#527 Does Digital Learning Work? What Business Leaders Must Understand About Learning, Leadership and Performance
Does Digital Learning Work? What Business Leaders Must Understand About Learning, Leadership and Performance
Article by Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Digital learning has become one of the defining features of modern organisational development. Learning management systems, compliance videos, online academies, AI-supported learning journeys and mandatory digital training programmes are now deeply embedded in corporate life. Yet one fundamental question remains surprisingly underexplored: Does digital learning actually work?
In this week’s Leadership Podcast and Videocast, Dr Jared Cooney Horvath M.Ed., cognitive neuroscientist and expert in human learning, joins Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc to examine precisely this question through the lens of scientific evidence, educational psychology and organisational reality.
The findings are deeply uncomfortable for many organisations.
For decades, businesses have assumed that greater technological integration in learning would naturally produce better outcomes. More content, more accessibility and more convenience were expected to result in more capable employees. Yet, according to the scientific evidence discussed by Dr Jared Cooney Horvath, this assumption appears fundamentally flawed.
Drawing on international educational data across more than 80 countries, as well as decades of academic research stretching back to 1962, the evidence presented suggests that widespread technology adoption in educational settings frequently correlates with declining cognitive performance. Attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive functioning and even broader cognitive capabilities appear negatively affected when technology becomes the dominant medium of learning.
This insight matters profoundly for organisations.
Business leaders are currently investing heavily in digital learning infrastructures. Compliance training, AI capability programmes, leadership academies and onboarding systems are increasingly migrated into asynchronous, screen-based formats. The rationale is often efficiency, scalability and cost reduction. However, organisations rarely ask the more uncomfortable question: Are employees actually learning, or are they merely completing content?
The distinction is critical.
As highlighted in the discussion, one of Dr Jared Cooney Horvath’s most compelling observations is this: “We did not digitise learning. We digitised instruction.”
This distinction changes everything.
Instruction can be delivered digitally with great effectiveness. Safety procedures, regulatory requirements, anti-money laundering awareness, emergency protocols or technical information can often be communicated efficiently through structured digital environments.
Learning, however, especially leadership learning, operates differently.
Leadership capability is not developed by clicking through modules. Conflict management, strategic thinking, organisational behaviour, executive communication, negotiation, decision-making and cultural leadership require reflection, social interaction, challenge, feedback, application and behavioural reinforcement.
Yet many organisations continue to substitute human development with digital completion exercises.
The reality is familiar to almost every executive. Employees start mandatory online training, let videos run in the background, click through assessments and complete programmes designed primarily to satisfy governance requirements rather than generate behavioural change.
Completion rates are measured. Development rarely is.
This creates a dangerous illusion of capability development.
Technology is not the enemy. Quite the opposite. Digital tools can substantially improve learning experiences when implemented intelligently. Pre-learning modules, reinforcement content, digital simulations, follow-up coaching, reflective exercises and blended learning environments all create significant value.
The problem emerges when organisations mistake technological delivery for developmental transformation.
High-performing organisations understand a more nuanced reality. They combine synchronous and asynchronous learning, digital and human interaction, reflection and application. They recognise that genuine capability development remains deeply human.
For decision-makers in business, the question is therefore no longer whether digital learning should exist.
The question is this: Where does digital learning genuinely create value, and where does human interaction remain irreplaceable?
Evidence-based leadership demands that distinction.
And organisations willing to ask difficult questions about learning effectiveness will almost certainly outperform those still confusing convenience with capability development.
For more evidence-based leadership insights, listen to the latest Leadership Podcast and Videocast with Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc.
