With a significant increase in the number of people working from home, it is now more crucial than ever that employees understand how to make the most of their time. Most importantly, leaders need to communicate this without applying unnecessary pressure. 

When employees feel motivated to work, they will inherently become more productive. The good news is, it is possible to create both a desire to achieve goals and immersion in a task. In this article, we explore what your team can do to improve their motivation to boost productivity. 

While it may seem like a random occurrence, we can create moments of complete immersion and motivation. In the 1970s, psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihályi referred to this experience as ‘flow state.’

Csíkszentmihályi defines ‘flow state’ as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” 

He adds that the experience involves “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away—time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” 

In a McKinsey study, executives reported being five times more productive when in flow. However, most of us spend around five percent of our working life in this state. According to the study, if leaders could increase this number to twenty percent, overall productivity would double. 

How to boost motivation and reach ‘flow state’

So how do we get into a flow state and boost productivity? Here are our top tips to help your employees get in the zone: 

When left unchecked, procrastination can become a chronic problem. When we don’t feel like completing a task, we are unable to see the impact of avoiding it long term, or how failing to do the work will stop us from reaching our goals. This thought pattern can create a negative downward spiral, which becomes difficult to reset.  

When you don’t enjoy a particular task and find yourself putting it off, it can be helpful to find a way to motivate yourself to do it extrinsically. To do this, start by building in a reward for completing the task, or a section of it. The reward then becomes the motivation, and you have created an incentive for getting the work done. Getting started is often the hardest part. 

Csíkszentmihályi explains that “flow also happens when a person’s skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge that is just about manageable, so it acts as a magnet for learning new skills and increasing challenges. If challenges are too low, one gets back to flow by increasing them. If challenges are too great, one can return to the flow state by learning new skills.”

There are some tasks we are not interested in doing. Some are too easy and some too challenging. The most common problem is that they just aren’t that interesting, or they have become repetitive. 

If this applies to a task you are trying to complete, think about how you could make it more challenging. Find out if there is something additional you could be doing, or set yourself a personal goal within the task. If the task is too difficult, you could break it down into more manageable steps or ask for further clarification.

If you do find yourself drifting into a distracted state, it can be helpful to work on self-awareness. If you can identify the moment you start getting lost in thought, you have a far better chance of rescuing yourself when you need to return to the task at hand. 

Distraction could also signal that it’s time for a break. Continuing to work when your brain needs a rest is about the most unproductive thing you can do. Even if you take five minutes away from your desk to walk around, this can quickly replenish your energy and ability to focus.

Meditation can also help with awareness. The fundamental aim of the practice is to notice when you are getting distracted, and this can help you to know when you are no longer engaged in your work. 

4. Understand your strengths and weaknesses

If you already know what you are good at, you can use this information to reach flow. For example, if you are completing a writing task and you find writing fairly easy, you’ll need to find a way to challenge yourself to become fully immersed in the task. There is always something you can work on. Find out what you need to do to improve, and focus on that.  

Equally, if you know the areas you struggle with, you can decide whether it is easier to delegate the task and more efficient to avoid it altogether. Alternatively, you could break the task down into smaller parts to become more engaged with it. 

Thinking about the enormity of a task before starting it can also trigger procrastination and anxiety. These thoughts are the enemy of flow. To avoid overthinking, break the task down into smaller chunks. 

For example, if you have to write a report, aim to write the first 100 words and then have a short break. It might also be helpful to plan out the task first, with headings and bullet points to guide you through each step. 

Take a look at our Go1 Optimising Productivity pathway. You'll find a wide range of courses to help you boost motivation and stay productive when working remotely.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and personal development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

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Using motivation to become more productive

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, productivity was the holy grail for employees and businesses. Everyone wanted to do more, in less time, and achieve optimal results.  

Now, for many companies, the focus is on survival. Those who are still able to work are doing so from home and may find themselves with a lot more time on their hands. There is time to reflect and to consider whether continually striving to achieve more is the best approach. While aiming high is crucial, it is equally important to maintain a balanced mindset. 

