We don’t do emotion at work, this is a business!

A common message I hear. I was going to say ‘a common cry I hear’, but the word ‘cry’ is a verb and also has an emotional meaning. And that is the whole point. We cannot learn effectively without involving the parts of our brain that handle how we feel.

Let’s examine real example. Last week we were all learning ways of training in a virtual classroom. I felt worried about training in a virtual class, so I did not say much to start with, and so I thought maybe I was not keeping up with my colleagues. Notice how my feelings led to actions led to thoughts:

Feel-Think-Do.

Research and common sense shows that personal learning experiences in life are deepest when they include a strong emotion; shock, fear, pleasure or excitement. Why is it that many training sessions leave you feeling flat, bored, or partially interested at best?

Assume that THINKING comprises of knowledge, logic and ideas, and that FEELING comprises of personal connection with the issue and engagement with others, and that DO comprises of active practice and application of ideas.

Many training sessions are heavily loaded with THINKING, which provides knowledge. As a trainer, this is easy to do, simply load plenty of concepts, models and ideas into a session. Some trainers assume that a good session means lots of models. 

To be fair, many trainers include a lot of DO in a session, this is the practical element. However, be careful, because DO does not mean a discussion or Q&A or even a role play. These activities involve a lot more logical thinking than they involve real in-the-moment applications. 

FEEL is the piece that is often ignored. We know that emotional connection with a topic, and engagement with other learners makes a huge difference in learning, so why does it make up so little of most courses? ‘No!’ I hear you cry (FEEL response again). ‘I am annoyed that you say this of my training!’ I hear you respond. Good – we have a feeling, and a strong one at that. Stronger the better. Simply asking people how they feel about a subject, or practicing a role play on handling emotions may not be enough. You have to generate the actual emotion naturally, in the learning experience, as a typical and usual reaction. This is not easy to either design, nor facilitate. And yet we agreed at the start that emotions play a vital part in learning?

Let me show you two options: These two illustrations show the emphasis that training sessions give to feel, think, and do, elements.

The balance may vary between learning needs, and that is ok. 

However is the balance as good as it could be? Here are two approaches to a training session, the size of the segments represents the emphasis and time given to each element.

What does this mean for managers? What does this mean for learning specialists? What does this mean for the facilitators of learning?

For managers:

-        It is not possible to separate emotions from performance and working life. People improve when they have a real feeling of connection with the importance of doing something. Remember, discussing feelings is not the same as being emotional, and it will give you an indication of the importance of an issue to people. People are not machines, but then you know this?

For learning specialists:

-        How are you going to design experiences that generate real, strong, emotions that connect with learning needs?

-        How will you convince your sponsors that feelings are as important as thinking in learning?

-        Can you reduce the volume of what people need to know, in order to spend more time connecting with it and doing something with it?

For facilitators:

-        Asking people about how they feel about something during training is a start, but not enough. Can you develop a technique that carefully and supportively allows people to really feel connected with their learning and those who are part of it?

-        Can you debrief learning activities that make sure real, live, feedback is given and felt?

-        Can you ensure people leave with a full learning experience that has ‘held up a mirror’, given people a surprise about themselves, and learnt something?

Does it matter? We all remember how some teachers made us feel at school? Remember events where we did something exceptional, good or bad? And we all remember some things for a long time! This is usually when feeling-doing-thinking, come together.

‘We don’t do emotion at work!’ Yeah right, it’s part of the human condition! If you want robots, then fine. If you want people who show passion for their work, that’s an emotion!

About the Author:

Nigel Murphy is Portfolio & Capability Development Director at MCE. He has a background in management in manufacturing, education and training. For the past 10 years he has worked on leadership programmes across the globe. He is interested in the mentoring of new managers and leaders, and leading remote teams of people in today’s globally dispersed businesses.

Cliff Dennett explains us what means for him : "Serious Game".

A series of interviews with experienced players and experts in human resources and organizational development. Here we ask the questions to  Cliff Dennett, the founder of Soshi Games www.soshigames.com  a serious games start-up in , Birmingham, UK.

MCE : So, you’re a big fan of serious games and their ability to change the mindsets  of the masses (your employees) and modify behaviour. Is that a good or a bad thing; are we in danger of crossing a border into the realms of interference from Big Brother?

Cliff Dennett (CD) : Any thoughts of Big Brother interference are really the domain of connecting technologies in general rather than games. People have already demonstrated their willingness to reveal their life antics to the world through the unparalleled take-up of Facebook and Twitter and also allow the stories of others on these networks to influence how they fell about the world and themselves.

For me, Serious Games are about combining what the gaming world has learnt over forty years about how to engage, with what the world of corporate IT has learnt about how to make processes efficient. If we can combine these, then the ROI from IT spend and employee satisfaction could be significantly improved.

MCE : And it is supposed to be immersive and FUN. Detractors say employees don’t come to work to have fun. Well, are they right or wrong?

 CD : My response is in danger of being a bit ‘head in the clouds’, fluffy and philosophical, but here we go anyway. Plato once said “You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. Yet even from school, we are taught to segregate work from play; a bell goes and it’s time to start class and work, then another bell goes and it’s time to stop work and start to play. Then another bell goes and play stops, work starts again. Then we grow up and start work and play only happens in the evenings and weekends and workers all over the world can’t wait for their holidays to take a break from work.

It seems almost too obvious to say that surely if we are having fun doing something, that thing is done with more passion, enthusiasm and probably therefore better. More than this, because we enjoyed it, we want to do it again, rather than staring at the clock, waiting for home time.

I think we have got this work/play split wrong and believe that if people can have more fun when managers ask them to do things, they will do those things much better. It’s no more difficult than that!

MCE : Next generation in the workplace grew up with X-Box, Wii U and the rest with movie quality graphics. So is that what we’ll need to provide if we’re to get full acceptance from our employees. Won’t this mean the creation of a new industry with new talent needed to make it work?

CD : Some of the best selling and most engaging games do not have “movie quality” graphics. Of course there are the big, so called triple-A games which cost hundreds of millions of Euros and hundreds of people to make. I don’t believe though that this is what we need in Serious Games. If you are trying to simulate an earthquake and want a full 3D virtual reality experience to train aid workers, then the more realistic the better. However, most problems in organisations that I see are much more to do with; communication breakdown, hidden agendas, defensive behaviours, people lacking confidence (exacerbated by social media by the way), not being solutions focused and getting stuck in their own mental models of the world. These kinds of problems can be addressed through gaming and don’t necessitate fancy graphics. It does however need careful consideration to apply the correct types of gaming for the right kind of challenge and providing an immersive and enjoyable experience for the participants.

MCE : Learning “on the move” is possible. But, all we see on our daily commute is people looking at movies or listening to music. How do you break down the barrier and get people eager to learn new stuff from new sources?

CD : Learning is fantastic fun. People who aren’t academic enjoy learning new things, it’s just that many people don’t realize it until they accidentally do so. If you tell people “right now you are going to learn something” a lot of people will switch off (or switch their music on). If however you say to someone “can you come and help me with this problem” and together you are immersed in an engaging challenge, that encourages both of you to play to your strengths and be respectful to others, people will have fun and accidentally learn new things.

What is your opinion about this article? What does mean for You Serious Game? Do not hesitate to comment below.