Treat learning like a dinner party, says G+T head of capability development and change

Is there a connection between food and learning? Andrea Tham, Gilbert and Tobin's head of capability development and change, believes so.

The self-confessed foodie started to pick up parallels between her passion for food and her passion for learning.

“What makes us like something, and not like something? What drives the trends around food and what's popular? And food, like learning, can be an individual or a communal experience. You could be the learner on the end of the experience, or you could be the one providing learning to someone else."

“I think the engagement is the secret sauce, excuse the pun. What individuals take away from it is what makes the experience really memorable.”

Ms Tham delved into her four-part analogy, drawing similarities from her two interests.

The dinner party

“You are invited to a dinner party and you're asked to bring a plate. So, part one's all about understanding your dinner situation, your guests, the customer, the learner. What does the dinner party actually consist of? Who's coming? Who's not coming? What do these people like? Don't like? What are they allergic to? This is all about understanding your learner."

Ms Tham explained: “What are your learners actually consuming in the organisation? When are they consuming it? Are they learning at particular points in the week, the month, the year? What have they tried before that has worked or not worked? What has been their reaction? So, data here really is your friend, and industry experts talk a lot about how learning leaders need to become data savvy."

Listening to what your consumers need and doing your research will help you to better understand your audience. Similar to a dinner party, a successful learning strategy needs planning.

Gather your equipment

“Part two is all about understanding your environment. You've been asked to bring a plate, where are you actually bringing this plate? You need to scope out your tools and the environment in which this learning's going to happen. What pots and pans do you have available?”

“That dictates what you can and can't do to deliver this learning experience.”

She added: “I find that from a learning perspective, we tend to underplay the collaboration that learning can do with our tech partners. Similarly, think about this from an organisational tech perspective — do they use...Windows, Google? What sort of platforms are they used to do? Do they use social media? Are they app driven?”

Assuming anything can leave you in a tight spot, both at dinner and in the board room.

“You can't jump straight to a fancy app-driven learning experience platform, if these guys are still working on spreadsheets and emails."

Cooking your dish

“Part three is about creating that experience and you really get to focus in on the individual here. You get to take the information from part one and two and integrate it as part of the learning experience design. You take the things that you've learned and create the best possible dish.”

Combining useful techniques is essential and if done effectively will keep consumers engaged and leave them wanting more.

Keep them coming back

“Part four actually talks quite nicely to that collaboration aspect, because I call it all about creating that fear of missing out [FOMO]. So, when you get someone excited about the experience and you want to create advocacy and for people to come back, that's fundamental to the success of your learning, but also from a dining experience as well."

She concluded: “Why would someone want you to continue bringing a plate, if you've completely messed them up before?”

The transcript of this podcast episode, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full conversation with Andrea Tham is below.