Blog
Your New Idea Is Not Where You Think It Is
In the 1950s, in rural Oklahoma, at a place called Robbers Cave, several researchers performed an experiment we would find unethical today. They invited twenty-two eleven-year-old boys to participate in a three week camp. The researchers advertised a wholesome summer camp experience. The experience they delivered was very different. What the researchers actually did was ...
Never Believe You Are Helpless
“You must never confuse the faith that you will prevail in the end… with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.” That quote comes from U.S. Navy Admiral James Stockdale, who was captured by the Vietnamese, tortured over twenty times, and imprisoned for eight years during ...
It All Started with Shopping for Jam
It all started with jam. Years ago researchers Sheena Iyengar and her colleague Mark Lepper did a study in which, on one day, shoppers were offered a selection of 24 jams. The table crowded with lots of jam attracted a lot of interest. Shoppers gawked and marveled at all the jam. The next day, the ...
Master New Behaviors Through Micro-Practice
In brief: A lot of attention has been placed on micro-learning, but adopting new behaviors requires practice not simply memorization. Micro-learning must include micro-practice. Learning design must ask the learner to practice new target behaviors consistently over time in order to build a new ingrained behavior. We can only act our way into a new way ...
What’s Possible If We Ignore What Other People Think?
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” – Lao Tzu On March 2 1962, Wilt “the Stilt” Chamberlain had the highest scoring NBA basketball game of all time. He scored 100 points in that game, a feat likely never to be repeated. Chamberlain was the number two highest average ...
Learning is Interactive, Not Consumptive
We have a new puppy. The kids named him Wallace, although he has immediately become “Wally”. Neighbors want to hold him, get a selfie with him. He is adorable. He also creates disasters everywhere around the house, chewing, shredding, drooling, peeing everywhere. He can be a wrecking ball. He’s also learning more quickly than I ...
