3 Ingredients of An Effective Learning Environment

To learn a new skill, we must practice and hone the skill.

Yet so many of us remain satisfied with mere learning and fail to add practice and training.

Why? Well, it feels good to finish a book or a TED talk. “I’ve learned something new” feels instantaneously rewarding.

Whereas practices and training guarantee stagnation, failure, frustration, and pain.

Therefore if you are trying to get your team to learn something, consider bringing these 3 elements to your team learning environment:

  1. Inspiration
    TED talks are great at this. They inspire. Turn your lecture notes into TED talks. I know it’s easier said than done, but you should at least try.
  2. Participation
    Design the training so then it includes individual and team activities. Another example of how to increase participation: Make 20% of your training lecture-based and 80% of it activity-based.
  3. Celebration
    Invest the most time figuring out what to celebrate and how to celebrate.

Do you want to celebrate effort, or outcome, or both?
Do you know how your team members like to be celebrated?
Did you know that some people love the pedestal while others prefer a subtle pat on the shoulder?
Did you know you can ruin everything by forcing an introvert to make an Oscar winning speech in front of the team?