Provide the perfect push and pull” is a Judo saying. Judo is easy to describe, but hard for a layman to understand. I will try to explain to you what a perfect push and pull is. In the old days, Japanese warriors wore heavy armor to protect them from being injured during their fights. A complete set of armor with helmet weighed 55 to 60 pounds. As long as you stood upright, it was good protection, but not if you fell during the fight and lay flat on your back. Because the armor was so heavy, you could not get up quickly, which often meant you lost the battle. In modern Judo, the heavy armor has been replaced by a much lighter suit, called Judogi in Japanese. What has remained the same is that if you end up flat on your back—you lose. For that reason, Judo players all over the world practice throwing their opponents flat on their backs. If that happens, the referee says, “Ippons,” which means “end of the fight.” Over the years, I practiced my favorite Judo throw so many times that it became a reflex. Another principle of Judo comes from an old Japanese sensei (teacher): “It is difficult to move a heavy rock, but once the rock is moving, it will take less energy.” In Judo, we think of it this way: “It’s easier to throw your opponent while he is moving.” So, to become a Judo specialist, you need to move your opponent first, and while he is moving, you use your throwing technique. Mister Jigoro Kano taught us to use the strength of our opponent against him. “If you push your opponent, you will get a reaction. If you pull your opponent, you will get a reaction. Find the balance between push and pull.” If you push your opponent’s shoulders, you will get some resistance, which you can use for your Judo technique. If you pull on someone’s Judogi sleeves, he will probably pull back, and you can use that power for your technique. Mister Kano explained this as “Action gives a reaction, and a reaction asks for the next action.” To use Judo techniques successfully, you continually have to push and pull your opponent. You use the power of the reactions you create. It’s not only the Judo throwing technique that creates a result, but a combination between the throwing technique and the perfect push and pull. That is exactly what you want to create in your reinforcement program. A good foundation (like the throwing techniques in the Judo world) is not enough. You need the perfect push and pull to “connect” with your learners. If you compare the three principles you used to build your foundation with the three principles you will use to create engagement, you will see that: You can see the relationships among these principles in Figure 10.1. If you take a closer look at Principle 4, “Provide the Perfect Push and Pull,” you will see that an acceleration of the learners’ growth cannot and will not occur if your learners are left to drive their own growth. One of the reasons is that the brain is lazy. More important is the relationship between memory and energy and the role that this relationship plays in learning. The memory function of the brain allows your learners to update their knowledge and avoid mistakes. As you remember things, an ongoing energy dynamic occurs in your brain. However, your brain is extremely lazy. Before you judge your brain for its lack of motivation, realize that it’s that way for a reason. Despite accounting for only about 2 percent of your body weight, it sucks up an average of 20 percent of your overall energy (as measured in calorie burn). Your brain sucks up 20 percent of your overall energy. Because of this intense energy demand, your brain is always looking for shortcuts that will allow it to use less energy whenever possible. In the worst case, it won’t even use shortcuts but simply will not spend any energy at all. For that reason, you constantly need to “push” your brain and avoid using shortcuts when learning new knowledge and skills. There are no shortcuts in top-level sports or when mastering new knowledge and skills. The memory system helps the brain effectively use energy. When you offer learners a novel environment (mostly in the training events), their brains are active and absorbing information. They must think in those situations, which, in turn, generates memories that are easier to access during the reinforcement. Once the learners are around certain stimuli enough, their lazy brains start to mush those memories together and group them into a distinguishable collection. A critical component of all this is that thinking hard feels difficult because your brain is fighting to stop you from using energy unnecessarily. Cognitive scientists talk about the difficulty in terms of fluency (easy thoughts) and disfluency (difficult thoughts). That’s why exposing ourselves to familiar environments and concepts is always more comfortable. We don’t have to think hard (or at all) about them, and our brains remain calm because we don’t have to worry about its precious energy going away. When learning something new, everything will seem difficult and confusing at first, and the brain will fight back because it’s blasting through energy it doesn’t want to give away. But once a learner has been exposed to the new information frequently enough, everything starts to get easier. Even though the learner will still be a novice when this begins to happen, it will feel less and less like a chore to learn. In your reinforcement role, you must understand and embrace the early disfluency (difficult thoughts) the learners will feel and push through until they reach a baseline level of fluency (easy thoughts). Once they reach that baseline, learning becomes progressively easier. You must stimulate