don’t want to take a supplement eat more fermented foods, e.g. sauerkraut and pickles. I know Celine is experimenting with water kefir grains at the moment.

As a coach I do my best to educate my players about nutrition but there is only so much I can control. Instead, I make sure I am a great example to my team as to how they should be eating to effectively fuel their bodies for sport and life. I truly practice what I preach and I hope, with time, that they will continue to make better decisions.

Do your best to be the best role model you can be to those you are managing in all areas of your life, including nutrition. The extra energy and vitality you will feel with these changes will be noticeable and hopefully contagious too! A few basic changes can help alleviate a lot of the negative health & performance issues you and your team are facing. Good Luck!

During his 12 years of coaching at a number of different elite College Athletic Departments in the U.S.A, David has garnered numerous coaching awards and helped his programs breakthrough to new heights of athletic achievement. He is currently the Head Women’s Tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma (OU) where he helps develop players for the WTA tennis tour. He also received his Master’s in Education at OU and is currently working towards his Yoga Teaching Certification.

Before starting his coaching career David was a international professional tennis player earning an ATP world ranking in both singles and doubles play while representing the National Irish team in Davis Cup play.

For more health, fitness and relationship advice please follow David on Twitter @2KidsAndASpouse

Mindfulness- Foundations For The 7-Steps to Learning and Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Are you living presently?
Or are you living focused on the next meeting, the next meal, the next email that needs to be responded to, and the next one and the next one? Are you living in the past, regretting what you have done or not done, or feeling angry at how you were treated by someone or how you didn’t make it to the gym, or ate that second croissant!

You are probably already well aware that mindfulness, one of the oldest practices in human history, has become one the newest ‘breakthroughs’ in managing thoughts and mental wellbeing in the workplace.

I started attempting to focus on living presently, using mindfulness and meditation a few years ago, (see more on this in this Irish Indo article) when approximately 20 years after being introduced to meditation and mindfulness, I finally was adult enough to start giving it a real go. The impetus was the realization that if I didn’t focus on the NOW, that life would pass me by and I’d have missed out on just experiencing rather then thinking about what was coming next.

This mindfulness lark is no easy habit to adopt! It involves being present in the here and now; when you’re eating, when you’re walking, when you’re speaking, basically in every moment. Personally, I find it challenging, as I often need to remind myself to focus entirely on the conversation at hand or savor the taste of a drink, deliberately experiencing every detail. In reality, like many others, I catch myself mindlessly juggling multiple activities throughout the day: hastily gobbling lunch between client sessions and meetings, and rushing around in a perpetual state of urgency. It’s a journey to break free from this habit and genuinely embrace mindfulness.

If it is so difficult to be mindful/ present in this moment, then why bother?

Well, there is empirical evidence that mindfulness:

reduces the physiological and psychological effects of stress
correlates with emotional intelligence
improves well-being and happiness
improves attention and emotional regulation

(see Keng, Smosku & Robins, 2011 for an extensive review of the empirical studies on the effect of mindfulness on psychological health)

Personally speaking, when I am being mindful, I feel more tuned in to the people I am with, the conversations we are having and the accompanying sensory information in the environment. I feel more grateful (which is in itself associated with reduced depression, more positive relationships, greater competence, resilience, self-acceptance, less stress, better sleep and much more!) and life feels much richer and more enjoyable.

Research also shows that people who focus on being mindful rather than focusing on the end goal or the future are more successful (e.g. Fishbach & Choi, 2012). Yes goals can help spark our initial interest, but then we must consistently focus and on the process rather than being overly focused on the end goal. It is much better for the outcome if we focus on the experience rather than the benefits. As Dr. Christian Jarrett (author of ‘Great Myths of The Brain’) said at the Learning Technologies Conference in Olympia, London I attended this week “Once you are doing it (e.g. exercise, work-based project), let your long-term future-based mission fade into the background.”

Living more mindfully is a must if you want to learn more effectively and change habits. As I mentioned earlier, it necessitates a shift in focus. Have you given it a try yet?

Self Limiting Beliefs – Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Our 3^rd Foundation block for the 7-Step to Learning & Habit Change is brought to you by our guest blogger Camille Donegan. Our Beliefs, the beliefs we hold about ourselves, can be one of the biggest blocks to us making change and to having the happiness and success in our lives that we deserve. Camille tells us her story, can you identify with it? This blog also relates back to Step Number 7, our piece entitled ‘Two-Way Street, Positive or Negative thoughts.

