Engage the Brain to Prevent Brain Drain

How best do you engage employees’ brains during training so that the information doesn’t drain out by the time they get back to work? In today’s Advisor, we hear from one training expert about how having fun during training helps trainees retain the material.

“We’re learning so much about how the brain retains information and recalls information over time,” says Tracy Bissette, chief learning architect at Weejee Learning (www.weejeelearning.com).

Research shows that “the brain has to be actively focused on something” to retain information, she says. When learners are having fun, they are focused on the training topic and related activities, increasing retention and the likelihood that they will apply the information back on the job. “We say, ‘It’s not fun for fun’s sake. It’s fun for learning’s sake.’”

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Trainers often find it challenging to make compliance training fun. “The challenge is turning something that is not inherently imaginative into something that is fun and creative,” says CEO Ian Huckabee of Weejee Learning. Learning is fun when it is meaningful, includes “surprises” throughout, leverages technology to engage learners, breaks information into bite-sized pieces so that learners can see their progress and retain more, enables learners to make social connections by working with their peers to complete training, and, when appropriate, incorporates humor, Bissette says.

Using engaging visuals also makes training more fun, she says. “Don’t make all training look the same.” Despite the benefits of making training fun, many organizations are resistant to the concept, Bissette says. “It is very different from what a lot of organizations are doing.” She attributes resistance to trainers not being sure how to make training fun, as well as time and money constraints.

She recommends that such organizations start small by redesigning one training module to make it more fun and engaging. “Start with the end goal and work backwards. Think about what you are doing in training and what you want the behavior change to be at the end.”

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Develop fun ways for learners to practice their new skills, identify what information they need to master those skills, and make sure learning is taking place, she says. “The learning has to come first, and the fun is part of that. Plan fun activities around the content.”

Why It Matters

• “Time flies when you’re having fun” is a truth that applies to training as much as life.
• Therefore, it’s worth making the extra effort to make training fun.
• Find ways to implement the suggestions in this article into your training sessions so trainees have fun learning and applying the training content.