One of the best ways to improve productivity sustainably is to improve focus on the task at hand. Mastering attention can quickly improve both the quality and quantity of work produced.

In the modern workplace, the ability to hold attention on a task is becoming increasingly challenging. Author, Mark Manson, explains that we now live in an ‘attention economy.’ With endless knowledge now available at the click of a button, our attention is of high value to advertisers, companies, and organizations. 

While technology connects us to friends, family, and colleagues across the world, instant messaging is also making it difficult to remain focused.  

Unlike a computer, the brain is incapable of running too many complex tasks at once. It is impossible to chat to your colleagues and focus on work at the same time. Mental overload at work can also seriously affect productivity, wellbeing, and safety. 

26th president of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt, is said to have worked at the same time in the same place every day. He would work ignoring all other distractions that came his way. Although he would only spend a quarter of the average day working, he completed all of the tasks he needed to by using his time effectively.

In the 2016 book, Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World, Georgetown professor and author, Cal Newport, explores Roosevelt’s ‘deep work’ ethic. He defines ‘deep work’ as:

“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” 

Granted, Roosevelt lived in a world where fewer distractions were competing for his attention, but with discipline, it is possible to train your mind. 

When trying to improve productivity, many people focus on the outcome rather than the process. 

For example, you might set yourself the goal of responding to more emails in a certain amount of time. 

While this strategy creates a sense of urgency, it is outcome-based and, therefore, limited. Perhaps you are wasting time sifting through fifty junk emails every time you check your inbox. This part of the process needs to be streamlined if you are to see real results. 

Focusing on the task at hand can make it easier to improve your processes, save time, and get more done with less. 

Everyone is distracted by different things. It might be your thoughts, notifications, or particular people! You will know straight away what takes you away from your work. Finding a way to block out and manage these temptations isn’t easy, but the rewards will speak for themselves. 

Research also shows that every time your phone goes off, the distraction takes you away from the task. If possible, set aside specific times during the day to respond to emails and messages. 

Write a to-do list, but only for the day ahead. An endless list without any consideration for the time you have will not be useful. 

Try writing out what you aim to do for the day, and mark your top three priorities. If you manage to complete everything, you will have a greater sense of accomplishment, so make it achievable. Using a traditional to-do list can lead to procrastination and make you feel as though there is a vast, unmanageable mountain of work to do.

4. Use the Pomodoro technique to track your progress

This is a time management strategy developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The idea is to tackle a piece of work you need to get done in 25-minute intervals, followed by a short break.  

Why does it work? It fires up our reward circuits. If we promise ourselves a reward (or break) at the end of completing a section of work, we are extrinsically motivated to complete the task. This approach can help with getting started, particularly with tasks you are not intrinsically motivated to do.

The brain is plastic, meaning that at any point in life, we can teach it new things or learn healthier habits. Focus is a skill that we all can develop, and meditation is a fantastic way to practice it. 

Meditation involves training the mind to focus on the breath, and this focus can translate to your daily life long after you stop practicing. You will also be able to catch yourself when you are thinking about how cute your dog is or what you ate for breakfast, instead of writing up the report due at the end of the day. 

Why focus is the key to productivity in the attention economy 

Across the globe, social distancing measures are now in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. With these changes comes a substantial increase in the number of people working remotely. Leaders are now re-thinking their approach to management to maintain business as usual and minimize disruption.

To offer leadership teams support, we have explored the research on leading remote workers, and offer some tips to keep teams on board and engaged. 

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, one study found that 70% of workers globally were working remotely at least once per week. 

Leadership in a remote work setting was also a concern for many organizations. In the Deloitte Human Global Capital Trends 2019 report, “the ability to manage on a remote basis” was believed by 50 percent of respondents to be a unique requirement for 21st-century leaders. 

In an article for the MIT Sloan Management Review, Whitney Johnson explains that managers of remote teams need to be aware of the challenges involved. She summarises the potential pitfalls into the following categories:  

When members of your team work in different countries, communication can become complicated. Employees share information at a slower rate, and managers need to be aware of how this affects productivity. 

