Generative Conversation: A Crucial Ingredient for Transferable Learning
The first of an exploration of three key elements to support Transfer
As we continue our journey into the heart of professional learning, I'd like to delve deeper into a concept that has been the cornerstone of our discussion so far: Transfer. As previously positioned, Transfer, for us, is the observable positive change that stems from engagement in a learning opportunity. It is the proof of the pudding, the "why" behind every "what" and "how" in learning design and development.
In a world obsessed with engagement metrics and gamification, I’m arguing for a paradigm shift, one where the end goal of learning isn't just participation, but Transfer. But how do we get there?
I’m going to explore three key things that contribute to massively improving the chances for Transfer to occur.
The first of these is Generative Conversation.
But First…
In my last post I positioned this model as a way of understanding the ‘system’ of learning biologically:
In the middle, Working Memory and Attention have significantly smaller ‘bandwidth’, yet are the engine room of learning that transfers. My intention is to link the power of Generative Conversation to the focus and effort ‘phases’ of this model.
The Power of Generative Conversation
Generative conversation has very much a different feel than your garden variety chat. If you have been coached before, you have experienced a generative conversation. Focused, purposeful and explorative, generative conversations make sense and meaning (not always at the same time) of ideas, challenges and actions taken.
Think of a football match. It has a purpose, a focus, effort and sometimes progress and rewards. These events are often not spontaneous - the space in which they occur needs to be crafted before they can happen. Yes, both football and a generative conversation can happen without ‘planning’, but the ‘space’ must be present for these ‘pop-up versions’ to occur.
Generative Leaders create the spaces for sense and meaning-making conversation to happen. I would argue, the capacity to do so is a mission critical skill for any leader today.
Generative Conversation enhances learning transfer in several ways:
1. Facilitates Deep Processing: When learners engage in conversation, they're ‘forced’ to process information at a deeper level. The need to articulate thoughts, reason through points, and answer queries drives focus (Attention) and effort (Working Memory). This engagement encourages mental processing such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, promoting a more profound understanding and better retention of the material.
2. Promotes Personalization: Every learner is unique, with their own experiences, perspectives, and contexts. Generative Conversation provides a massively untapped avenue for learners to connect new information with their existing knowledge and experience. This connection helps the new knowledge to "stick" and increases the likelihood of transfer.
3. Underpins Social Learning: Humans are social creatures. We learn from observing others, mimicking behaviors, and receiving feedback. Conversations, therefore, play an essential role in our learning process. They provide a platform for collaborative learning, where ideas are exchanged, and feedback is shared.
4. Drives Continuous Improvement: In a generative conversation, learning never stops. Each dialogue opens doors to new insights, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. This is particularly facilitated by two questions:
What action follows my learning
What learning follows my action
Each dialogue opens doors to new insights, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. As learners keep adapting and evolving their knowledge, the chance of learning transfer with each iterative cycle also increases.
So here is the single simple idea from all of this:
In my view, the people who use this principle the most are coaches and facilitators, probably explaining the deep impact of their methodologies.
So what does this say about current learning design?
Seemingly, the most common course design is the classic online, asynchronous, self-paced program.
The last time you took one of these, how much talking did you do?
What degree of sense or meaning-making conversation did you have?
The overwhelming chances are very little at all.
I am unashamedly going to labour the point here - this is a prime cause of poor rates of Transfer for effort. Taking a look at the learning process model above, when we consume videos in the absence of generative conversation, we are engaging attention without the necessary effortful cognitive load. Further, we are seduced into thinking and feeling that we have achieved something, when in fact very little learning legacy has been created.
What next?
The point of this post is to open the can and let some worms out. It’s a provocation to trigger our own generative conversation.
I’m more than keen to read your thoughts and challenges.
But… it does not stop with the poke at our current way of doing courses. I have a range of potential strategies that get deeper into solving this particular problem with course design.
Then, there are two more problems to unlock, hope to have you stay the journey with me.