Niels Brabandt
---
More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Digital learning, and you probably now think, "Oh, do you mean one of these HR training videos?" That's one part of it. However, that is not all of it. This is the first episode. When you especially listen to this podcast and video cast for quite a while, we're going to have a bit of a different twist here, a bit of a different turn.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
We're going to take for the very first time in 500 episodes. I'm going to look at a video. No worries. It's only 3 min long. It's not going to be an hour and a half long session. We're going to look at a video of a public hearing in the US Senate where we talk about digital learning. Well, not I am talking there. An expert is talking there. So let's get straight into it.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
The question of the day is, does digital learning actually work? And you probably sit in any organizations or wherever you work, you encounter digital learning in one way or the other. May it be training videos, snippets, podcasts, video casts, any kind of digital-based learning most likely has crossed your way. And when you come from a certain generation, let's say Generation Z or later, you most likely will have encountered digital learning, maybe even at school or at university or both. And you will have an opinion if this worked well or not so much.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Very important is I'm going to show the real video from the hearing. So very important under the Fair Use Act in the UK and the Fair Dealing Act in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, under the quotation right. I am allowed to show this here. So that's just the disclaimer here. You see here it's a public US hearing. You see Ted Cruz, someone who doesn't seem to be too happy about what he's hearing here. C-SPAN was the TV channel who brought everything live here. So let's look at what happened here. What is it that is working with digital learning? Because we will listen to someone who, as far as I know, is an expert on the matter.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Name is Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. I'm a former teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, let's stop right here. So when someone says, "I'm a former teacher and neuroscientist," we have to check who this person is. And I background check this person because especially today, you never know. Did the government invite someone who they actually like, or did the opposition bring someone in that they actually like, or maybe it is someone who is funded in certain ways who represents, let's say, a rather small group of interested people in a certain aspect of life? So is this actually neutral? Is it scientifically sound?
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And as you know, I put lots of effort into this podcast and video cast to make everything go right. Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, PhD, MAD. That means he has a doctorate title. MAD is a Master of Education. Of course, I looked at where did he do that? University of Melbourne for the doctorate. So good university. And an A+ is the highest possible grade here. And a Master's degree in education at Harvard with A+++. Safe to say that he is someone who has a clue of what he is talking about.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And of course, we now look into, okay, but can can we actually bring all this into numbers? When we talk about US education or global education, is something available with numbers? You probably, when you're from a European background, you heard of the PISA. That's a test which frequently goes through the media because most people aren't too happy about the results today. And of course, they also have something in the US, as almost any country has that the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the NAAEP. That's the data you have in the US.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So very safe to say it is scientifically sound what this person says. And let's get straight into what this person wants to tell us. Let's go.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Name is Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. I'm a former teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning. And I do not receive funding, nor have I ever from big tech.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, here's an important point. He is not funded by any kind of specific entity. I looked at what he's doing. He has his own small business, and he is working for different businesses, but he's not. He doesn't receive any kind of big funding.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Also very important here, as we are in a political setting, he is not specifically connected with any kind of party. So he's neither Republican nor Democrat nor Socialist nor Communist nor Libertarian or Liberal or whatever else, far left wing, right wing, centrist, nothing of that. So we can be sure that he is not here to represent special interest. He is here to represent science.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Let's get into it.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
So a sad fact our generation has to face.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, that's not a great start, is it? So a sad fact of the generation. What kind of what's happening here? Starting with a sad fact is not great. So break it. What's the news here, Dr. Cooney? Tell us.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Is this. Our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Wow. That is
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
not only surprising that it's actually said. As far as I mean, maybe you know that my original background before I went into my own business and consultancy and whatnot else, I studied teaching. And one thing which, especially when I went to university, always was the number one reason which they told us, "Why do we keep going for excellence?" They said, "Look, the more school we offered, the more cognitive capable people people became."
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And maybe you know that from your family. So my grandparents and then their parents, so my grand-grandparents from working class, coal miner, etc., etc., etc., are getting into education and becoming a teacher's family. That is quite how is this possible?
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
I mean, he probably is going to tell us in a minute, but usually we always say, and that's, of course, the question I have right now. We usually offer more school for every generation. So the more school we offered from the from the 1930s to when I went to school, and even today, you have more years available.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And even when I remember a year after I got my A level, shortly after they cut school for A levels from 13 years to 12, and they revoked it one year later, getting it back to 13. So the more school we offer, usually the more cognitive capability we receive. So what happened here?