Text-based communications also limit the meaning we can derive from a conversation. According to research, 93 percent of communication occurs nonverbally through body language and tone of voice. We only receive seven percent of understanding through words. Managers need to be aware of the moments where a phone or video call would be more appropriate. 

There are many tools to support project management, but it can still be difficult for managers to know who is doing what. When workers are in the office, managers can wander through the room and check-in with employees, which isn’t possible remotely. 

In this case, leaders need to encourage employees to reach out to them more often and to highlight their achievements. 

When building a remote team, it can be tempting to seek out employees who are experienced and can deliver with little guidance or instruction. This approach has its benefits when employees are working remotely, but leaders do miss out on the energy and creativity of less experienced, but perhaps more enthusiastic employees. 

It is essential to keep a balance here and to accept that you may be in contact with new hires who work remotely more often than seasoned professionals. You will also need to develop a robust training system. 

When it comes to technology, managers must understand that not all employees have access to a high-speed internet connection or the latest technology. Even those who do might have technical difficulties. Be patient and understanding in these circumstances, and support your team members as best you can. 

Reflecting on this information, the following tips will help you to get your remote team operating successfully:

Working with others face-to-face has many benefits. We can collaborate more efficiently, connect with others, and their intentions become more transparent.

Instant messaging is undoubtedly useful, but it is crucial to be aware that much of what is said is lost when we communicate in this way. If there is conflict or tension, misunderstandings can happen quickly.

When communicating with your team, be aware that sometimes a call would be better to avoid misinterpretation. 

While it is relatively easy with modern technology to connect with a team member or a small group of people on a conference call, it can be harder to get the whole team together. Team members might be used to after-work drinks on a Friday night, or regular dinners with colleagues.

In this case, it might be worth putting it to a vote and seeing whether your staff would like to do an end of week call. Using video call software, everyone can dial in when they are ready. Employees who feel comfortable could take it in turns to lead the call. This strategy works well to connect the remote members of the team at Go1! 

Before employees can work efficiently in a remote setting, organization leaders need to develop the appropriate culture. This process includes building trust between team members at all levels.

Doing so can be challenging when you don’t see your employees on a day-to-day basis, but the work they deliver will give you an idea of how well they are performing. 

Focus on monitoring which team member is delivering what, and only chase up if they fail to meet their targets. 

Linked to building a culture of trust is encouraging your team members to become more autonomous. As a manager of a remote team, it can be hard to keep track of the different projects happening. The more employees can lead themselves and keep you informed, the better.

On a systemic level, independent thought can be challenging to manage, particularly in a large organization. Nevertheless, autonomous work is a necessary part of progress, and organizations need to embrace it to keep up with the pace of change. 

Autonomy also gives employees the headspace and confidence they need to make creative contributions - an essential skill in today’s work landscape. 

5. Ask your team for regular feedback on their experience

Although there is a growing bank of research on remote work, managing a team offsite is a relatively new concept. COVID-19 has also forced many unprepared organizations into remote settings. 

If your team is new to remote work, it is crucial to check in with them regularly at the beginning. Ask them about team cohesion, and whether they know what projects they are assigned to. If there are problems with communication, project management, or IT support, they will let you know, and you can make adjustments accordingly. 

Take a look at our Go1 Leading Remote Workers pathway, a curated pathway of courses to equip yourself to work comfortably from home, while maintaining productivity and supporting your team successfully.	

What to look out for when leading your team virtually

Millennials are becoming parents.  In fact, not only do millennials make up roughly 90 per cent of the childbearing population, but by 2025, they will also account for a whopping 75 per cent of the workforce.  

Chances are right now you are creating a marketing strategy to entice millennials through the door by a) enrolling their children in your centre, or b) joining your team of educators.  

What are they looking for in both of those scenarios?  Professional development.  In education, the term ‘professional development’ speaks of various professional training, formal qualifications, further education and advanced online learning, intended to extend the knowledge and skills of educators.  Millennials not only value professional development for themselves in the workforce, but also for their children.  