The World Is Your Oyster – guest blogger Camille Donegan
Optimists; you may see them as unrealistic, happy-clappy people who don’t live in the real world? So why would you want to be one? Well research shows that optimists have better health and more successful careers, plus a tight correlation has been found between pessimism and symptoms of depression.

I should probably hold up my hands at this point and confess … I AM A TOTAL OPTIMIST. When something ‘challenging’ happens to me in my life, I automatically look to see what learnings I can get from it. It doesn’t mean I don’t have fears, doubts, limiting beliefs and even some worries, it just means I don’t let them hold me back.

My dad wrote me a poem and when he passed away I included it in his memorial mass booklet. In it, he said that the world was my oyster and all I had to do was prise it open and suck out its sweet delights! How right he was! Even though I’ve been an optimist as long as I can remember, it’s been a fairly recent realisation for me that the only thing that holds us back in this life – is ourselves. Our own blocks, our own insecurities, our own doubts, and our limiting beliefs. Any of us can achieve anything – I truly believe that. For instance, I am currently working on getting my house overlooking the sea, plus the hot man and the gorgeous dog to go with it!

Knowing you can achieve anything (and being an optimist) doesn’t stop the voice of the inner critic though! Last week a colleague of mine announced that the next day he was going to present me as the CEO for a product we are working on to a Venture Capital Group he was pitching to. Right on cue, my limiting beliefs kicked in: “I can’t do that! I don’t know enough! I’m not smart enough! I’m not financial-savvy enough!”.

We all have a voice in our head, an inner narrator. For pessimists, this voice is predominantly negatively focused while optimists are able to over-ride the negative ‘stories’ or ‘self-talk’ quite quickly, and replace them with positives. Yet, we all have or have had some limiting beliefs regardless of how positively or negatively focused we are.

Over the next while, I invite you to start paying more attention to your inner voice. When you hear negative comments from your inner narrator, try to adapt it into self-talk which will empower and challenge you.

Once you start to become more aware of your negative self-talk, particularly reoccurring limiting beliefs, such as ‘I’m not good enough’ you can start to address them. Try ‘going vertical’ with them. Question them. Interrogate them. Ask yourself, do I believe these negative thoughts or limiting beliefs? If the answer is ‘Yes’, think “what evidence exists that this thought might not be true”. Then, think “what might be a better, healthier version of this thought”? Consciously choose to replace the negative thought or limiting belief with the new, more positive version.

That’s what I did for my big meeting…I created more empowering beliefs. I questioned each of the limiting beliefs and blocks that came up until I had dispelled most of them.

Granted, I did hit the books, and spent a lot of the night before the meeting researching. But all the reading and researching in the world would not have made me feel confident, had I not done the work on my beliefs!

Good news is in that meeting, I felt confident, informed and actually pretty relaxed.

I still need to work on my finance skills! But that’s a job for another day.

Camille Donegan is a Freelance Theatre Producer and Owner of Alive-O Productions, and a Technology Consultant. She is constantly self-developing, exploring philosophies and methodologies to enhance her experiences.

Sleep: Energy That Lasts All Day Long- Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Recently I have been experiencing something great; energy that lasts all day long without any daytime slumps!

What is the difference? A combination of good nutrition, exercise a few times per week and sleep.

However, I had the experience recently of feeling like I couldn’t string a full sentence together, to the point where I had to put an end to a phone conversation half way through. And all because, I hadn’t slept due to a lovely bout of food poisoning.

As we saw in recent blogs, courtesy of Oliver Sifkovits, focusing on what we eat can make all the difference to how we perform. Sleep is another physiological lever that can contribute to, and detract from how we perform.

There is a compelling body of evidence that ties our performance, be it professional or personal, to adequate levels of sleep. Chronic sleep loss negatively affects focus, memory and cognition, impacting productivity and relationships, and overall well-being.

Not getting the correct amount of sleep is linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and psychosis. It also causes unethical behavior (see Shane O’Mara).

How many times have you taken dodgy short-cuts when you are tired? The brain of the sleep-deprived person has to work harder than that of non-sleep-deprived person to accomplish any given task. Imagine what information your brain is excluding paying attention to when it is tired and the decisions it is having you make?!

Research shows that young adults (under 30 years) perform poorer than their older counterparts (50-60 years) following periods of sleep deprivation – whilst at the same time more confidently and inaccurately overestimating their abilities. Where does this show up in organisations and decisions being made?