their brains until learners reach the baseline level of fluency (easy thoughts). If you don’t, the learners will drop off, and you will see no participation. Before you try to use Principle 4, “Provide the Perfect Push and Pull,” make sure you understand why brains need a push and pull and how to create memories via mnemonics techniques (visual or verbal) to activate the memory system. You can use mnemonics (visual or verbal) to activate the memory system. Reuse images, models, or phrases. If you want to facilitate the learning process and accelerate learners’ growth, you need to push and pull. This principle is all about the perfect balance between push and pull communication moments. If you send information to learners, it is considered a push communication. When you pull information, you ask the learners to do or evaluate something or answer your message. All the messages you send to the learners are push messages, but not all of your push results in a pull. Not all of your push is a pull. If you have a reinforcement objective with an average of 20 repetitions, what percentage is push and what percentage is pull communication? Before you answer that question, look at some examples of the different push and pull messages in Table 10.1. Table 10.1. Push and Pull Messages To answer the question, let’s analyze the example in Table 10.2, which shows a proven reinforcement program, with one objective and 20 reinforcement messages (plus a welcome and a thank-you message). The example is based on a strong foundation and the perfect balance between push and pull. Table 10.2. Series of Successful Push/Pull Messaging This is a welcome message. Explain what the program means to your learners and why they will be receiving messages from you. Avoid explaining logistics or length of the program. Focus on what’s in it for the learners. Add your logo to emphasize company commitment. This message is to support awareness. Use facts and information that explain why this objective is important for your learners. Using graphs or images with statistics is a good idea. Make sure your learners can read the numbers and text in the image you upload. This is an open-field question to create awareness. Have the learners think about why behavior change is important. What will the impact be in their daily lives? Use the introduction to the question as a learning moment. This is a repeating survey question. The exact same question will be asked later in the program to collect data and analyze the difference in responses. To create this question, focus on exactly what you want to measure and what behavior you want to see. This is the first knowledge check for this reinforcement objective. Provide the learners with instant feedback about whether their answers are correct or incorrect. The next three messages are knowledge checks, so start with an easy question. Let the learners feel the success of giving a correct answer. This message is sent to the learner right after the learner completes the first knowledge question. Make the question more difficult than the previous one, but keep the focus on the objective. After the knowledge checks, an important learning moment occurs. Make the question more difficult than the previous ones. Use different answer choices to make this question more challenging. This is the last measurement of knowledge before your learners start the Apply phase. What is key that they need to know? Perhaps use a short scenario. This message is designed to recap all the knowledge needed. Attach media files and refer to training materials. Keep in mind that this message should help your learners answer “How do I change my behavior?” Consider addressing common pitfalls. This message seeks to find out ideas or opinions from the learners. For example, “How comfortable are you with your current knowledge level?” Use a Likert-type scale. This is the first message of a series of five. Describe what your learners must do in the future. Give an assignment for the next few days. This message presents a new assignment. Make this one more specific. (The learners who did not do the first assignment will have a second chance before they need to evaluate.) In this message, you ask the learners to look back on their performance. “How did it go?” Learners are expected to look back and evaluate how they performed on the last two assignments. But don’t measure yet. Ask them to think about improvements. Keep the focus on the reinforcement objective! The previous message was a reflection without measurement. This message is a self-reported measurement of how well they did. For example, how often did they use the skills or how comfortable are they with their use? Use a Likert-type scale again. This open-field question is related to the previous message. In this message you want to gather more insights on why the learners answered the previous survey the way they did. For example, “Please explain why you selected the answer you did on the previous question.” With this message, you start a new series of three assignments. Give more difficult or more specific assignments. This message is an assignment for the next few days. This is similar to the previous series of assignments. Use a more specific assignment that will challenge your learners. Now question your learners. “How did they do?” Allow your learners to evaluate their performance and reflect on the assignments. Ask them to be honest and critical. The next message is another open-field question. Use this open-field question to collect more insights from the learners’ reflections. This is a repeating survey question to measure behavior change. It is the exact same question as