No matter the age group of your team, educators require ongoing professional development.  And here’s the top four reasons why:

1. Developing the skills to grow your career

The rapid pace of technology means that even the most proficient educators require ongoing training.  Interactive whiteboards, apps, projectors, smart TVs and devices are all commonplace in child care centres nowadays.  Reliance on course management systems and customer relationship management programs for communicating with parents is vital to running a centre efficiently. 

Empowering educators to develop the technical, quantitative and analytical skills to analyse student performance and behavioural data, provides the opportunity for teaching modes to be adjusted based on the outcome.  Not only does this create an effective curriculum and learning environment, but also frees up time management can better spend elsewhere.  

Online learning gives educators the chance to learn skills that they may not have been exposed to in a practical setting.  For instance, learning effective ways of teaching children with learning disabilities, speech impairments or limited language - before the educator encounters the situation in a practical setting - allows them to be better prepared and more competent.  According to the Education Reform, by improving these fundamental teaching techniques, educators are more adept at framing questions that provoke deeper thinking and meaningful responses from young children.  

Empowering educators through training and opportunities for career progression creates a positive culture that attracts and retains high-quality staff.  As mentioned above, by 2025, millennials will make up 75 per cent of the workforce.  According to Childwatch, not only are millennials more educated than any generation before them, they are keen to continue learning.  Over 50 per cent stated that they would sacrifice a higher salary for a job that offered personal growth potential and educational opportunities.  

Supporting both personal and career growth through online training programs makes staff feel valued.  According to research, millennials crave constructive feedback, leadership skills development and job satisfaction.  Millennials who are happy with the development opportunities on offer are twice as likely to remain working for a company than otherwise.  

In 2017 millennials made up 90 per cent of all new parents.  Having grown up connected, 85 per cent use social media, answer texts within three minutes and admit that technology and the internet have fundamentally influenced how they think, communicate, work, problem solve, buy and parent.  Staying up-to-date with successful online marketing techniques is crucial to lead generation, as more and more parents rely on social media to source, compare and register for centre tours online.  Millennial parents stay close to their phones, with 81 per cent sharing photos of their children on social media. 

Scrolling through the referrals of high-quality centres during the lunch break or work transit is quick and efficient.  To target your audience effectively, a digital marketing strategy driving lead enquiries and enrolments is necessary.  Learning strategies of marketing automation, effective CRM platforms and copywriting can all increase the ROI and overall profitability of your centre

Go1 is committed to helping child care centres succeed.  With on-demand courses taught by industry experts and available at leisure, Go1’s online learning portal is changing the game.  Go1 offers a wide range of professional development courses for child care educators.  Learn more about how Go1 can help your child care centre grow through training.

Four compelling reasons why child care educators require ongoing professional development

Anita Whitelum, National Manager of HealthStaff Ed, shares her insights on the benefits of using online CPD training for healthcare staff.  

Healthcare provider learning programs are about delivering education that contributes to safe, quality care that is consistent, and within a framework that is transparent and effective. 

The demand to give greater access to quality Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is ever-increasing and providers are looking to solutions that will complement their internal program. 

This is where eLearning comes in. Like most technologies, eLearning has come a long way in the past decade. Most eLearning has moved on from uploading word documents to the internet – we have the means to create interactive, engaging, learner focussed material that can open up thousands of opportunities to teach – and for an individual to learn. And it’s now universally accepted that people learn in different ways and via a variety of mediums.

Blending your learning strategy to include online CPD has a number of great benefits:

It allows your education team to focus on the training that is highly individualised to your facility.

It’s highly cost-effective, providing a great return on investment.

It provides access 24/7 meaning shift workers never miss out.

It’s a highly effective way of delivering a large portion of mandatory training.

It gives people ownership over their training and keeps them constantly engaged.  

We’ve put together 5 suggestions for packages that will assist in meeting mandatory learning needs as well as provide great opportunities to your people to consolidate and advance their knowledge. 