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Every generation has outperformed their parents.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
There we go. That's exactly what I learned at university. Every generation has outperformed their parent generation as long as they went to school and received education. And here you see in the subtitles, and that's exactly what we want, exactly because we need people who are bright, especially in today's economy. Everything is highly complex. We need bright people.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
And that's exactly what we want. We want sharper kids.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
There we go. That's exactly. We need brilliant people. We need smart people, because otherwise the economy is going to collapse. We cannot deal in today's world with anyone who is not smart.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
And the reason for this largely has been school.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And there we go again. That's exactly what I was taught as well. When you offer school to people, and of course, when people then go to school, you get sharper people, more cognitively developed people who enter the job market and then hopefully do great stuff there.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Each generation spends more time in school. We use school to develop our cognition.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Yes, school is. Oh, here we go. School is there to develop our cognition. And I now see the subtitle already. Until Gen Z. So if any Gen Z listeners or watchers are here, tell us about your experience, please, because there seems to be something coming with Gen Z.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Until Gen Z.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
There we are. So what happened with Gen Z? Because I am not Gen Z. I'm exactly on the line between Gen X and Gen Y. And from behavior, I would rather see me as Gen Y, but I'm born one year early. So I'm born Gen X, and one year later I will be Gen Y. But as we all know, these are fuzzy boundaries. So by birthday, I am Gen X, but by behavior, I definitely see myself as Gen Y.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory to literacy.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Oh, my God. Good. Great. Sorry. So this generation underperforms us on every statistical means. Basic attention. You probably saw that when you see younger people today flicking through the reels on social media. Basic attention is really important in the working world. Memory, memorizing things is usually literacy. Without being able to read and understand properly, the world is not your oyster. The world is basically a riddle going on, and you don't know what's happening while sitting in the middle of it. So what else? Because I see there's a two in the subtitle that there's even more where they underperform, or are they underperformers?
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
To numeracy, to executive functioning, to even general IQ.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Oh, good. Great. Numeracy. I mean, we all know that when you numeracy is something you need every single day, no matter if you want to go somewhere, if you have to look at time or distance or pricing or basically planning out and mapping out your life, executive functioning, you don't get anything done without that.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Even general IQ is lower than the generations. That is utterly shocking. That is because usually you say, "Look, there's the Internet. There are so many platforms available. There's so much education information out there. Shouldn't you be better at that instead of being worse?"
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Even though they go to more school than we did.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
There we are. And that's exactly, by the way, what my grand-grandparents and grandparents told me. They said, "Go to school as long as you can, because everything gets better when you go to school longer."
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Because my grandfather, from coal and factory worker to then becoming a unionist later, I mean, I started my own business. I am probably not as left wing as they were, and probably I'm not left wing at all as a Liberal. However, more school, more cognitive functioning. Usually that was what they always said.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
My grandparents, my parents said, "School, school, school." As a kid, I could mess up a lot from shooting in windows with my football or basically breaking new jeans my parents just purchased me because I was running through the woods or whatever else. Everything was okay unless school didn't do well.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
When school didn't do well, there was a very quick escalation of sanctioning that with first, of course, my Nintendo cable was gone, so I couldn't play the console. Second was the Amiga cable was gone, which was the computer back in the days before I got my first PC. Third one was the TV cable was gone, so no more watching TV.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
I mean, we had the amazing four channels back in the days, not more in the beginning, three, later five, and the first private TV station. So we never had cable when I grew up. And worst punishment always was football ban for the American listeners, soccer. I wasn't able to watch or do my sports. Don't follow my team in the German Bundesliga in soccer and football. That was so more school, and we still have worse performance. He must have a reasoning for that. So what's the reasoning?
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
So why? What happened? What happened around 2010 that decoupled schooling from cognitive development?
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, here we are. The year 2010. That's an important part here. So modern education, I think we started the proper scientific work in the 1940s, the big scientific uptake in educational research started in the mid-1950s, really big chunk of the 1960s. Beginning 1960s was when the real big thing happened.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So we have lots of data available. Let's see what he says here, because there must be scientific data available. 2010 is pretty recent, so it's up-to-date data. And let's also take a look at if the data is only US data or if it's relevant for more than just the US.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
It can't be school. Schools basically look the same.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, so he says it can't be school because school, but that's something you probably know as well. When you go back to your former school, which I did just last year, I even went back to my old and first university I went to. Not much has changed. It basically they had a bit of more green areas. They had a new cafeteria, but nothing else changed. Even my former classroom looked exactly the way it did when I went to school. And let's face it, that is quite a while ago.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
It can't be biology. This hasn't had enough of time.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Exactly. So it can't be biology because he's alluding to could it be an evolutionary change, but evolution doesn't happen in 20, 30, 40, not even in 60 years. It takes hundreds, thousands, millions of years. So humans don't change that quickly. So it can't be biology as well.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
To change. The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, now. So the tools we now I'm really curious, what are going to be what tool is it that did this change to the negative?