in the beginning of this series. Use this message as a recap of all learning and pitfalls to applying the new behavior. Use media or send a PDF file that refers to the training materials. Consider giving the learners an assignment to complete their action plans. This is the last message of your reinforcement program. Give your learners compliments and celebrate their accomplishments. Perhaps add a nice image visualizing celebration or completion. Share with the learners what happens next. Principle 4 states, “Provide the Perfect Push and Pull.” The perfect balance between push and pull is when your pull messages are between 40 and 65 percent of the total. In this example, 22 reinforcement messages are used to help your learners apply what they have learned. Of the 22 messages, 11 messages (50 percent) are pull messages. In a perfect balance between push and pull, 40 to 65 percent of your messaging is pull. When you begin your reinforcement program, I recommend using a basic outline like the one in Table 10.2. What would you do if you had two reinforcement objectives in the same 12-week period? The rule of thumb for reinforcing training is to focus on two objectives for every three months. For every extra objective, add another month. What would you do with push/pull messaging if you had three objectives and 16 weeks? In Table 10.3, I’ve outlined a schedule for reinforcing two reinforcement objectives in 12 weeks. The table shows how many messages I send per week and on which day of the week. I start the reinforcement program on the Monday of the first week. You can also see what specific objective the reinforcement message is related to. Is it a push message or a pull? To help you with this outline, I included the message type. Table 10.3. Schedule for Two Objectives Over Twelve Weeks In this example, 22 of the 42 messages—52 percent—are pull messages. This is a perfect application of Principle 4, “Provide the Perfect Push and Pull.” If you want to check the progress of your reinforcement program, use the Pull Thermometer in Figure 10.2. Count all of the messages in your reinforcement program, and determine the percentage of pull messages (the messages that require an action from the learner via a question). Do not count the self-reflections without a question. Determine the number of pull messages divided by the number of total messages and add this percentage to the Pull Thermometer. What is your percentage? Make sure you stay between 35 percent and 70 percent. I personally prefer to be in the range of 40 to 65 percent. If your score is below 35 percent, your program is more like a micro learning module. That’s good if that is your goal. However, for a reinforcement program, you need to create more interaction with the learners. This drives the engagement. If your score is above 70 percent, you have a lot of pull messages, perhaps too many. Your reinforcement program leans more toward an assessment. Again, if that is the goal, it’s perfect. But if your goal is to create a reinforcement program, you need to reduce the number of pull questions. Give the learners added value via learning and pitfalls. More assignments and evaluations increase the application of knowledge and skills as well as the engagement of your learners.PAIRING THE PRINCIPLES
PUSHING THE BRAIN TO ENGAGE
BALANCING PUSH WITH PULL
A simple push/pull example
Push
Pull
Learning messages
All types of questions to be answered
Video, PDF, image or audio file
Self-reflection
Pitfalls
Feedback (peer or coach)
Assignments
Assignment plus action plan
Message Number
Push/Pull
Explanation
1
Push
2
Push
3
Pull
4
Pull
5
Pull
6
Pull
7
Pull
8
Pull
9
Push
10
Pull
11
Push
12
Push
13
Push
14
Pull
15
Pull
16
Push
17
Push
18
Push
19
Pull
20
Pull
21
Push
22
Push
Creating a complex push/pull schedule
Week/Day
Objective
Push/Pull
Message Type
1/1
General
Push
Welcome to the program
1/1
1
Push
Learning element
1/3
1
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
2/1
1
Pull
Behavior change question (Do they apply?)
2/3
1
Pull
Knowledge question (easy level)
2/3
1
Pull
Knowledge question (more difficult level)
3/2
1
Pull
Knowledge question (difficult level)
3/3
1
Pull
Knowledge question (key knowledge level)
3/5
1
Push
Learning/pitfall element
4/2
2
Push
Learning element
4/3
2
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
4/3
2
Pull
Behavior change question (Do they apply?)
4/5
1
Pull
Survey question about progress
4/5
1
Push
Assignment
5/3
1
Push
Assignment/evaluation
6/1
1
Push
Assignment/evaluation
6/4
1
Pull
Survey question about progress
6/4
1
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
7/1
2
Pull
Knowledge question (easy level)
7/1
2
Pull
Knowledge question (more difficult level)
7/3
2
Pull
Knowledge question (difficult level)
7/5
2
Pull
Knowledge question (key knowledge level)
7/5
2
Push
Learning element
8/1
2
Pull
Survey question about progress
8/1
2
Push
Assignment
8/4
2
Push
Assignment/evaluation
9/1
2
Push
Assignment/evaluation
9/3
2
Pull
Survey question about progress
9/3
2
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
9/4
1
Push
Assignment
10/1
1
Push
Assignment/evaluation
10/3
1
Push
Assignment/evaluation
10/5
1
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
10/5
1
Pull
Behavior change question (Do they apply?)
11/1
2
Push
Assignment
11/3
2
Push
Assignment/evaluation
11/5
2
Push
Assignment/evaluation
12/2
2
Pull
Self-reflection with an open-field question
12/2
2
Pull
Behavior change question (Do they apply?)
12/4
1
Push
Learning/pitfall element
12/4
2
Push
Learning/pitfall element
12/5
General
Push
Finish and Congratulations
Tracking your progress
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