Personal protective equipment (CPD: 1 hour)

Managing blood and body fluid spills (CPD: 2 hours)

Reducing injuries from sharps (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Predicting, preventing, and managing violence (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Managing acute severe behavioural disturbances (CPD: 2 hours)

Post violent incident response (CPD: 1.5 hours)

Communicating for safety: Effective clinical handover (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Recognising and responding to acute deterioration in adult patients (CPD: 2.5 hours)

Falls prevention in older adults (CPD: 3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Prevention and early identification of skin damage (CPD: 2.3 hours)

Pressure injury and ulcers - Staging and treatment (CPD: 2.75 hours)

Providing a safe environment for children and young people

Working with children: Identifying and responding to vulnerable children (CPD: 3 hours)

Working with vulnerable children: Mandatory reporting (jurisdictional based) (CPD: 1 hour)

Vulnerable young people and the age of consent (CPD: 1.75 hours)

Identifying and responding to elder abuse (CPD: 3.2 hours)

Elder abuse - Reporting elder abuse in aged care (CPD: 1.25 hours)

In short, the need for healthcare providers to give access to quality CPD is only going to grow and getting on the front foot with a strategy that blends online CPD with your in house program is a win/win - for your people, they get the best of both worlds - and for you - you get to focus your attention on the really important facility-based training and leave the rest to a quality online provider. 

Setting the benchmark for online CPD in Australia, HealthStaffEd provides the best in current, relevant, interactive learning providing knowledge where and when it's needed.

Get started with HealthStaffEd training content!

Help your healthcare team hit their mandatory training and CPD  requirements

In recent times, the rapid development of technology has created an urgent need for invention, new lines of thought, and inquiry.

In this social context, creativity and problem-solving skills are among the most desirable, yet sometimes challenging to develop in the workplace. 

Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt at Google explains that design-thinking helps teams to foster a culture of innovation. It helps to generate and test ideas creatively and effectively. 

He adds that the approach develops an individual’s capacity to innovate by encouraging them to practice a certain mindset. They can then apply these skills to a variety of tasks. 

Organizations and individuals across disciplines are adopting the concept, which is revolutionizing the way teams approach the development of new products, systems, and processes. 

Design thinking has roots in a range of disciplines, and gradually developed through the design of new products, buildings, and machines. The concept is now applied more broadly in response to the need for innovation in our time. 

This broadening of the concept’s applications has been criticized for trivializing the design process, but it is undoubtedly useful in many contexts.

Organizations can use the design thinking cycle as a roadmap for innovation at a team or individual level. The process has almost limitless applications and can help to remove the stumbling block of generating ideas. 

One of the great benefits of the cycle is that it trains people to become solution-focused. The goal of the process is to come up with answers, not create more problems. This mindset can help to boost productivity and positive feedback loops. 

The cycle involves six stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, implement. Each stage encourages different thought processes and helps to build creative momentum:

Design Thinking 101  Neilsen Norman Group

To explain how the process might be used in the workplace, imagine your team is tasked with devising a new social media strategy. You can start by empathizing with different members of your target audience. What do they want to know? What are the pain points in their lives? What problems do they need to solve? 

Then comes the fun part, and your team can brainstorm content ideas together. You would then pick out a few ideas that represent key themes that pop up. After that, you would test run a few posts to see how your audience responds. If these ideas are received well, they could be built into your new strategy. If some don’t work, you could go back to any point in the cycle to find out why and problem solve. 

And the process doesn’t just apply to inherently creative tasks. Perhaps your team needs to come up with a new system to make a process more efficient. Each stage of the design thinking cycle could be applied in this context to ensure that the most effective idea is implemented. 

1. Requires employees to engage in higher-order thinking skills

Higher-order thinking skills, such as innovating, creating, and critical thinking, are now in high demand. This trend will continue as the need to develop new products, ways of working, and technologies increases.

When employees are encouraged to engage with higher-order thinking skills, they require more attention and utilize more brain capacity. As a result, they will be more motivated by the tasks and invested in the outcomes. 

The design thinking process is very active and participatory. When employees work in this way, they have the opportunity to learn experientially, through testing their ideas and learning from mistakes. 

According to the 70:20:10 model for learning and development, 70 percent of learning in the workplace is experiential — learning through practice and experience, followed by reflection, critical analysis, and application.  