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Learning. Across.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay. It's tools for learning.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
80 countries.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay. Across 80 countries. So we are looking into data that he's going to present here into research, which is very clearly representative. 80 countries basically means this is applicable globally, no matter where you go.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Gene was just saying, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Wow. Let's let that sink in. Countries where technology enters the classroom, performance doesn't go up, as probably many of us assume. Performance goes down. And he says significantly, just to let you know, significantly is he speaks in scientific terms here.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Significantly is a word which, in general speech, you just throw out and say, "Yeah, significantly here and there." Significantly in scientific terms means that you have a certain range which you measure how people perform, either in business or as a leader or as a school kid. And then you have a certain deviation called standard deviation. That's not important here. Basically, what is the range left and right?
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
From where to where do we have a result with reliable and valid data behind it? And significant means that the ranges we look at now do not even have overlaps. That's a massive, massive that's not saying, "Oh, they are a bit less well off," or they are not as great, or they are still doing very okay, but it's just they are like 5% down off.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
No, no, no. This is a massive cut downwards. These are the generations we need to run our economy, design our lives, pay the pension funds, live their own lives, thrive for themselves, map out their own lives, live their own lives, pay their own bills, kind of life. With a significant difference to the negative. And we're talking here about school education, which is probably the most crucial point in the beginning of your life.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Wow. So how does it go on from here?
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Significantly to the point where kids who use computers about 5 hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
That is big. That is big. So when children use technology at school, which is most likely given to them for 5 hours or more for learning purposes, not YouTube, TikTok flickering, it's for learning purposes. They are two-thirds worth of two-thirds of the standard deviation. That's, by the way, the term I just used. Standard deviation, very, very roughly speaking, is you take an average, and then you look left and right, where is enough data? So from to what is the scale on which we have reliable and valid results? Very, very simply speaking here. Two-thirds less when technology enters the room. So it doesn't get better. It gets worse. That's bombshell news here. That's bombshell news here. So we have to see how things go from here, because that already is pretty, pretty bad. I mean. Well, let's see how it goes from here.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
And that's across 80 countries.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So again, it is representative. You can't say it doesn't happen in my country.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Bring it home to the US. Let's go to the US. We have our NAEP.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
That's the National Assessment of Education Progress. That's the one I talked about before. That's the data for the US.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
That's our big data. Take any state. And here's a fun experiment you can try. Take any state NAEP data, compare that to when that state adopted one-to-one technology widely, and watch what happens. The NAEP data will plateau and then start to drop.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So he now says, in every single US state, we could track down when did one-to-one technology find its implementation in schools, and immediately it plateaus. And then it drops from there. So it gets worse. Not better.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Let's see what else he has to offer.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Of course, this is all correlative.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, correlative. He wants to have the yeah. Here we go. He wants to have the causation.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
We really want is causative. To get causation, what you need is academic research, and you need mechanisms, explanations for why we're seeing what we're seeing.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, now we get to the point why we are seeing this, and that's, of course, important. Correlation, just because when you enter the room, a building collapses doesn't mean that you made the building collapse. It's just correlation. Causation is what is the real reason for the building collapse? So that's the difference between correlation and causation, very simply speaking.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Luckily, we have academic research stretching back to 1962.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Here we go. That's what I mentioned before. So we have the data available, because I know that's what I learned at university, that the real big intake of also of getting funding readily available.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
The big research countries found out that when you have more educated people, your economy is thriving far more compared to countries where education is marginalized, becoming a luxury, or simply is inaccessible to many reasons.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So we're now referring to data since 1962. So no one sitting here can say, "This is not relevant to me." This is relevant to every single business on the planet.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
That shows the exact same story for 60 years.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, so he says now we have the data readily available. It shows the same story for 60 years straight. And that is a massive issue also in organizations. Now we will get to that in a minute.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
When tech enters education, learning goes down. In fact.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Boom. Boom. When tech enters education, learning goes down. That's massive. That is massive. Look in your organization, but we will get to that in a minute, because I, of course, prepared a bit more on this.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Back at, because what do kids do on computers? They skim.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Yes, exactly. They skim. Probably you know that from younger people, when you see them watching Instagram Reels or TikToks, and then they just flicker through it. You skim. You go through something as quick as possible, because you want to get to the endpoint where it says, "Well done, you. You just passed this unit."
