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A. Keith Barnes served as the S. V. Hunsaker Professor of Management at the University of Redlands in Southern California from 1984 to 1999, where he won awards for teaching and service. He authored the academic book Management Maturity: Prerequisite to Total Quality Management and more than 60 articles and monographs on a wide variety of business subjects. He holds a doctorate in organizational management and an MBA, both from Pepperdine University. His undergraduate work was completed in England (mechanical engineering) and in Canada (psychology). Before becoming an academic, he was a senior executive with the J. I. Case Company, which was then a part of the Fortune 500 Company Tenneco.

A. Barnes

ATD Links Archive - ATD Links

Dealing With Underperformers

June 2013 - TD Magazine

Breaking Through Generational Stereotypes

People need guidance to stretch and grow and to develop a sense of progress as they strive to reach their potential.

Mentoring and Training

Management Maturity...Twenty Keys to a Winning Culture

Jim Barnes is a senior advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

Jim Barnes

Marla designs help documents for the software applications her company produces. She sits across from Sean who develops monthly training webinars. Marla would like to “move up” to building instruction like Sean does, but Sean tells Marla that he thinks that the work that Marla does is actually more useful for the company’s users.We could argue the merits of documentation versus training, but there’s always the question of what each user needs at each moment of time. Context is everything.The science of learning is a science that works to understand how we learn and how we can improve learning and instruction. But to be fair, humans have been learning on their own since, well, forever.For instance, if Corinne wants to know how to do something, she often asks the person next to her and then gets on with her job. Yan mentors Morey and they meet most Tuesday afternoons. Marlena uses self-study materials and is going to take the certification exam in less than three weeks.So why do numerous disciplines (neuroscience, psychology, education, computer science, and others) expend enormous energy and resources to figure out how we learn and how to best build instruction? Can’t we just leave people alone?We Learn All the TimeAn interesting study by D.W. Livingstone shows that the majority of workplace learning happens not in formal settings but in informal ones. Numerous studies, including those by Livingstone, Jay Cross, Jane Hart and others, show informal learning as a proportion of all workplace learning at greater than 70 percent.If you haven’t already looked into informal learning, you should, because training professionals need to understand it more. Saul Carliner’s book, Informal Learning Basics, on the subject is a good primer, as are writings by Jay Cross and Jane Hart.You might think that the definitions of learning and instruction are self-explanatory, but actually they aren’t so simple. And they help us see exactly what we are trying to do.Learning, DefinedThere are many definitions of learning. A favorite comes from De Houwer:  “Learning is changes in behavior that result from experience.”Some definitions don’t require changes in behavior, only changes in knowledge. For me, this doesn’t cut it. If you can’t do what you are learning, the learning isn’t quite cooked yet. For example, if you can’t use what you are learning, you are on your way but not there yet.Applied learning requires knowledge and experience with the range of possibilities, of course. As my colleague Catherine Lombardozzi reminded me, people need deep knowledge, not only to follow a script. So if a customer service agent is following a script for handling returns, but she cannot handle the variety of returns, she only knows how to follow a script. She hasn’t really learned the whole returns process.One definition of learning discusses how learning requires the ability to correct errors. Now this is truly deep learning. One of the biggest problems people have is correcting things that go wrong. Misconceptions and mistakes are a big problem in learning. So when defining learning, we may want to determine how far into expertise we are talking about. Are they proficient (competent or skilled) or are they expert?Why Build Instruction?People can and do learn on their own. But we also know that when there are very specific things we want people to be able to do, there are efficient ways to help them. If learning occurs when we interact with our environment, then instruction is the creation of special environments specifically to promote learning.Dr. Richard Mayer, professor of psychology at the University of California, in his book Applying the Science of Learning reminds us we are trying to change behavior as a result of instruction and there are methods to do so that are more effective than others (that’s what the science of learning and instruction are about).This view has very far reaching implications. It means that if we are building “instruction,” we have to impact what people do. That’s a high bar. Although it is may not be practical to expect that everything we do reach that high bar, we ought to reach that bar often.So that leads to two question that we should ask ourselves:How do we infer (assume changes in) learning after instruction?How do we determine if the change has made it from instruction to the job?We will answer these critical questions soon.This is article 1 of Science of Learning 101, and I very much want your comments. Is this helpful to you? Does it answer your questions? Your comments can change the course of this series.ReferencesCross, J. (2007). Informal learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that inspire innovation andPerformance. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.De Houwer, J., Barnes-Holmes, D. & Moors, A (2013). What is learning? On the nature and merits of a functional definition of learning. Psychonomic bulletin & review.Livingstone, D.W. (2001). Adults’ informal learning: Definitions, findings, gaps and future research. NALL Working Paper 21-20010. Centre for the Study of Education and Work, Ontario Institute for the Study of Education, University of Toronto. Retrieved from  Mayer, R. E. (2011). Applying the science of learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Science of Learning 101: What’s the Point of Instruction?

Dr. Nelson Soken is CEO of N.H. Soken Consulting and Chief Innovation Strategist for Barnes and Conti Inc.. As a consultant, author, and thought leader, Dr. Soken is passionate about helping others see things differently. At N.H.Soken Consulting, he assists client companies in developing their innovation and design thinking strategies and competencies through innovation program and strategy development and inspirational presentations. He has conducted innovation and strategic thinking training across the United States, Europe, and Canada for Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, Abbott Labs, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Citibank, New York Life Insurance, Yahoo, and the Hass Business School at UC Berkeley. Currently, Dr. Soken a usability consultant for Andamio Games on the iNeuron project, which is funded by NIH and CytoAssist (funded by NSF), to create STEM games for high school students. Dr. Soken also has been a consultant in the healthcare industry, including medical device companies. Formerly, at Medtronic he used his science and engineering background, coupled with excellent communication and networking skills, to create and drive a patient-centric strategy that changed the corporate mindset about how to approach and gather research data in emerging markets. In addition, at the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation, he developed an innovation curriculum that immersed healthcare professionals in innovation and design thinking with the goal of equipping healthcare professionals with mindset and skills to better serve patients. Dr. Soken co-authored Lead the Pack: Sparking Innovation That Drives Customers Wild, a book on the psychology of innovation.

Nelson Soken, PhD

Spring 2018 - CTDO Magazine

Is Consulting a Must-Have Skill for Trainers

Amber Barnes is the founder of StartHuman, an organization on a mission to rehumanize the workplace by building better leaders. For more than a decade, she’s focused on leadership development through coaching, consulting, training, and facilitation. Her clients range from Fortune 50 companies to small nonprofit organizations.  Amber’s background includes a master’s degree in organization development, a bachelor’s degree in education, and several other professional certifications in coaching, facilitation, and training. She is passionate about creating healthy relationships between people and the workplace. She believes this fosters healthier interactions outside work and contributes to making the world a better place.

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