3. Strategies and ideas can come from anyone

A generally held view is that strategy is the sole responsibility of those at the top of an organization. Those in leadership set the strategic direction of the company and steer the team in that general direction.  

While executives do need to take charge and make final decisions about which way to head, this approach can lead to missing the ideas of those working at other levels of the organization. Employees are generally an untapped resource of creativity and innovation - implementing the design thinking cycle can help to uncover this.

When employees are encouraged to use higher-order thinking skills such as creativity, this automatically boosts engagement and motivation to complete a task. 

Researchers have also linked better engagement in workplace tasks to the retention of staff. Staff retention is a problem across organizations in the modern workplace and can have a direct impact on productivity.

If team members are using the design cycle to come up with new ideas, processes, and concepts for their organization, they will invariably hit stumbling blocks along the way. Perhaps they aren’t confident in collecting reliable data to develop an understanding of customers. Maybe low self-confidence holds them back from contributing ideas to a brainstorming session.

Wherever the problems arise, they provide employees with an opportunity for learning and professional development. If an employee wants to learn more about collecting data, she could enrol in an introductory course. If he has an issue with self-confidence, an online course might help to reframe his thinking.

A one-stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

Sophia is a freelance writer who specialises in thought leadership, opinion pieces and content creation for learning publications. Her work focuses on the latest research in learning theory and practice. She regularly contributes articles on workplace learning and professional development to the Go1 blog. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

Help your employees to innovate using the design thinking cycle

'Sticky learning' is a popular new buzzword in workplace training, but the concept is nothing new. When educators teach new knowledge or skills, their aim has always been for participants to be able to retain that knowledge and apply it. 

Presenting content in a way that makes it memorable can be the key to a successful lesson. Armed with the knowledge of the tools designers use to shape the learning experience, those responsible for learning and development can select quality learning content that will have an impact. 

In the 1960s, the ‘learning pyramid’ first appeared in educational research, and remains popular among learning designers and educators. The theory is attributed to the National Training Laboratory, although there are many different versions. Essentially, the pyramid is a guide as to the types of activities that are most effective for memory and retention:

Today, psychologists and neuroscientists argue that the pyramid is oversimplified and that a vast range of variables can affect memory, such as age, what facilitators instruct the subjects to do and a learner’s current knowledge of the lesson content. 

While learning designers and facilitators can take steps to improve retention, the responsibility also lies with the learner. Strategies such as focusing attention, structuring and organizing key points, and visualizing concepts can all help participants to recall important facts.

While the accuracy of the data reported in the learning pyramid is questionable by today's understanding of learning science, there are features those responsible for learning and development can look out for to select learning materials that will be 'sticky'. The following tips will guide you through the process:

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to make this more achievable.

If learning material targets the individual needs of an employee, they are far more likely to be engaged with the content, and hence more likely to remember it. If they see the knowledge as relevant and useful to their work, they are far more likely to recall it and use it in the future.

2. Look for a single, clear learning objective 

A critical yet often overlooked element of learning design is ensuring that a lesson focuses on one learning objective and sticks to it. When a session includes more than one objective, it lacks clarity and it becomes more challenging for learners to retain the material.

For any lesson to be effective, designers need to set the learning objective out at the beginning, and the learner needs to be made aware of what it is they are focusing on from the outset. 

Look for learning materials that map out learning objectives for each lesson, and make it clear how participants are going to reach that goal. 

Scaffolded learning is structured and supports participants in reaching the desired objective of the lesson. Designers can scaffold knowledge through the inclusion of certain activities or resources. They can design tasks in the session to gradually build towards participants demonstrating their understanding of the final objective. 

Before selecting learning materials for your colleagues, scan over the contents of the lessons. Does each lesson guide participants to help them reach the ultimate learning objective, or do the activities seem muddled and unfocused? 

4. Look for audio-visual, or storytelling elements

Attaching new facts to music or visuals makes it much easier for the brain to recall them. We can remember details from text alone, but audio-visual elements help to cement new facts in memory. 

When learning designers weave in a storytelling element, this is equally effective. Research shows that when teachers incorporate storytelling into learning, they help learners to retain content, no matter what their learning style is.

