Independence in Learning - Fourth of July Special

What makes a training program truly effective? The answer might be simpler than we think: independence. When learners feel ownership over their development journey, engagement and results skyrocket.

In this special Fourth of July solo episode, our host Jay explores how traditional training programs often fail despite abundant resources. The missing ingredient? Relevance and autonomy. When we don't see how learning connects to our career growth or daily challenges, motivation vanishes. Most valuable skills develop through independent practice, not prescribed training sessions.

The most impactful learning experiences often stem from self-directed discovery rather than forced education. As you design your next training program, consider how independence might revolutionize your approach. How are you building self-discovery into your talent development strategy? Your learners—and your results—will thank you for it.

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

Chapters

• 1:17 Welcome to the Talent Forge
• 2:06 Independence in Learning
• 3:58 Independent Practice Integration
• 6:35 Systems-Based Learning Approach
• 8:15 Self-Directed Learning Opportunities
• 9:45 Closing and Holiday Wishes

Transcript

Jay Johnson: 0:39

Welcome to this episode of the Talent Forge, where, together, we're shaping the future of training and development. I'm Jay Johnson, your host, and today I'm not joined by a special guest. In fact, today is a very special edition, celebrating the 4th of July and upcoming, so this is going to be a nice short solo mission with a couple of tips and tactics for you to consider in implementing your next training or talent development program. One of the things that I want to do is align this with the holiday that we're celebrating. Well, that's independence, and I want to share a little bit of a story of before I became a consultant. I was actually working at Wayne State University and there was a number of different training programs and opportunities, but none of them were really customized to what I wanted to learn or the things that I really felt would elevate my career and my pathway, and, in that regard, one of the things that we would see is there's a hundred different trainings, all available online. You could go schedule yourself with a number of things with different facilitators and instructors, and yet the attendance in all of those were exceptionally low. A big part of that was is that I didn't really get to feel like I was actually engaging in some of the things that would be really relevant to me in my every single day life. I didn't see how those different trainings were really going to elevate my career, my status, make things easier for me, or anything else.

Jay Johnson: 2:04

A lot of my learning came from independent practice on the job. So that word independence what does it really mean? Independence in the learning sphere can ultimately mean that I get to drive my own education, and one of the ways in which I did that, at least at Wayne State University, is they were kind enough to invest in ways of going to conferences or some other things. But not every organization has the resources or capabilities of being able to send somebody out to do whatever it is that they want to do or whatever it is that they want to learn. So here's a couple of ways for you to implement some concepts of independence into your training. First, think about the independence of exploration. Okay, when we learn a new skill or a tactic, we know that practicing it will make perfect. That's what really solidifies it as a habit and something that we can actually call upon when the time is right for us to call upon that skill or that need. But that practice is really often independent and it's done at our own time, at our own discretion. So here's something that you can do is you can build an independent practice into your different facilitations or trainings. Here's how it might look if you were to incorporate that.

Jay Johnson: 3:20

So I might start off a training session with a facilitated dialogue of what is your biggest challenge and through questions using generally how and what. Questions like how is that feeling? What is that experience like? You know, what are some other things that are contributing to these challenges. I'm going to try to help the participants get to a core area or core behavior that maybe they feel like they have a gap in. Then, at that point in time, after that facilitation and getting a better understanding of what it is that's actually at the root of their challenge or their issue, I'm going to give them some behavioral thoughts to practice it. I might even ask them hey, what are some ways or what are some skills that you could practice every single day in order to really hone in on solving this challenge that you're facing?

Jay Johnson: 4:10

Most of the time, we know what it is that we need to develop or what the skills are, so getting some kind of a commitment from them on what they want to practice. That's a game changer, because when we tell somebody what they need to practice, they may or may not do it. They may look at that as well don't tell me how to live my life but when they come up with it themselves, they're more than likely going to say, all right, this is something I actually want to do. Then create the conditions for them to be able to practice it. Ask them okay, on a daily basis, we want you to practice this behavior. What would that look like to you? How is that going to show up? What is the operationalization of that? Maybe even design some different tracking documents or some prompt documents that are going to give them the necessary motivation and visual cueing to remember to go in and actually practice those behaviors.

Jay Johnson: 5:03

So I might send them on a solo mission for a week or two weeks and then come back to a facilitated session together and ask them what was your experience? How was it practicing this? Were you successful? Were you unsuccessful? If you were unsuccessful, what was the barriers or what were some of the areas that stopped you from being successful? Now, allowing them that time to independently go and practice is going to inspire them, because it's going to be something that they have decided that they want to practice, going to inspire them. Because it's going to be something that they have decided that they want to practice, they have created the parameters for them to go out and practice it, and they are also reflecting internally, independently, about what that experience felt like or what that looked like for them. So this is a way that we can design something to actually get people to own their own learning opportunities.

Jay Johnson: 5:50

Another way to build this into our training is to really think about systems and not necessarily content. Okay, so what do I mean by this? When we're designing for system's sake, we're thinking about what are the maybe key performance indicators that they are experiencing in their jobs? Okay, well, what type of systems do they have currently set up? And asking somebody hey, could you design a system that's maybe going to be something that's repeatable, something that you can follow along with? This is really going to appeal to some of those earths and waters that are looking for more structure. But having them actually go through the process of designing it independently and then maybe getting some feedback or opportunities yes, that's learning Number one they're actually taking the time to think about and reflect upon their different actions, their behaviors and the different jobs that they're doing. Number two being able to give some of that coaching, feedback and guidance in how to set those systems up are really going to solidify some of that systems thinking. So it's not just them being told how to do their job, it's them designing a framework to say if you were to teach this to somebody else, what would that look like? What systems would you have in place to make sure that they didn't run into those same snags or those barriers? So that can be a powerful way to do that.

Jay Johnson: 7:07

A third and final way to do this is to really rely on the opportunity for them to essentially go and find their own opportunities for learning. Now, that may sound like you're just shuffling off the responsibility, but that's not actually the case. What this is is really digging in to say each individual is going to learn differently, they're going to experience differently and they're going to find different values to different learning modalities. Now you can always do something like find one of the big providers a LinkedIn, pulse or a degree or a Udemy and give them the opportunity to go scour out content. That's not even really what I'm talking about here, what I'm actually speaking to is giving them the opportunity to design some kind of a learning framework that they're going to operate under. That may include different aspects of online courses. That could include practical learning or simulations or reading or podcasting.

Jay Johnson: 8:06

The big piece here is to have some level of accountability.

Jay Johnson: 8:10

Think about like a book club, right? Like a book club, you get to read a book and then you actually sit with people. People are going to know very quickly whether or not you actually did the reading when you sit down for that facilitated dialogue. So this is where we can build some accountability in and make sure that learning remains a priority to those people that we're serving. So when you're thinking about your next design, ask yourself how am I building independence and independent discovery into this? Think about all of the different ways that you've discovered different things throughout your careers in an independent way. It felt pretty good, more than likely, and you felt accomplished by learning whatever the new skill is without having to be told to learn it. So offer that as an opportunity for growth and development. And this Independence Day, I wish you all a safe, healthy and fun time in the holiday. If you're celebrating, and if not, then I just wish you a wonderful and peaceful weekend. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Talent Forge, where, together, we're shaping the future of training and development.