Over-learning and the Risk of Mindlessness

There is a great deal of pleasure in learning how to do something so well that we can do it easily and without much thought. The risk, however, is that we become 'mindless' in doing it - i.e. we don't actually pay attention to what we are doing, we do it without thinking and miss things.

This is particularly worrying for trainers where training content becomes context independent - meaning you train it the same way without taking into account the learner, their needs, the context in which you are training.

If we want participants to be engaged - then we as trainers also need to be engaged and pay particular attention to the unique circumstance and the unique people that are being trained on that occasion. What do they need? What experience are they bringing to a discussion?

One way to facilitate learning within a group is to make creative use of the material that comes from the participants and then delicately weave that into the some overarching learning points which from the trainers experience will help them. To do this, space needs to be left in the course design to unearth these experiences and enough flexibility needs to be built in to let the course flow depending on the contribution of the group. We need to not assume that we know what issues, challenges or questions will arise.

If the course is filled to the brim before the training has started, bringing in participant's experiences will overflow the cup and throw out all of the timings. This can lead to the trainer rushing through content without participants getting their hands dirty. Space has to be built in in advance. We need to not just build in 5 minutes for questions - but shift the mindset to letting the participants do some of the driving about how the course goes.

They are the audience after all. It is their needs which are being met. And perhaps what we thought we knew as trainers will also change and evolve too.

 The transpersonal psychologist Christopher Bache said that when being asked a difficult question by a student, sometimes he would find a pause in the flow of his mind, a break in his thinking and that in these moments, he would have the opportunity to chose improvisation...He said he would discover a small door at the back of his mind where new suggestions and thoughts would come in and new ideas would flow between him and the students. He would write these all down at the end of the class. He said, 'often we learn what is emerging only as we move into action. The key is to act and remain open - so that the 'small door' does not slam shut in our haste and because of our focus on the task at hand.' (pg 146, 'Presence', P. Senge et al).

As an aside - there are lots of articles on mindfulness and learning/training but unfortunately, you have to pay for them so for the time being, here is a link to an abstract if you are interested in this topic:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02601370.2010.512792
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13636820.2011.563862
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0883035587900061