Imagine if you could double or even triple the effectiveness of your learning programs. How could you do that? By understanding that your learners have agency and working with that agency to help grow “super learners”. What if your learners proactively grew their own capability to engage with your L&D products?

Pat McLagan, author of Unstoppable You: Adopt the New Learning 4.0 Mindset and Change Your Life shared her work with the LCD community to show just how to accomplish this in last week’s Monthly Modern Learning Dialogue. Pat has spent her career focusing on transforming organizations through learning, and has been at the forefront of the intersection of change and learning.

In our LCD community dialogue, Pat discussed how L&D professionals have focused on understanding how we help learners learn better, from the actual design of our programming to the implementation of post-class support. What we haven’t done, however, is help learners “upgrade their learning skills as learning beings.”

When we think about how adults learn, the majority of learning is self-managed. The Learning Cluster Design model already makes great strides in providing meaningful choices for learners. Pat challenged our community to go further and equip learners to be in charge of their own learning and apply it out in the world.

Although we are flooded with information and ample opportunities for learning, how do we equip ourselves and our learners to actually learn in this day and age?

Below we breakdown the insights Pat shared into the following:

  • How Learning Mindset Evolves As We Grow, from “Learning 1.0” to “Learning 4.0”
  • Following 7 Steps to Empower Learning 4.0
  • Combining the Power of Learning 4.0 with the LCD Model

The 4.0 Learning Mindset

First, it’s helpful to understand the evolution of our own learning mindset, and how we arrive at what Pat calls “Learning 4.0”

  • Learning 1.0 – The learning we are wired to do from birth, trial, and error.
  • Learning 2.0 – The learning we acquired in school, how to study, setting the base for learning more.
  • Learning 3.0 – The learning we got in the “real world,” learning to get through life.
  • Learning 4.0 – The learning we get that gives us the knowledge and skills to manage our own learning process, creating “super learners.”

In order to unlock these “super learners” and turbocharge our program outcomes, we need to bring learners “in on the secret” when it comes to what we have learned about the neuroscience of learning.

To begin to facilitate how to learn, Pat suggests using the following language at the beginning of your learning programs to get the learner into a 4.0 learning mindset:

  • If you want to remember this information, here are some techniques you can use…
  • If you want to develop this skill, here is how skills are developed…(manage ebbs and flows of learning a new skill)
  • Here is a habit change guide…
  • Here is how you can set up your work environment so it’s friendlier to use what you learn here…

As Pat said to our community, “Every time a participant enters our learning programs, they should leave with better learning skills that are transferable to other situations.”

Becoming a 4.0 Learner in 7 Steps

Setting the expectation for our learners up for the successful ownership of their own learning is just the first step in becoming what Pat calls a “super learner.” The next step is to help them build their capability to learn in the digital age. Pat shares 7 steps for learners to follow:

  1. Hearing the Call – Notice there is a learning opportunity.
  2. Creating Future Pull – Put themselves into the future they want
  3. Search – Use resources that have the most to offer them
  4. Connecting the Dots – Putting the plan together and noticing they are learning something
  5. Mining for Gold – Process the new information, deal with bias, and use techniques for efficiency and effectiveness
  6. Learning to Last – Turn information into something permanent within them

Transfer to life – Transferring it into the real world

Pat has created the SMARTInside App to help everyone – your learners and yourself – grow their capability to learn.

Using 4.0 Learning with the LCD Model for High Impact

When looking at how the Learning Cluster Design model ties into the 4.0 Learning Mindset, we see the following connections:

  • Consider where learners are on their 4.0 learning journey as we develop learner personas so we can meet their needs and design the very best learning solutions
  • Offer multiple learning assets in general and spending effort making them accessible can help learners “Hear the Call” and “Search”
  • Make sure we have provided unplanned assets in the Social and Immediate touchpoints for learners to use (going far beyond blended learning) helps them “Learn to Last'” and “Transfer to Life”
  • When we design our detailed assets, we can encourage each of the 7 steps in the curricula or content design

Want to learn more about Pat McLagan and Learning 4.0? Visit her website to find her courses, books and assessments. Use the code: FutureReady for an exclusive LCD community discount to the SMARTInside App.

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We are just 6 weeks away from the start of our next public workshop – with early access opening March 29th. What’s holding you back from growing your learning in the latest design model? Let us know and we can share any support we have. We only offer these virtual workshops once per quarter to 15 people so register now!