Neuroscience - Rethinking everything

Have you ever had one of those learning experiences where you really learnt?  Where you came away from the event buzzing with new ideas you wanted to share with others and thinking about how you could begin to take action on insights?  

The recent Australian Human Resources Institute National Convention in Brisbane was one of those experiences for me.   And I can explain why!

I can explain why – not just from a conceptual perspective of how the ideas appealed to me but also from a neuroscientific perspective in relation to how the learning was experienced.  Those insights are due to the pre-convention workshop by the NueroLeadership Institute founder, Dr. David Rock   Neuroleadership: Rethinking how we learn and breaking bias. 

David described learning that fits with the way our brain operates as “facilitating insights, in social situations that matter, over time.”  Insights, we learnt, are more likely to be generated when we have time to reflect on content delivered, with sufficient spacing to allow our pre-frontal cortex time to process the information. That means chunking learning – ideally in groups of three ideas, as exemplified by David’s quote above - and avoiding long content filled lectures.    

The learning content was delivered at a fast pace – because you have to pay attention when it’s fast – and in fifteen or twenty minute intervals – because that’s how much our brains can handle. 

In between the content delivery we experienced the power of social learning. Using guided questions, we talked with others at our table about applying the content; evaluating learning programs we had delivered or been involved with.  We discussed how we could use social learning in our workplaces, or with our clients, encouraging work groups to discuss learning together or trainees to report back to their managers with insights, or managers to teach their teams.  

It was in these discussions with 2 or 3 people that the real insights often emerged.  Things we would do differently in our learning programs following the workshop as well as in our personal learning and reflective practice.  We moved to different positions or different tables encouraging our brains to view things differently and enhanced the weave of learning and the building of neural connections.

We discussed how to facilitate ‘an emotional rollercoaster’.  A process that is needed if the chemicals required for learning are to be released into the brain.  Apparently we need an emotional spike to activate a recall point.  Remember those moments of being suddenly called on to answer a question in front of your peers? That was an emotional spike!

David suggested ‘A little fear is the best condition for learning’ and recommended testing of learning. On reflection I wondered about this, as it seems to contradict other research that tells us that positive emotions provide the environment in which we will be more creative, generate solutions to problems and gain insights.  This may be why we need the emotional rollercoaster – but some will find that a facilitation challenge!

It’s hard for your brain to pay attention if you’re hungry (or in pain or are lower status to those around you) so we had frequent breaks with great food and drinks to refuel.

These processes of learning continued as we moved on to breaking bias with the key content message ‘if you have a brain you are biased’.

There are up to 150 different biases that our brains revert to, shortcutting through the complexity of information that floods our brains, in ways that cause us to make critical errors.  If we want to make better decisions, if we want to create truly inclusive workplaces and societies we need to break bias. 

But, the bad news from the research is we can’t easily “catch ourselves” being biased.  Even when we’ve learnt about biases we can’t seem to avoid the mental traps.  We can see the biases that others are falling into but are less neurologically self-aware.  So bias is almost impossible to break.

We learnt that there are some things we can do –focusing on mitigating bias.  We can work with a team and allow others to call out our biases, using common language and understanding of how bias impacts. 

We can build practices and processes that help us to avoid falling into the bias traps –for example using diverse panels in recruitment situations or removing names from resumes.

Dr Rock unpacked the research from neuroscience in a way that made sense to us in the room – so that we really did experience “insights, in social situations that mattered, over time.”

Neuroscience isn’t just for psychology nerds (like me) who are fascinated by the way our brain works.  It is essential for HR Professionals wanting to achieve change, for L&D professionals wanting to design and deliver effective learning and for D&I professionals wanting to build inclusive workplaces.

Trisha attended the AHRI convention as a guest of AHRI and blogged on their Convention Blog.  This content was first published there