Furthermore, we are less adept at reading social cues and responding appropriately inter-personally when affected by sleep loss. Our ability to accurately detect emotions tied to threat (angry faces) and reward (happy faces), becomes blunted, when sleep deprived. Also, sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine, and so sleep affects our positivity and happiness.

Additionally, recent neuro-scientific research points to the role of sleep in memory consolidation. Studies have shown that hippocampal neurons activated during learning tasks are reactivated during slow wave sleep, reinforcing the neural network and consolidating the learning. In a study requiring participants to learn routes through unfamiliar streets, performance, as measured by error rates in the task, was significantly lower for those who had benefited from sleep. Other studies focusing on sleep loss provide clear evidence for lower academic performance caused by reductions in both declarative and procedural memory, suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is highly sensitive to sleep deprivation. So, regular good quality sleep is a precursor for memory and learning.

Studies of sleep distinguish between acute sleep deprivation, defined as short bouts (24- 72 hours) of complete sleep loss, and chronic partial sleep restriction, defined as continued periods of less than normal quantity of sleep (for example 3-5 hours sleep when the individual’s ‘normal’ pattern is 7-8 hours). Performance in cognitive tasks shows a consistent deterioration in both acute and chronic forms of sleep deprivation. However recovery from chronic partial sleep loss is slower.

According to renowned sleep researcher Daniel Kripke, consistently getting between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep per night not only contributes to longevity but also enhances happiness and productivity. Deviating from this optimal range can lead to various unnoticed issues, affecting our overall well-being. It is imperative that we pay closer attention to our sleep habits and consider whether they are supporting or hindering our learning, habit formation, and overall performance and happiness.

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #7 Two-Way Street, Positive or Negative thoughts, you choose!

Updated July 28th 2023

Mindset is a two-way street
Did you wake up today feeling good about yourself, looking forward to the day and life in general? Or did you wake up thinking ‘here we go again’, ‘I hate the traffic’ ‘I hate my boss’ etc?

How you feel about yourself and your life, whether you are negative, unhappy, de-motivated or on the other hand positive, happy, motivated has an impact on your ability to learn and change habits.

When we feel good; thinking, making decisions and taking action in pursuing goals require less effort.

If you have read step no.4 ‘Memory’ in our series of 7 Steps to Learning blogs, you will know how important memory is for creating habit change.

When we feel positive we are more likely to be able to pull on good memories. When we feel negative, things couldn’t get much worse for our memory; Not only are we more likely to access more negative memories, but these negative memories get in the way of accessing positive memories which in turn can interfere with getting that dopamine flowing!

Brain plasticity is a two-way street. We can drive brain change positively or negatively.

If you have read Maureen Gaffney’s book ‘Flourish’ you will have come across the 5:1 ratio. We need 5 positives for every 1 negative in our thoughts, experiences, and feelings in order to thrive and flourish in life. As Maureen says, “If the balance remains at 3:1, three positives to one negative, you have achieved the minimum platform needed just to stay well and manage your life in an average way. If the ratio falls below 3:1, and stays down, however, you are tipped into a downward spiral from which it is hard to escape. This is when someone becomes depressed; when a relationship enters a new, destructive state; or when a team or an organisation becomes dysfunctional.”

Unwanted bad habits continue because the brain has hard-wired itself through years of repeated behaviour. We must literally tell our brain what we really want, and not what we don’t want! As discussed in earlier blogs; to create change, we must literally rewire the brain!

It’s up to you which way you want to wire it, towards the negative or towards the positive; towards the ‘I can’t do’ vs. ‘I can do’, towards the “I am a victim of circumstances’ vs. ‘I am the master of my own universe’.

In every moment of every day, we have a choice. We often just don’t realise it, because our unconscious and our older parts of our brains exert so much control over how we behave.

Consider, in this moment, consciously, what do you have to be grateful for? Are you healthy? Do you have a job? Do you ever get to go out for dinner or to go on holidays? If you have any or all of these, you have more than many hundreds of thousands of people around the world and more than many in your own village, town, and city.

Research in Positive Psychology repeatedly finds that those who remind themselves every day what they are grateful for are happier and more positive. So if you are going to do nothing else to support your mission of making some changes, start by doing this. I personally list off three things in my head, that I am grateful for every morning, as soon as I wake up. It’s a nice and ultimately powerful way to start the day. Do it every morning for a few weeks and smile at the same time (even if it pains you to do so) and let us know what positive changes you have seen in your life.

