The day actually begins at eight o’clock in the main hall, and once again it becomes clear: ATD is a super professional organization, but somehow they don’t dare to hire a real professional for moderation. The day starts with a woman introduced as Chair Elected. These are funny times when elected chairs stand on stage (at GSA, the important people are now also called Chair).
Then a man comes on stage who gives a somewhat rambling presentation with one or two nice stories that somehow had nothing to do with the rest of the talk. At the end, he recommends that we take breaks and try that for a week. I’m glad that after this presentation he actually takes his next break and the day finally begins with Seth Godin.
A man I immediately like because he wears my hairstyle. He comes wearing a tie. This initially seems surprising, as he talks about disruption and new competencies we need. But in an age when even DAX board members walk around without ties, the true nonconformist is, of course, a tie wearer. Godin has borrowed a bit from Ken Robinson and repeatedly points out that our current education system dates from the 19th century and we urgently need to change that, because we need new competencies. Nothing new, but wonderfully presented, absolutely synchronized with his slides, a real professional. And my suspicion: He really wrote his 19 books himself.
I didn’t know one story, and I need to verify it. Until 1750, according to Godin, the story of Icarus and Daedalus was told differently than we know it today. Until then, Daedalus’s advice was: Don’t fly too low, or the waves will get you. Only afterward was the story reversed to keep people down. Those who fly too high meet a bad end. No, says Godin, flying too high is a privilege, and we should not only do it ourselves but help more people in organizations dare to do exactly that.
In good spirits, I then make my way to the exhibition hall and search for new platform solutions, chatbots, and cooperation partners for our international training programs. I found a few interesting inspirations, which I’ll present next week in the web talk (register here now).
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A Plea for Virtual Reality
My next workshop took me to Britt Andreatta, about whom I already sang praises last year. She used to be at LinkedIn, now has her own company, conducts research at the university, and once again shows that rigorous research and good learning and training concepts can be combined. She makes a plea for virtual reality. Recent studies show that VR experiences are stored in the brain the same way as real experiences. If this insight takes hold, it will transform the VR industry. I immediately decide to contact my esteemed colleague and VR specialist Christian Arentz to finally put our ideas for applications in the field of communication into action.
Drops Instead of Creativity Training
For good ideas, Britt recommends Michael Pollan’s book on psychedelic drugs and points out that the rise of Silicon Valley is probably directly related to LSD and other related drugs. Because precisely when these substances were still very easy to obtain, the rise of Silicon Valley began. There are apparently already companies testing such psychedelic substances in micro-doses to help their employees become creative. This is, of course, dangerous advice, but we already suspect that brain enhancement will occupy us in the future. How convenient—then you don’t need creativity training anymore, you just take a few drops.
Multiple Intelligences
Another important finding she presents: Gardner was right, and we now know through real research that multiple intelligences actually exist, that we should honor them accordingly and align employee development with them. She also demonstrates neuroplasticity and neurogenesis using the example of Swiss research in which VR is used to help paraplegics learn to walk again. Here, VR is used to play images from a first-person perspective during walking practice, which trigger the same effects in the brain as the original learning to walk as a child. This research is still in its early stages. I remember seeing the scientists from Lausanne at a conference in Switzerland once before. Good ideas from Switzerland, which always has an exciting competition with Israel for the most patents per year.
Back to Britt Andreatta. She once again demonstrates the different types of memory that exist—there are nine: two short-term memories and seven long-term memories. And we should ensure that our learning concepts are adapted to the respective required memory type.
“The type of memory determines the method of learning”
is an important statement. She summarizes the results of current research once again for learning concepts. I feel very validated: create aha moments instead of simply reciting things, use all senses, create a fear-free learning atmosphere, and repeat again and again. She also mentions good old Ebbinghaus, without forgetting to point out that his study referred to learning different nonsensical syllables. Such meaningless content is hopefully the exception in most companies. But it’s clear: if we need 40 to 50 repetitions for habits to anchor a new behavior in long-term memory, then it’s obvious: simulating an employee conversation once in training and then believing that managers will now conduct such conversations the same way is completely unrealistic. Here again, VR will probably help us, since these things involve episodic learning. It’s perfect for that.
Another speaker I’ve highly praised in the past—Sebastian Bailey—disappointed me a bit this time. This was less because he had nothing to say, but because he tried to present all transfer ideas from A to Z in one hour, and that was literally 26. A presentation as a list was not only boring, it was boring. But I got a good tip from him for compliance training: His research clearly showed that when you give participants the chance to print the certificate at the beginning of compliance e-learning, the completion rate increases. So giving trust upfront pays off.
After that, I got a bit caught up in conversation at the exhibition, arrived late to my other workshops, which were all fully booked. And unfortunately, for fire safety reasons, no exceptions are made—you simply can’t get in anymore.
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Day 3 Summary
For me personally, it didn’t contain much that was new, many good confirmations, and a few interesting discoveries at the exhibition, for example a tool for peer-to-peer coaching with videos that employees upload to a platform. There they are first rated by colleagues, then a positive example from the coach follows, along with the coach’s evaluation. All of this makes a lot of sense, but almost certainly does not align with the ideas of most works councils and probably not with the General Data Protection Regulation either.
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