There are two parts of learning something: 1. Figuring out how to do the thing 2. Practicing it Part 1 is fun, easy, and even exciting. We can read, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos and start to rack up this knowledge almost without lifting a finger. A bit of this is useful – we need a concrete target to...
Tough emotions – stress, anxiety, fear – hold a lot of power over the way we perform, learn, and handle setbacks. We feel nervous before a big game or presentation and don’t perform our best. We’re presented with a challenge, we feel uncomfortable, we decide we’re not ready. We feel weird about speaking up or asking a question and then...
It’s 6:45pm. Friday night. A small friend squad is at my house. We’re sitting around the table talking, eating, the usual. After the snacks and chats it’s time for the main event – it’s game night bby. I head to the shelf to pull out some of our go-tos: Camel Up, Catan, What Do You Meme? My girlfriend, Emily, stops...
With our SFCOHTGGAS post we established that our mindsets have a big impact on our capacity to grow and that developing a growth mindset – the belief we can grow – can help us become better learners. That’s all great, but unfortunately it’s where most people stop when they teach growth mindset: “Our mindsets matter. Developing a growth mindset is...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Fear & Resilience APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Emotions, Learning, and Resilience The way we traditionally look at emotions can hurt our capacity to grow. To become a better learner we need to change our perceptions of emotions, learn to feel them, understand them, and to work with them rather than against them....
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Leadership & Learning Environment APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY How to Improve the Learning Environment with Modeling Our actions have more of an impact on the learning environment than we realize. If we understand the power of modeling, upgrade the way we think about it, and become more intentional about it – we...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Jungle Tiger – Train Ugly APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Improving the Quality of Practice for Better Learning All practice is not created equally. To become a better learner we need to engage in more purposeful, deliberate practice. Anders Ericsson, one of the world’s leading experts in learning, explains how we can use...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Leadership & Environment APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Designing Your Environment for More Action and Better Learning To build a skill or make a lasting change we have to get on the path of taking and sustaining action. Understanding a few core principles from the field of behavioral economics can help us stay...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Leadership & Environment APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Using the Power of Stories for Better Communication Research shows that communicating with stories can lead to more retention, action, and connection – which are all essential elements of learning. Today we’re going to present the research that shows why stories are so powerful. And...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Jungle Tiger APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Learning From Good and Bad Outcomes Often times we judge our process and decisions by the quality of the outcome. The research calls this outcome bias and the poker world calls it resulting. No matter what you call it, this can lead to a number of...
by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser | Podcasts | Taking Action APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYGOOGLE PLAY Habits: How to Make a Lasting Change If we want to make a lasting change we need to understand how to build our underlying habits. In this episode we call upon one of the world’s leading researchers on habits, Wendy Wood, to help us do that....
Skills are built, not born. A simple phrase that can become the bedrock for great learning. Of course it takes time, effort, some experiments, and struggle to earn a skill. But, if it’s a skill and you do the work, you can build it. The best news: most of the good things in life are skills. There are the obvious...
If we zoom way out, the learning process looks something like this: We call this the SFCOHTGGAS: The Self-fulfilling Cycle of How to Get Good at Stuff. Yay for acronyms – woot! JK they’re the worst, but there’s a lot that this cycle can teach us about learning and how our mindsets can affect the process. The way it works...
A tiger living in the jungle is going to learn and develop more than a tiger living in a zoo. We made a video that presents the research that supports that statement and illustrates how we can apply the same logic to the way we learn. The big idea: in order to become a better learner we need to spend...
It’s 2013. I’m a few weeks into blogging for my freshly launched website and winner of the most terrible domain name of all time award – championshipbasketballschool.com. The focus of my posts: how to design better basketball practices and drills. Thrilling, I know. My mom is a middle school PE teacher and I’m living in her basement. One day she...
It’s February 2014. I’m sitting in a massive training complex in Anaheim, CA observing the USA Women’s National Volleyball team practice. I am in awe. Having spent most of the past year researching and writing for my blog, I was curious about the science of development. Now I was on a mission to discover how to apply it. Most of...
