The 4MAT Hemispheric Mode Indicator measures our preference for right-mode of left-mode thinking. With an awareness of your natural preference for one mode of thinking over another, trainers, instructional designers and learners can more readily recognize how to stretch into their under-utilized learning mode. Most of the participants in our 4MAT instructional design courses and train the trainer courses share with us that the right-mode learning strategies are most likely to be missed.
We know now that the right brain plays an essential role in learning. As recently as the early 1980’s, neuroscientists believed the right side of the brain was mostly unnecessary. Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Roger Sperry, shared in his 1981 Nobel lecture, the right hemisphere was “not only mute and agraphic but also dyslexic, word-deaf and apraxic, and lacking generally in higher cognitive function.” Sperry made it sound like our right brains might be non-essential.
What if you only had a left brain? If we look at patients who have suffered damage to the right brain, we will find a list of symptoms and inabilities that give insight into what would happen if you found yourself missing the right part of your brain. Here’s what that might look like:
- You wouldn’t understand a joke.
- You would have no idea what Forrest Gump meant when he shared the metaphor “life is like a box of chocolates.”
- You would not be able to make sense of a map or any other visual tool.
- A 2-year could draw a more realistic house, cat or dog than you.
- You would have no concept of what Bob Dylan meant when he sang about “a rolling stone”:
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
All of the problems associated with right brain damage are related to the ability to relate one thing to another. The right brain enables us to make connections and synthesize which are essential acts in learning and innovation.
Without well-crafted right-mode learning strategies, learners have difficulty integrating learning into their lives. The 4MAT instructional model intentionally creates balance by moving the learner through a complete learning cycle while integrating both right and left-mode strategies. We have to constantly ask ourselves, “How balanced are the learning experiences I am creating?”
What do you think gets in the way of effective use of right-mode instructional strategies?
May 14, 2012
Our 4MAT team headed to the Serious Business conference in New Orleans to facilitate a best practice learning session and to take in the great line-up of presenters. Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate, shared a great story about her experience riding Walt Disney World’s Mission to Mars® attraction.
Hogshead shared that when you approach the entrance to the ride, you are given one of two options which we will call “intense” and “neutral.” The intense version promises danger, extreme risk and possible heart failure. The signs posted which predict possible death from the ride, the smell of fear and the attendant’s final warning before getting into the ride all escalate the anticipation of the ride. The neutral ride, on the other hand, promises a fun, safe ride for the weak at heart. Hogshead chose the intense version and lived to tell about it.
The minute she survived the intense version of the ride, Hogshead began to wonder what was the difference between the intense and neutral versions of the ride. She was compelled to go back and see for herself. Are you wondering what the difference was? No difference, whatsoever. Yep, those Disney folks are so clever.
I’ve been researching this concept of what makes an event memorable and believe there are three elements that contribute to the “memorability” of an event: anticipation, the peak of the experience (good or bad) and the tail end of the experience.
Anticipation: Think about how you anticipate and plan for vacations, weddings, that special night out … the more you anticipate, the more positive energy you bring to the experience.
Peak moment: When the peak of an experience is positive, the experience tends to be labeled as positive. When the peak moment is negative, it colors the rest of the experience. Think about that food poisoning from the sushi in Mexico. Food poisoning=Bad Trip.
The Tail End: When the peak positive moment comes at the end of an experience, you walk out on a high. Think of the encore at a rock concert — exploding fireworks, thousands of frenzied fans screaming and the lead singer smashing his guitar. Most excellent.
Marketing expert, Seth Godin, shares:
“Research shows us that what people remember is far more important than what they experience … The easiest way to amplify customer satisfaction, then, is to under-promise, then increase the positive peak and make sure it happens near the end of the experience you provide. Easy to say, but rarely done.”
What can we learn from this? Three ways to make training memorable:
1. Increase anticipation of the event. Think about how you can focus positive attention on the event before the event begins. Themes, invitations, reflective reading, provocative quotes are some of the many ways to get people thinking before they arrive.
2. Increase the “positive peak.” Powerful learning experiences include powerful learning moments. How can you amplify this? Are there any detractors from the experience that you can minimize or eliminate?
3. Create a memorable ending. If you had to graph the trajectory of a learning experience, where does it peak? Is the best, most powerful moment happening near the end of a learning event? Or, does the experience start strong and trend downward from there?
Can you think of an experience that created anticipation and/or included a positive peak moment near the end?
March 7, 2012
What we believe to be and what we believe will be has a great impact on what actually is.
Continue April 18, 2009