This brings us to the end of our 7 Steps to Learning blogs. However, as the great Mel Blanc wrote in his account of the making of Bugs Bunny, ‘That’s Not All Folks!’. There are 5 ingredients necessary to support these 7 steps. If you are looking to create real and lasting change, keep posted for more….

Seasons Greetings to you all and we look forward to an amazing 2015 helping you put these 7 Steps into practice. Happy Holidays from all at Adaptas.

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #6 FEEDBACK – Everyone needs Feedback!

“It takes 21 days to change a habit!”
How many times have we all heard this?

Jeremy Dean (Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t, and How to Make Any Change Stick) has collated research around habit change, and found that it takes on average 66 days (not 21 days!) to change a habit, with people often taking beyond 230 days of repetition to change habits long-term!

As discussed in the ‘REPETITION’ step of the 7 steps to learning a few weeks ago, we know that the brain forms a model of the brain connections that contribute to a good try. Repetition strengthens the connections between neurons engaged at the same time. Additionally, we know from the ‘MEMORY’ step, that the more we can create meaningful, emotional and elaborated opportunities to practice the more likely long-term learning is to occur i.e. emotional connections create more permanent memories.

Be it 18, 21, 65 or 265 days it takes to create change, let’s call a spade a spade…it is difficult to commit to practicing in order to embed change! Not only must the brain receive feedback on good versus bad tries. We NEED feedback from others on good versus bad tries…we need feedback and support to know it’s working! FEEDBACK on performance and acknowledgement from others encourages us to repeat.

It’s about recognising what needs to change, then doing it repetitively, and getting feedback, especially with a focus on how improvement is being noticed by others. We all like to be told we are doing a good job! Constant monitoring of progress by oneself, one’s peers and one’s superiors is tantamount to long lasting change.

In my experience, most people in management positions just don’t have or prioritise putting the time in to do this. People remember how they feel. If you make them feel good for attempting to make changes, they are much more likely to succeed. People must see results – one of the jobs of a manager should be to support and coach.

We need to be reminded that it is working, even when we ‘fall of the wagon’. We must track behaviours, and get feedback on how that behaviour is being noticed by others and how it is impacting on others.

It is important therefore, to work with people over a period of time. If that means writing reminders to check in with your colleagues on the change they are looking to make, do it…you might be still checking in with them on that change they were looking to make in 6 months time, but accountability and repetitiveness lead to new habit forming. It may take 21 days, it may take many many more. But imagine the difference it will make!

Thank you for reading. We’d love your Feedback. Leave a comment or share on your social pages.

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #4 MEMORY – Encoding, sorting & retrieving information.

Updated July 28th 2023

Memory is crucial for learning.
“Memory is a process of encoding, sorting and retrieving information” (Carlson, Martin & Buskist, 2004).
The brain creates predictive models about where it thinks it is going, models about performance during an attempt and models that reflect cumulative learning of those attempts to create the desired outcome. The actions that are attempted and those that resulted in better performance must be remembered. Otherwise learning cannot occur.

Theorists of memory agree that there are various stages of memory; 1) short term memory (STM) or working memory and 2) Long term memory (LTM).

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi-store memory model (1968) states that we take information from the external environment through our sensory organs (e.g. eyes, ears, skin etc.). This information gets moved to the STM where it stays for a short time (i.e. less than one minute; STM has a limited capacity and duration). Only with rehearsal can information be moved to the LTM. Peterson and Peterson (1959) found that the more time information goes unrehearsed in the STM the more difficult it is for participants to retrieve this information.

“Short term memory is the set of processes that we use to hold and rehearse information that occupies our current awareness” (Robinson-Riegler & Robinson-Riegler, 2008).

LTM consists of:

Declarative (explicit) memory: Knowledge of facts and events.
Procedural (non-declarative, implicit) memory: Knowledge of how to do things.
Skills and abilities.
Conditioning and subconscious responses.

Other than rehearsal, there are other ways to help the encoding of information from the STM to the LTM. For example, mnemonic devices are “special techniques or strategies consciously used to improve memory – make use of information already stored in LTM to make memorisation an easier task” (Brunswick & Buskist, 2004).

These devices do not simplify or lessen information, they create a more detailed version of the information in such a way that the information is easier to retrieve at a later time. This is possible because of the way in which the information is elaborated upon. The information is strung together in a meaningful way.

Most approaches to training soft skills in people are missing an approach that enables learners to elaborate on what they are learning in the classroom. In my experience, the solutions are as follows:

A) Learning must be ‘applied’ in the training room, i.e. create more meaningful, emotional and elaborated opportunities to practice while in the training room, to engage both hearts and minds.

