The galaxy of the common person: finding ways to gain and keep adult learners’ attention [1]

Of all Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction (Gagne,R.,1965), perhaps the most challenging and elusive one for those dealing with corporate training audiences is gaining attention… and holding it all the way.

 

Unlike their academic peers, corporate trainers do not address full-time students, nor do they have the pressures of grades or the goal of degrees working in their favor. In addition, when it comes to content appreciation, trainers and participants often seem to come from different “planets”.

 

Professional educators and subject matter experts (SMEs), as specialists, tend to view learning content as the most appealing and valuable part of their activity.  This is certainly a different perspective from that of busy working adults engaging for a short period of time in a training activity to solve specific, work-related problems.

 

How can we gain and maintain the attention of these types of participants when the goal is to master and apply abstract concepts such as securitization, virtual technology or situational leadership in their daily work? How can we help educators and trainers to better communicate and reach audiences when the point of departure and the destination of the learning process are so distant? Moreover, how can we help educators and SMEs gain and maintain learners’ attention in a simple, yet compelling way?

 

Let me start by quoting an observation by Larry Nolan Davis on this topic: “Adults are people who have relatively large bodies subject to the stress of gravitational stimuli” (Davis, L.N. & McCallon, E., 1974). Following the idea of attention as the result of “gravitational” force, I found that a metaphor of a small galaxy with the learner at its center could provide trainers and educators with a simpler, yet effective approach to gaining and keeping the learner’s attention.

 

As in a planetary system, gravity is stronger at the natural center of interest (me) and gradually reduces as the content is more distant or loosely related to that nucleus.

Following the stellar map of Figure 1, we can see how “hot,” high attraction issues are those directly related to our self and our primary group – family, friends or coworkers with whom we have face-to-face and frequent interaction. Towards the “cold,” low interaction side of the spectrum are those issues that affect our secondary group – our company, church, county, country or sports team - and finally, those abstraction, theories and distant historical events.

 

When trainers or teachers start with less attractive issues such as theories or company policies, they must push to gain attention from their audiences for these low attraction issues. Effective strategies for gaining and keeping attention should relate theories and abstractions (Planet 4) with each individual learner at a personal level (Planet 1), with a learner’s primary group realities, experiences and needs (Planet 2) and his/her cultural context (Planet 3) before introducing high-level theories and abstractions.

 

While “cold,” low attraction issues such as theories or policies may require a “push” effort from the trainer and/or the program design, “hot,” high attraction, topics may “pull” the learner’s interest without additional effort. Pushing strategies keep learners in a passive, receptive position, thus consuming more learning and teaching time and resources, whereas pulling approaches benefit from the energy generated by learners’ spontaneous, active involvement.

 

If we apply merchandising principles, “hot” items should be used to generate an attraction toward “cold” items by combining them along the user’s path in a way that makes learners perceive cold and hot items as related.

 

As in space travel, the most efficient way to get from the less attractive items (Planet 4) to more attractive issues (Planet 1) and vice versa without wasting our time or the attention of our audience is when the planets/issues are aligned. In training situations, alignment may be achieved by explicitly connecting and relating “cold” issues, e.g., situational leadership (SL) theory with “hot” ones, e.g.: problems the learner can solve by using SL in his current work environment.

 

Collecting information about the realities of the different “planets” involved may become a critical factor in producing alignment and reducing the effort and time required for the entire learning process.

 

This is how trainers and educators can successfully travel through the galaxy of the common person. Since teachers and SMEs are specialists and experts in content, they must realize that they must also travel to “visit” their audiences’ realities before launching an ambitious project for presenting theories or concepts.

 

After inviting you to explore the model, let me summarize my points with a short checklist related to the galaxy of the common person:

Gagne, R. & Medsker, K.  (1985) The Conditions of Learning. Boston

MA: Wadsworth Publishing

IDDE (1999) Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. IDDE Database. Retrieved on October 1999 from: http://ide.ed.psu.edu/idde/tree/treef.asp?start=1

Davis, L. N. & McCallon, E. (1971) Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Workshops. Austin, TX: Learning Concepts

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[1]

This article was originally published in Spanish as:

Bernardez, M. (1981) El Orden de Interés Psicológico. Instituto Nacional de la Adminstración Publica de Argentina.Direccion Nacional de Capacitacion, Cuadernos de Tecnología Ed