talk
NEVER LISTEN TO SOMEONE LIKE ME
An entertaining provocation on the intention/action gap
content
AUDIENCE
- HR Managers
- Learning & Development Managers
- Suitable for a networking event or conference
CONTENT
Most workplace training assumes that if people know what to do, they’ll do it. The neuroscience says otherwise. One part of the brain stores knowledge and another drives behaviour. Telling people things, however clearly, doesn’t reliably cross that gap.
What gets in the way of clear communication? Why do some presenters lose their audience five minutes in? Why is leading with your credentials a bad idea? The answers involve cortisol, threat detection, and a social radar that every audience member is running unconsciously.
What the research on memory consolidation recommends looks almost nothing like standard training design. Spaced repetition, retrieval practice, emotional activation, the quiz-before-you-teach technique – these aren’t soft preferences, they’re large impact strategies from cognitive psychology that most trainers quietly ignore. It’s easier to just deliver a Powerpoint. There are questions here that an L&D Manager could be asking all prospective trainers.
The talk is called Never Listen to Someone Like Me because it’s delivered as a conventional talk while arguing that conventional talks don’t work that well. The audience is in on the joke. It’s part provocation, part genuine instruction, and it ends by asking people to retrieve what they learned, which is either a self-aware close or proof that the speaker still hasn’t taken his own advice.
format
This short, humorous talk can be delivered with or without a slide presentation.
Duration: 20-25 minutes excluding question time