What Motivates You To Learn?

jgrom6
6 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

We recently bought a trolling motor for our pontoon boat. The motor has three ways to control it: a handheld joystick, a foot pedal, and through our fish finder.

There were many resources at my disposal to prepare for operating the motor before we took it out, but even as a self-proclaimed lifelong learner, I wasn’t motivated to do so.

We got on the water and I shifted the motor into the water with ease because of the simple design and pressed a big blue button that said, "power."

Then I went to turn on the handheld joystick, but it wouldn’t turn on. We tried every button and even checked the batteries, which I had just changed to be sure we had a full charge.

Then I decided that while I didn’t want to be on my phone all day while fishing, I had a great resource at my fingertips - Google, aided by Gemini.

I immediately got the answer: hold down the button with three lines, and we were underway. From there, I tried different functions: speed, direction, the anchor feature, etc.

I tried the foot pedal and realized it needed batteries too, so that wouldn’t work today. On the fish finder, I started exploring, but decided I would leave that for another day.

Could I have taken a course and been better prepared to use all the features on our first trip?

Sure.

But would I have remembered all of them?

No!!!

And honestly, I wasn’t motivated to take the time to go through all of that ahead of time. I was motivated to learn when I had a need - at the moment I needed it.

I think this is an important lesson for corporate learning.

Companies continue to put a lot of emphasis on traditional webinars, events, and training where usually an overwhelming amount of information is shared including details on the why, what, and how.

And there is absolutely a time and place for that.

With technological advancements such as embedded performance support, on-demand learning, and AI agents, companies are experiencing increased engagement with learning in the flow of work. These short, on-demand resources are accessible when employees have questions, face challenges, or need to accomplish tasks.

That shouldn’t surprise us.

It’s exactly what I did with my trolling motor.

I didn’t want to learn everything about it before I used it.

I wanted to go fishing.

When I had a problem, I wanted the answer.

When I wanted to try something new, I wanted to learn how to do it.

And when I experienced success, I was motivated to keep exploring.

Does that mean we should wing it with everything and hope the support is there in the moment?

No. There are plenty of situations where preparation and comprehensive training are important.

But unless it’s a high-stakes item that you must get right the first time, trying to teach people everything they might need to know before they need it may be wasted time, and much of it will likely be forgotten - see Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve.

So maybe we should rethink some of our training methods.

Attendance at live events doesn’t automatically translate to application.

And more information doesn’t automatically create more learning.

Maybe the better question isn’t, “How do we get people to attend the training?”

Maybe it’s, “What are people trying to accomplish, and how can we help them learn what they need, when they need it?”