B) In line with the 70:20:10 rule, make sure that people get the opportunity to apply and practice in the context of work. In his excellent book, ‘The Learning Challenge’ (2014), Nigel Paine refers to ‘at the moment of need’ and ‘just in time’ learning, and quotes Nick Shackleton-Jones approach to learning ‘for people who care’. Here people care deeply about learning something because they have been challenged and want to/ need to solve the problem, and therefore are motivated to learn.

For a case study of the approach taken by Nick Shakleton-Jones (Director of Online and Informal Learning, BP) see Nigel’s book. You might see Adaptas mentioned there too ;-).

Ultimately, there is no point in sending a person to attend a training if they are not going to be able to apply their learning immediately (either actively in the training or ‘on the job’), because it will not get stored in their Long-Term Memory, unless they get a chance to use the information supplied immediately.

Plain and simple, we all forget what we have learned unless it is dynamic, motivating, emotionally stimulating and useful in the here and now!

Click here for more Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #3 FUN – Learning is about having FUN!

Updated July 28th 2023

People always learn faster and better when they are having fun and are being creative.
Change can occur only when the brain is in the mood: Change is enhanced by behaviour and circumstances. Learning occurs with focused attention and is inhibited by an intentional refusal to accept new experiences.

You know how when we were children, we played all the time? We learnt through playing. But then the education system kind of squashed that out of us, because we were told to sit still and listen.

And into adulthood, fun is often missing from approaches taken to learning and development.

Of course, fun and creativity is experienced differently by all of us, so be cautious not to make assumptions here! Our experience of fun can also change based on experiences we find ourselves in and the people we are surrounded by.

The brain is a social organ innately designed to learn through shared experiences. Brains grow best in this context of interactive discovery and through the co-creation of stories that shape and support memories of what is being learned. Evidence from the field of neuroscience shows us that we require positive social interaction and nurturance in order to learn.

Dorothy Billington, author of In ‘Life is an Attitude: How to Grow Forever Better’, has run studies on why some men and women continue to grow as long as they live — while others do not. For example, she has studied English-as-Second-Language classes for new immigrants, and comments that “In classes where students feel safe, where lessons are focused on current language needs, where students are asked for input on what helps them most to learn, where students are actively involved in interesting and fun exercises, where there’s lots of laughter and congeniality, students of all ages and backgrounds learn English fast and well. In classes where students are made to feel inadequate and threatened, little is learned.”

She comments, ‘these findings support the thinking of Malcolm Knowles (The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species, 1986), recognized as the father of adult learning; his trailblazing work underlies many of our most effective adult education programs. He reminded us that in optimal adult learning programs, where adults learn best, both students and faculty also have fun, for it is exhilarating to REALLY learn.’

My own experience is that a safe, trusting environment will support people to get in the mood and find themselves having fun when they least expect it.

Click here for more Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #2 MOTIVATION | The Power of Knowing ‘WHY’

Updated July 28th 2023

MOTIVATION – For change, we need to be clear on our ‘Why?’
We recently published the 1st of our 7-Steps to Learning. We received a great response to our IMAGINATION blog, where we explained that ‘neurons that fire together, wire together’, so to continue as promised, outlined below is the 2nd Step – MOTIVATION.

MOTIVATION is a key factor in brain plasticity: It can be looked at as a cycle where thoughts influence behaviours and behaviours then drive performance; an inner drive to behave or act in a certain manner. It is the driving force that causes the change from desire to trying to achieve in life. If you are going to commit to making changes in your life, then it requires dedication and practice to create lasting change. Understand your motivation and you’ll understand the process that arouses, sustains and regulates your behaviour.

In Step 5, you will see that repetition is the key to making stronger connections. Repetition will only occur if people are motivated. People need to see a personal need, or a reason for them in making the change. For change, we need to be clear on our ‘Why?’.

People must think about two things in answering this question. Emotionally, what we can gain, by creating this new behaviour, and what do we stand to lose by not creating it? Performance impacts thoughts.

Our role as educators and learning leaders is to help people to become aware of what is not working for them or where the gaps exist, why they want and need to change (emotionally and logically) and where that will take them in their life and career. If someone does not want to learn, no change will take place.

The question then is, what is stopping them from wanting to learn? I refer back to point Step1: Have they been given the opportunity or given themselves the opportunity to IMAGINE & dream big?!

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Positive Leadership Engages Employees