Uri Hasson from Princeton explains that a story is the only way to activate specific parts of the brain. When hearing a story, the listener automatically turns what they pick up into their version, which forms part of their experience. We are wired to listen to stories as a way of passing on and remembering essential facts, which is why a narrative structure works so well in a learning context.  

5. Encourage employees to develop good learning habits

While a well-designed course that meets an employee’s learning needs will significantly improve retention, learners can also take steps to help with their memory and recall. 

Attention is one of the essential parts of memory. For information to move from the short term memory to the long term memory, participants have to actively engage with that information, ideally in a place free from distractions. 

Organizing new facts can also help the brain with memory. If participants take notes while they complete online courses, or they collect additional resources, encourage them to keep materials on related topics in one place, or find ways of grouping the resources.

Using colors to organize information into groups can also help to jog the memory, and help learners to recall large amounts of information associated with that color.

A one stop shop for all things training, Go1 makes it easy to compare the best training options available, and find the right resources for your professional development, compliance, and business training needs. 

With courses that cover numerous business functions, we help your staff grow into their role by unlocking their potential. Content is at all levels of difficulty and is suitable for any employee, in any department, in any region.

How to make learning stick: a guide to 'sticky learning' 

While there are several compelling reasons for organizations to invest in professional development, employees must be engaged in the learning process before anybody can reap the benefits. 

In a recent article for Go1, I considered the barriers to learning that organizations come up against and how to mitigate them. One of the most significant hurdles employees face is failing to see the bigger picture. They don’t understand why they need to learn or how it is relevant to their work. 

Many employees might also have had negative experiences of learning in the past. School might have been tedious or stressful, and they aren't interested in more formal study. 

Part of the challenge for L&D professionals is selling the idea of learning, and helping employees connect to the broader purpose is a crucial part of the process. 

Ultimately, if learners are engaged, they will retain information, be able to apply it, and be more satisfied in their jobs. 

Data from the LinkedIn Learning 2019 Workplace Learning Report reveals that 74% of employees want to learn during their spare time at work. The desire to learn is not an issue for the majority. 

If the drive to learn is there, employees can be intrinsically motivated to engage with content. It is the systems around learning which are preventing them from connecting. 

The report also shows that there are broader benefits to learning at work. When compared with ‘light learners’ (those learning less than one hour per week), ‘heavy learners' (those learning five hours or more per week) were 78% more likely to know where they wanted to go in their career, 48% more likely to have found purpose in their work, and 47% less likely to be stressed at work.

Sharing this data with employees could help them to connect with the process of learning on a deeper level and understand how it will benefit them. Other strategies can also be useful. 

Helping your colleagues connect with the purpose of learning

1. Develop the learning culture in your organization

For employees to connect with learning, those in leadership need to focus on the learning culture in the organization. While employees both want to learn and have the best intentions to do so, they will find it challenging if the rest of their team or superiors are not interested. Everyone has a role to play in developing a strong learning culture, but it begins with those in leadership prioritizing and valuing learning. 

2. Communicate the broader benefits of learning

There are many benefits to learning beyond being a diligent employee. A regular learning practice can alleviate stress, help employees to define the direction of their career, and help them to find purpose in their work. 

If employees understand that learning can have such a positive impact, they are far more likely to connect with the purpose. Immediately, they will be able to see how it can benefit them, their colleagues, customers, and the organization as a whole. 

Before employees can connect with learning, resources available to them have to be both relevant to their role in the organization and appropriate to the level of knowledge or skill. 

Lev Vygotsky, the psychologist whose theories underpin educational practices today, developed the concept of a ‘zone of proximal development’. This term describes the point at which a learner can use their current experience to construct new knowledge or skills, through interaction in an appropriate social environment. Along with suitable content, the environment or organizational culture needs to enable learning and keep employees moving forward. 

4. Look for opportunities to personalize the learning experience

Personalizing learning is the difference between content being engaging or boring. Content needs to address an individual’s learning needs as accurately as possible, and advancing technology is helping to simplify this process.

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