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
You probably know this also from a certain I'm not going to mention it, but there's a certain language app which many people use, even in my circle of friends. Some people try to use it to learn English. Some of them are on a streak of multiple hundred days unable to hold a simple conversation regarding ordering food or directions in the English language.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And that's, by the way, when you now say, "Oh, I heard of this app, and I don't learn much on it." That's the proof of what he just says here. So when you say, "I'm going to use this app, and then I'm speaking the language in 3 years." Here's the news. You don't. And many people already found out now.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
So rather than determining what do we want our children to do and gearing education towards that, we are redefining education to better suit the tool.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
That's also a strong statement here. So instead of saying we are going to adapt education for so instead of adapting the tool towards the education we need, we say, "Let's adapt the education to the tool." And that, of course, is not going to grant great results, and no one can be surprised about that here.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
That's not progress. That is surrender.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Boom. Again. I mean, he is a strong speaker here. He clearly prepared himself well. That is not progress. That is surrender. Sitting in front of online videos only is not progress. That is surrender. And we get to a bit more details in a minute.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
So as we go through our discussion today, there's going to be a lot of talk about smartphones and social media. Rightly so.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So he says smartphones and social media also are important here.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
But I'm the voice here to remind you that even in schools, it doesn't matter what the size of the screen is, if it's a phone, if it's a laptop, if it's a desktop.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
That's also an important point, because I was thinking of that. What about when they just move from smartphones to any kind of laptop or desktop? It's not important. The statement that learning goes down when tech enters, it's not important what size of screen you have.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
And it doesn't matter who bought it.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, so it's not even important if your parents purchased it and maybe forced you to use it, or if you purchased it by yourself, or if the school gives it to you for free. We all know when you get something for free, you treat it differently compared to when you earned it and purchased by yourself.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Is it school sanctioned? Does it have the word education stamped on it? It doesn't matter.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Okay, so that's another big one. It doesn't even matter if schools say you are allowed and encouraged to use your smartphone, or we ban the smartphone. No matter which way they go, if it's encouraged by a school or sanctioned, no difference in result. Tech comes in, learning goes down.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
All of these things are also going to hurt learning, which in turn are going to hurt our kids' cognitive development.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So we see learning goes down, cognitive development goes down. That's, of course, going to be a massive issue for any generation to come. And anyone who now says, "Hey, we need future talent." Well, there's some bad news in here for you. There needs to be additional qualification for your organization by probably external service providers.
Jared Cooney Horvath PhD M.Ed.
Right at the time when we need our kids to be sharper than we are.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Strong closing statement. We need kids sharper than we are. So that was the scientific statement by Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, an expert on the matter. And when you now say, "Look, this is kids' learning. We are different as adults, are we?" Let's just stick to one thing.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
You maybe know that there's this moment that someone says, "You need to go through the money laundry training," or "You need to get the fire and safety hazard training. You need to go through the HR training." Something which went completely viral in the business world is this.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
You now see, for the ones who are listening on the podcast, you now see a scene from Toy Story with the tiny piggy in there and the dinosaur and the remote control. So when you know the movie, you know what's happening right now.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
This went viral as a meme, and the meme had a certain headline. The headline was, "Me completing the company training work requirement. HR pestered me about for 6 months in less than 33 seconds." And what happened then is, for anyone who's now watching it on YouTube, it happens the following.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And what the tiny piggy does from it's a scene from Toy Story. It just flickers through sites like crazy. And this is what happens in organizations. People just flicker through a safety and security training just to say, "Yeah, well, I've done it." "Oh, yeah, the bank." "Oh, yeah, the money laundry training." "Cool. Let's just press play. I get back in an hour and say, 'Yes, I understood,' and then I move on from there." Especially when you have a test at the end. I have endless kind of attempts. I'm going to use them wisely and just go through it until I have the thing completed from start to finish. And let's face it, many of these questions also do not really aim at ensuring learning. They are more there to basically see if you're still alive in front of your computer.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
So we see this happens in organization. And very important here, the core message now is not tech is bad. Tech can tremendously help. However, another strong phrase that Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath said in another talk, he said, "We didn't digitize learning. We digitized instruction." And that is a really strong phrase again. When you say, "Look, we have something which you simply have to learn. Where are the nearest 4 emergency exits? And who are the 3 people you can talk to?" That is something when there's some sort of safety hazard. Who are the 3 people you can talk to? When it simply comes to you need to know a couple of things by heart, and you must have heard them because regulation tells you to do so. That is something which is instruction, and you can tell people, "Look, just instruction," and then it's done.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
But when it comes to cognitive development. It is simply not the case that you say, "Look at this video," and everything there replaces what we've done before with human interaction. When you now say, "Okay, look. We are going to have a mixture of that. We have a certain level of instruction with a couple of information that you need to have in advance. And after that. You meet a human, and then you do training, speaking, coaching, consulting, mentoring, whatever else. Perfect. That works." The message here is not, "We do not need tech. Tech can be tremendously helpful when used wisely."
