Recently I’ve found myself reading a number of study books on various subjects. I’ve enjoyed reading them, I’ve found the content stimulating, I’ve even dutifully written notes as I’ve gone along (any excuse to fill a notebook so that I can buy a new one, any other stationary addicts out there?). But despite all of this if you were to ask me to give you a detailed description of the content of what I’d actually read I would really struggle to reliably recall the majority of it.

Why is nothing sinking in ?

I’ve found this block on retaining information both interesting and frustrating in equal measure. As I advise my clients to spend time getting curious rather than disheartened I decided to get proactive and see whether this was something that other people were also struggling with. Turns out it is and not only do other people experience this its’ actually surprisingly common. You see it’s partly to do with the method of learning but more importantly more to do with what you do with the information straight after learning it.

Find a partner …

If you’ve ever found yourself in a work shop or team building exercise and have felt yourself breaking out into a cold sweat at the words “ Now, based on what you’ve learnt, I’d like you to find a partner for a group role playing exercise …” then I’m afraid these findings aren’t going to be good news for you.

Research states that according to a concept developed in the 1960’s by the NTL Institute called the Learning Pyramid our resources and learning time is often wasted. Take a look at the figures below and you’ll see why.

The Learning Pyramid

Learners retain approximately the following

5% of what they learn from lecture.

10 % of what they learn from reading study.

20 % of what they learn from audio-visual.

30 % of what they see in a demonstration.

50 % of what they learn when partaking in a group discussion.

75 % of what they learn when they put it into practice. Role play anyone?

90% of what they learn when they teach someone else or use the information

immediately.

Interesting statistics.

So why is this the case ? Why is teaching someone else or implementing learning into action straight away so beneficial over purely receiving read or spoken information?

Mother knows best

It transpires that this is actually down to something that we often had drummed into us as children. If you’ve ever had a parent or slightly judgemental friend say the immortal words “ You go ahead. You’ll learn from your mistakes ..” they weren’t actually far off the mark. When we read or receive information verbally our mind may think that we’ve heard it correctly but it is always open to interpretation, it’s not until you try to implement or teach the concept that you learn how far removed your interpretation is. This then provides your brain with complete information which makes it 90% more likely to be retained than just an interpretation of what you have read. You may think you have it sussed from listening or reading but until you put it into practice, make mistakes and correct yourself the brain doesn’t really take ownership of the information.

Share your wisdom

So the next time we need to learn and retain important and necessary information how do we apply this? One of the ways of going from retaining 5% of what you’ve read to 90% is to talk to the people in your life about it. Explain what you’ve read, practise some of the methods on them and explore how many times you make a mistake and need to refer back to the original document. Not only are you helping your own learning process but you are also passing on information of interest to others.

Another way of doing this is to write a short article about the subject you’ve read based on your own interpretation. Once this is done refer back to see how close you were to the original theory. Correct yourself where necessary and recognise the mistakes to help your brain to own the information that it has learnt.

Try, try and try again

The resistance to being willing to make mistakes is one of the very reasons that so many people find themselves stuck in an ever decreasing circle of lack of progression in their life. They refuse to make the mistakes for fear of ridicule or because they are full of self doubt so therefore never learn and move forward. It’s a natural place to be to want to stay in your zone of comfort but next time you find yourself wanting to sit quietly at the back of a lecture hall or just read a book with no other interaction just remember that by pushing yourself into a place of slight discomfort where you make and learn from your mistakes you are actually increasing your learning resource by up to 85% . If you are going to invest the time learning surely it’s worth going that extra mile and ensuring that the information actually instills itself for long term benefit?

Practice what you preach

As a footnote to this blog piece I actually wrote this article ten minutes after learning about the Learning Pyramid and can confirm that it has definitely reinforced my knowledge on the subject! I am now off to find an unwitting member of my family to tell them all about it ….

Hannah Ciepiela is a Psychological Life and Executive Coach and Author. Based in Hitchin, Hertfordshire she provides Transformational Coaching to help and guide clients through transitional and challenging periods in their life. For more information and testimonials visit www.ehccoaching.com. Facebook. Instagram. Linked IN or call 07940 525792 for an informal chat about whether coaching is the right path for you.