Building resilience can help us become better learners. Let’s outline four tools that can help make that happen by Trevor Ragan and Alex Belser PART 1 Challenges, obstacles, adversity, and struggle are inevitable in life – especially when we choose to spend more time out of our comfort zone. They’re going to happen – we can’t change, or control, that....
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY The Key to a Better Learning Culture If we want more effective teams we need to invest in creating a better culture. If we want a better culture we have to build psychological safety. Featuring Amy Edmondson: Harvard Business School Professor Daniel Coyle: New York Times Bestselling Author Eric Ragan: Grinnell College Women’s Volleyball head coach Norah...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Struggling on Purpose What can a college football program, a six year old, an auditing company, a HS basketball player, and Uber driving educator teach us about learning? They show us that the only way we can grow is if we’re willing to step out of our comfort zone and struggle a bit. Key Points We are...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Sleep and Learning Sleep is one of the most important, yet underrated components of the learning process. We brought in Dr. Marcos Frank – neuroscientist from Washington State University – to explain his research and show how sleep affects neuroplasticity and our capacity to grow. Key Points Sleep and neuroplasticity During sleep plasticity in the brain increases....
[maxbutton id=”13″] [maxbutton id=”14″] [maxbutton id=”15″] [maxbutton id=”17″] The Science of Decisions Understanding some principles of behavioral economics can help us make better decisions in the short run in order to achieve our long term goals. This can help us take and sustain action on any learning pursuit. Key Points Behavioral economics Behavioral economics uses psychological insights to sharpen economic...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Neuroplasticity: The Launchpad for Learning Limiting beliefs get in the way of learning. We can all work to overcome these by building a true growth mindset (the belief that we can grow our skills). The most effective way to build a growth mindset is to dig into the research of neuroplasticity and really work to understand how...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY The Science of Being Better When You’re Nervous When the performance matters we’re going to feel some pressure, nerves, and stress. Whether it’s a big presentation, a test, or even a date – most people think the most effective way to prepare for these situations is to try and calm down. In this episode, we dig into...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Taking Action Action is the most important step of the learning process, and it’s often the most difficult. To change a habit or build a skill we have to do the work (and sustain it over time). The hard part is that there are a lot of things that can get in the way of this. Today...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Learning Like a Startup The tech world is constantly pushing the limits of innovation, problem solving, and product development. This week we brought in the CEO of Bebo, Shaan Puri, to explain some of these systems and how we can all use them to become more effective learners. Question hotline: 805-635-8459 Key Points The 80/20 Rule 20%...
Lifting weights is essentially struggling on purpose. We understand the basics of how to build a muscle. So we pick a weight and exercise that induces resistance and tension, which leads to struggle, which leads to growth. Learning can be the same. When we teach people the basics of how their brain learns – and that creativity, innovation, and growth...
It’s easier to eat out. It’s better to cook at home. It’s easier to play someone that you know you can beat. It’s better to play the person who might beat you. It’s easier to read the SparkNotes. It’s better to read the book. It’s easier to do it how it’s always been done. It’s better to challenge, stretch, and...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY Boosting Learning with Desirable Difficulties There’s a huge gap between what the science says about how we should study, practice, and learn vs how we actually do it. We met with learning experts and UCLA Psychologists Dr. Elizabeth Bjork and Dr. Robert Bjork to figure out how to close that gap. Their work shows that by incorporating...
APPLE PODCASTSSPOTIFYSTITCHERGOOGLE PLAY The Pygmalion Effect Our expectations can have a huge impact on the performance and development of the people around us. Trev and Alex sit down with one of the most influential psychologists in the world, Robert Rosenthal, to learn more. Rosenthal shows how the Pygmalion Effect can have both a positive and negative impact on our people...
I’m squatting, you’re spotting. The goal: 12 reps Reps 1-3: no prob Reps 4-7: not bad either, but I’m starting to feel it Rep 8: It gets hard and I start to struggle a bit You jump in and do the last 4 reps for me. I feel better, you feel helpful… but my reps have been robbed! Obviously this...
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