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And by the way, when you now blame HR, it was usually not HR's idea to start the whole thing. Usually. HR tells you, "We'd like to have someone," and then someone says, "Oh, we only have the shoestring budget here. So please get the cheapest solution in there of all." And by the way, the easiest example of that was just the recent thing when companies found out, "Oh, we have to train our people on AI." Oh, that's the European Union directive. Okay, where is the 10-minute online training which we can force people to do during the lunch break? Oh, here it is. Yeah, 750 per person. Yeah, cool, cool, cool. Let's do that. And then you wonder why your AI projects do not deliver any value, and people don't adapt to AI.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And surprisingly, the organization who invests in AI, I have delivered now a ton of AI training out of my education there from the University of Pennsylvania, Walton Business School. So not the worst institutions there. And that scientific training as well, which happened, by the way, with humans. All of that. All of that is extremely important. You need to know that a good mixture of all of that is working tremendously well. But when you only go down the cheapest route, you will harm your organization. You will harm the people, and you will create the problems you have by yourself. When you do it well as it was mapped out by Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath here, then your organization will thrive, and I wish you all the best putting the best methods into place.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And when you now say, "I think I need to have a chat with you on that," feel free to do so. First, of course, when you watch this on YouTube, feel free to leave a like there. Of course, you can also subscribe, or you can leave a comment here. I'm looking forward to having discussions with you. When you now listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, feel free to leave a review here, 5 stars. Thank you very much for doing so. You see, I do a lot of research on this. This is all available for free. I love to do it, but it's a lot of work. Some 5 stars would be a nice appreciation. Thank you very much. And of course, when you know someone who's interested here, just recommend the channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube amongst friends, colleagues, online, offline, anywhere. I'm looking forward to seeing that, and feel free to tag me in any kind of posting. I'm always looking to be in touch with you. Thank you very much.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Of course, something which we started beginning of the year, the YouTube Shorts. Every single day, you will have at least one leadership tip, scientifically sound, for real-world practice to be applied immediately. YouTube Shorts, as the name says, only available on YouTube. So it pays off not only to subscribe to the channel, but to put the little bell in there so you get a short notification, just a tiny one on your smartphone or your computer when something new comes up, and you will have a couple of new bits every once in a while. We always keep our listeners, readers, whoever else updated.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And of course, you can also follow me on the podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other places to go. Go on my website. If you need, let's say, a trainer, a speaker, a coach, consultant, mentor, project interim manager on the matter, looking forward to speaking with you, nb-networks.biz is my website. And when you'd like to get in touch via email, because you just like to have a chat, or you have something very specific and like to book me, let me know, nb@nb-networks.com, and then we take it from there.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
Of course, we also have live sessions. Feel free to join one. Please go to expert.nb-networks.com. Put your email address in there, and no worries. You only receive one email every Wednesday morning. You have full access via this email to all the podcasts, video casts, articles, everything. However, we only communicate the live sessions we have, and we had a brilliant one just last Friday. The live sessions are only communicated via the leadership letter. There is no other channel on which you find them. It's only the leadership letter. No exceptions. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And of course, you can connect with me on social media, connect with me on LinkedIn. Don't do the follow thing. Do a proper connection there. Follow me on Instagram if you like, or leave a like on Facebook. And of course, you can also follow me on YouTube. Just subscribe to the channel, and then we take it from there.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
The most important aspect, however, is always the last bit I'm going to say. And by the way, no worries if you contact me, because some people wonder, when I contact you, when do I hear back in 4 weeks' time? No, when you contact me, I answer every single message within 24 hours or less. So I'm looking forward to hearing from you on all these different channels. You can basically pick any one of them, any of them, and then we take it from there.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
The most important bit, however, is always the last bit I say. Apply, apply, apply what you heard in this podcast, because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive aspects that you obviously want to see in your organization. I wish you all the best doing so. Feel free to contact me. I'm looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc
And at the end of this podcast, as well as at the end of this video cast, there's only one thing left for me to say. Thank you very much for your time.