7 key levers to activate for better learning

Every day, we help employees and managers boost their learning efforts.

Why learn at this point in your career? What skills should you develop? What attitude should you have towards learning? How can you anchor what you learn in order to maximize its benefits?

At Boostalab, we spend most of our time studying the science of learning. Through our experiments and research, we have defined 7 major levers to activate in order to learn better.

Lever #1: Give choices

Autonomy is one of the fundamental needs for wellbeing and performance at work.

Also, giving learners choices means giving them a degree of autonomy that allows them to take ownership of their learning project. Indeed, when we freely choose to invest ourselves in learning a new skill, we anchor this idea in our own reality. It becomes real and an integral part of our ongoing projects. But above all, we have a greater motivation to surpass ourselves.

As we saw in our article Hybrid work mode: Why is it important to give a choice?, not having a choice can be a major source of stress. On the other hand, having a choice makes us grow wings.

Lever #2: Learning through action

Learning through action enhances memorization and understanding of a subject. Indeed, quickly applying what you have just learned increases the chances of remembering it in the long term.

Learning is contextualized. It is not just theoretical or abstract. What you learn makes sense and you see the benefits quickly.

And you don’t have to wait for a class or a work session. In fact, there are daily opportunities to put your new knowledge into practice. You just have to be aware of them. But since it’s not always easy to keep your mind sharp and see these opportunities to practice, we are here to guide you through our solutions.

Lever #3: The learning mindset

Trying new things is not easy. It’s scary. It makes you doubt and feels uneasy sometimes. Indeed, it is uncomfortable to feel like a novice again, when you have been the expert for a long time.

However, destabilization is necessary to get out of your comfort zone. By stepping out of your zone, you open yourself up to new ways of doing things, new horizons and this is what allows you to grow.

Furthermore, taking a step back is essential to your development. This is how you reflect on what you have learned and how you refocus your intentions. Added to that, it helps you take care of yourself and align your behaviors with your core values.

So, one of the key levers to succeed in learning well is to adopt the right attitude, the growth mindset. A good learning mindset allows you to let go of certain beliefs and habits and develop new ones. You are more positive, you allow yourself to make mistakes (it’s essential for your development!) and above all, learning a new skill becomes immediately more enjoyable.

Lever #4: Intrinsic satisfaction

Personal motivation is a lever for long-term transformation. Without intrinsic motivation, it is difficult for the learner to give meaning to their learning efforts, let alone encourage them.

When you feel proud of the path you have taken, when you feel you are becoming a better person, or when you see the direct benefits on your professional and personal life, you naturally put more effort into your learning.

Then, perhaps the new skill you are developing will become a strength later on? People who work to their strengths are more motivated, more determined, and more cheerful in life. Isn’t that what we all want?

Lever #5: The social dimension

Social affiliation is one of the fundamental needs for wellbeing and performance at work. Learning together opens up your perspectives. Moreover, by learning as a team, you draw on the knowledge and experience of others as well.

When employees are involved in the development of the team, the work of each person takes on its full meaning. Finally, when you share what you’ve learned, you anchor it a little more deeply, and you expose yourself to feedback to help you gain more awareness.

This is why the social dimension is a powerful lever for learning how to learn.

Lever #6: Accessible content

We could write a novel on each of the topics we cover. In fact, if you do some research, you may find that there are tons of scientific studies, literature, and books written on these topics.

Our team loves to read and dive into complex literature and the latest neuroscience articles.

But we know that not all of us have the same attraction for such content and that their formats are not adapted to all learners. Moreover, with increasingly busy schedules, it is not always easy to make time for reading.

That’s why we work on our tools and solutions in order to keep only the best of our research. This way, you will always have the most relevant, useful, and up-to-date content for your needs.

Lever #7: Fun!

Because… Why not?

Well, OK: Because learning requires destabilization. And destabilization is uncomfortable by definition! When there’s no fun, it’s boring, and it doesn’t make us want to dive into the task.

At Boostalab, we are big fans of fun learning solutions. First of all, we believe that it is important to have fun in life. Secondly, having fun is essential to enjoying the experience. When you have fun doing something, you’ll go back to it without a problem. Better yet! You run to it.

That’s why we put a lot of effort (and pleasure!) into making our solutions more and more playful, fun, and enjoyable. Whether it’s in the facilitation of our solutions, in the tone and manner in which the content is delivered to you, or in your customer experience in general, we promise you a fun journey.

Learning new things is not as easy as you might think. However, you can learn how to learn. It’s a skill that will be useful in your personal and professional life and we explain it in our article Why you should learn to how to learn.

In our autonomous learning solutions, this is also what we recommend that you learn (in addition to the chosen topic!). Better yet, we help you master the learning process. Are you interested?