Making Skill Development Engaging and Strategic
I spend a lot of time thinking about the strategy behind learning–how learning solutions align with business priorities, designing roadmaps, assessing skills, and identifying career pathways.
This week, I took a step back to think from the learner’s perspective. As learning becomes increasingly embedded into business strategies and driven by the urgent need to develop skills, the vibrancy of the learning experience can sometimes get lost behind metrics and milestones.
While these strategic layers are crucial, I was reminded that learning must also be fun, inspiring, and energizing. Whether learners are clicking through an online course, immersed in a VR simulation, or participating in a leadership lab, the impact of learning is only as strong as the strategy and experience itself. If that experience is overshadowed by stressors, work demands, limiting environments, or boxes to check, the brain will start to disengage and and impact will suffer. That also means those metrics and milestones will suffer. Sound familiar?
The good news is, you can have both great metrics and engaging learning experiences. It just takes a little extra strategy–and a dose of neuroscience–to get there.
The Neuroscience of Learning
Neuroscience tells us that more complex thinking takes place in the frontal lobe of the brain, while task-oriented thinking happens in the back. Learners move between these areas to connect concepts and store information. When engaging with complex topics–like leadership development, communication, conflict management, or strategic thinking–the frontal lobe needs to be actively stimulated by both content and environment.
Just as learning initiatives need to be aligned with business goals, learning solutions need to be aligned with how the brain processes information. For task-oriented skills, static, structured learning methods may be most effective. However, when it comes to more complex, conceptual learning, the approach must be dynamic–embedding practice, application, and iteration into real-world experiences.
The content itself must also interact with the environment, both in and outside of the ‘classroom,’ to fully engage the brain in a multi-faceted, stimulating way.
The Learner and The Environment
While neuroscience helps us understand how learning happens, we can’t forget the human and external factors that shape the learning experience.
No single learning strategy can capture every dimension of each learner, but can get pretty close. Knowing your learning audience–what motivates them, how they prefer to engage, existing knowledge and skills, and how they view ‘fun’--helps determine the right solutions.
The environment where learning takes place also plays a critical role. And, strategically speaking, environment isn’t just about aesthetics–it’s about company culture, leadership, team dynamics, and the overarching attitude towards learning. When an environment fosters support, encouragement, career and skill development, and human-centered learning, learners are far more likely to be engaged and retain knowledge.
The Fun, Strategic Approach
How does your current learning strategy measure up? Are you balancing business goals with engaging experiences? If not, it’s time to rethink your approach.
The key is to keep your strategy multidimensional–don’t stop at aligning with business needs, drive that strategy all the way through to the individual. At Nicole Brooke we manage this multidimensional strategy by using this equation:
Business Priorities + Brain Science + Learner + Fun = Learning Solution
We take a holistic approach to ensure that learning strategies not only align with business priorities but also engage individuals in meaningful ways. We design solutions that drive engagement, foster ongoing skill development, create lasting impact, and embed fun.
When learning is both strategic and inspiring, everyone wins!
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