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LearningToGo Newsletter - Vol. 2, No. 32 - December 23, 2016
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Ho Ho Ho! Why Your Brain Needs Santa Claus
What do Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Leprechauns, Unicorns and my "lucky" putter all have in common? They are all examples of "magical thinking." You might think that belief in magical things would fade away in today's modern age, reserved only for children and "primitive" tribes. But this simply isn't true. Magical thinking is exhibited by everyone at one time or another. In fact, it may be a coping mechanism invented by the brain to help us explain the world. According to
Psychology Today, magical thinking is "seeing causality in coincidence." We know that our brains have evolved to become "
survival machines," so how does an illogical belief keep us alive?
Read more...
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The Eyes Have It - How the Brain Uses Our Eyes to See the World
I was going to begin this post with the common saying, "The eyes are the windows of the soul," but I couldn't find the originator of the line to give him or her credit. It turns out that human beings have been saying variations of this truism
almost as long as we have been putting things down in writing, and probably long before then as well. So I got to thinking about the ubiquitous nature of this saying. I think it suggests a powerful shared insight we humans have for recognizing and relating to other intelligent beings.
Read more...
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Coming Soon! LearningBinge.com
A story of serendipity meets learning conference
About a year ago I started talking about a "brain matters academy" that would be dedicated to helping learning professionals develop their skills. I checked out all the usual suspects - those online platforms that make it possible to build and share your own MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and just couldn't find anything I liked. Each time I investigated an option, I found it either too limited as technology or too pricey as a service
In October I joined
The Learning and Development Conference (TLDC) and ran into an old friend, Talent Management expert
Michael Abrams. As we started sharing stories about our work, we discovered that Mike and I were working on the same idea. At another conference, we might not have been able to connect as we rushed madly from session to session. But TLDC, unlike most other conferences, was built around the principles of networking and reflection. So we had time to sit and catch up without feeling guilty about missing the next item on the agenda.
The result of our brainstorming is Learningbinge.com. We've recruited an impressive group of learning experts to share their best practices and insights with other learning professionals. We're building new courses right now, targeting corporate training specialists and leaders, educators, teachers, college professors, business leaders, spiritual leaders, even parents. LearningBinge will help everyone who needs to help others learn.
I'll be offering several courses on the application of the neurosciences to enhance learning and performance and I'm excited by the depth and breadth of our other offerings. Here's just a few of the topics we'll be offering on LearningBinge:
- Journaling as a path to spiritual discovery
- Teacher best practices for special needs kids
- Measuring training effectiveness
- Developing millennial leaders
- What can ancient Greek philosophers teach us about modern leadership?
- How to use video to enhance learning
- Financial planning for the independent consultant
- Perfecting your voice for training voice over and classroom delivery
- New skills that all leaders will need
- Designing training the way the brain wants to learn
- Digital security for online training
Watch for our major launch in January, 2017.
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Featured Infographic
Christmas by the Numbers - from the History.com
In this holiday season many of us are showing our goodwill towards to other by purchasing presents, decorating trees and stringing up lights. This infographic from History.com (the same folks who give us The History Channel) represents holiday spending in a highly visual and informative format.
(Click image to view full infographic)
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What's on Margie's Bookshelf?
Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century
by
Mark Crowley
Why I like it
Our common belief in business is that the heart has no place in workplace management. In fact, most of us were taught that the heart acts like Kryptonite in leadership: it inherently undermines a manager's effectiveness - and lowers productivity and profitability. Mark gets it right in this book, relying on brain science and common sense to bring kindness and caring back into leadership. A must for anyone with a heart. Listen to
my podcast with Mark here.
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y
common knowledge
that there are not enough people to fill the gaps left by the Baby Boomers as they exit the workforce. While most research and articles which address this looming crisis look to overcoming the
skills gap
, this paper looks beyond entry level to the leadership level.
Read more...
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February 9-23, 2017
Essentials of Brain-Based Learning (Live online: Feb 9-23, 2017 and more)
Spaces are filling quickly! Register today to be sure you don't miss this live event.
If you could understand what was happening in the brains of your target audience, would you be a more effective trainer, designer, consultant, or leader? Thanks to recent advances in neuroscience, learning and talent development professionals now have an opportunity to alter their approaches to change management, leadership development, training, and instructional design. Learn how the brain receives, encodes, and retrieves information to construct knowledge, and use these insights to improve your learning programs.
Read more...
If you're a member of ATD, remember that you get a nice discount on this and other ATD courses. (And if you're not a member, this might be a good reason to
join.)
All scheduled dates for Essentials of Brain-Based Learning course:
- Feb 9-23, 2017
- May 4-18, 2017
- Sep 7-21, 2017
- Oct 26-Nov 9, 2017
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