Brian Washburn - Whats Your Formula?: Combine Learning Elements for Impactful Training

Its a question that both scientists and learning professionals should be asking themselves, nonstop: Whats possible?

Dedicated scientists combine their expertise, developed through years of study, hard work, research, experimentation, observation, trial and error, and sheer curiosity, to mix elements and accomplish feats like curing disease or putting people on the moon.

If you believe in your craft as a learning professional, you can string some elements together and do this too. Seriously. A well-designed training program can be world changing. It can lead audience members to new knowledge, skills, or abilities that enable them to cure blindness, end child abuse, or figure out ways to curb or stop climate change. Ive seen it happen. Ive been part of training programs that have helped restore sight to blind people, enabled abused and neglected children find safe and permanent homes, and helped farmers improve their practices through sustainable crop planning.

A well-designed learning program can change the way individuals and organizations do things. Even if youre not working on projects that cure disease or lead to world peace, chances are youre working on something that will impact people. People spend more waking hours at work than they do anywhere else during the week, so when you can help someone do something new or differently or better, it can lead to higher job satisfaction, more efficient ways of working, and perhaps less time at the office. If your learning program can accomplish any of this, then youre influencing your learners quality of lifeyoure changing their world.

Just as scientists use elementssuch as hydrogen (H), gold (Au), or oganesson (Og)as they study, research, or make world-changing breakthroughs in the fuels that take us to outer space or the electronics we carry in our pockets, we as learning professionals rely on combining different elements in our field.

We may need to string together elements such as adult learning (Al), lesson plans (Lp), Mr. Sketch markers (Ms), and gamification (Gm) to develop engaging learning experiences that help people want to do something new or differently or better. When we find the right combination of elements and people walk away from something weve designed with new skills and abilities, we change lives.

Engaging, effective training programs are a mixture of science and art; they require a certain quantity of adult learning theory, available technology, intuitive tools, proven practices, and creativity, and a touch of risk. Finding the right combinations and proportions of these elements, however, depends on the situation.

With all of this in mind, an idea struck me when I was at a restaurant one day. My oldest child had ordered corndogs from the kids menu, which came with a placemat printed with a periodic table of tasty ingredients. As I looked at the placemat, I began to wonder what an equivalent periodic table of engaging and effective learning elements might look like. Over the next days and weeks, an image began to emerge in my mind, and I began to ask my colleagues for their thoughts on instructional design and training elements that could fall under the metaphor of solids and liquids and gas-like elements. That corndog-filled lunch, some individual brainstorming time, and collaboration with my co-workers led to the creation of the Periodic Table of Amazing Learning Experiences (). While it has undergone several iterations, the fun part about this visual metaphor is that users can combine various elements strategically and intentionally to yield amazing learning experiences.

Ive been in the learning and development field long enough to have heard all sorts of predictions. The ease and consistency of e-learning will eliminate the need for instructor-led training. Virtual meeting platforms will eliminate the need (and cost) of traveling to on-site, in-person training. The creation of the chief learning officer role will give the learning function a seat at the table and transform how organizations learn. The learning management system will ensure the availability of individualized learning, anywhere, anytime. MOOCs, free online courses from some of the worlds leading universities, will forever disrupt the way both higher ed and corporate training conduct business. Bold predictions are a dime a dozen, and none of these quite panned out the way some futurists in our industry thought they might.