Learning Dynamics

By Allan Katcher Ph.D

In this book, we shall look at styles of teaching and learning that explain these experiences and help us understand factor that affect how people learn. We will provide techniques that can enhance your ability to reach students, to create the favorable conditions that make it easier for them to learn and to help students find ways they can learn from you, regardless of your teaching style.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9781465330789

Allan Katcher Ph.D

Short Biography of Allan Katcher Dr. Katcher has been a consultant to many of the Fortune 500 companies, including The Cisco, Citibank, Exxon. General Foods, Household International, National Westminster Bank and Xerox. He has lectured and conducted seminars in more than 20 countries. His doctorate in psychology was earned at the University of California (Berkeley) and he has taught at Brooklyn College, The California Institute of Technology, UCLA and the University of Washington. The former president of BCon-LIFO International, Inc. he is the author of books in both Portuguese and English and written many articles on The LIFO Method and a variety of applications. His major interests are in coaching, managing change, self-concepts and teambuilding. Prior to work on The LIFO Method, he was manager of executive development at Douglas Aircraft Company, head of management development at The System Development Corporation and a human factors scientist at The RAND Corporation. Short Biography of Reiner Czichos Dr. Reiner Czichos holds a diploma as a sociologist and economist. In addition, he is an NLP practitioner and holds a Q-Pool certificate. He is a LIFO analyst and a master trainer. A distinguished consultant he has worked for many important European clients. For many years he was the European Organization and People Development Manager for Digital Equipment Corporation. Since 1986 he has been a consultant and leader of a group of trainers. His extensive coaching experience includes work with more than 300 managers, 100 trainers, and numerous salespeople. He has been involved in more than 40 change projects. He has published 6 books in German and written more than 50 articles on change management and sales-related matters. He has a major interest in creativity and has written a book on that subject. Currently, he is writing a book on change management. He feels that his greatest strength is to go on learning throughout his life.

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thinking about this topic came originally from discussions with Cliff McIntosh and Linda Wiens who were engaged in a broad scale of learning activities in their unique Quetico Centre. They became the first Canadian LIFO Agents and helped innovate many applications in assessments and teamwork.

In time this led to the development of a learning styles workbook that incorporated material about learning and teaching styles. Unfortunately, this work languished in the interest of exploring other topics. However, in Germany and Europe there was a resurgence of interest in learning style, largely stimulated by Rene Bergermaier. Indeed, Rene brought the two of us together and encouraged the writing of the current book. We owe him a big debt for that.

Shogo Saito, chairman of Business Consultants Incorporated has long sponsored the development of many LIFO Applications and has been keenly interested in the development of this project. We are grateful for his endorsement.

Then there are the signal contributions of Stuart Atkins to whom the whole LIFO Method owes an enormous debt. Many discussions about this topic have lead to productive developments of ideas.

Many other contributions have been made by LIFO Agents, particularly Bridget Biggar in the UK, Karel Adriaensen in Belgium, Rene Bergermaier in Germany, Jan and Angelique DeJong in The Netherlands, Betty Forbis and Birger Bertheussen in Norway.

Karel was the first one in Europe to interest a client in assessing the learning style of employees.

We met many years ago at a German annual licensee meeting, but it has been in the past three years that we began an intense exchange of ideas about learning dynamics that led to joining efforts to write a book on learning dynamics. We owe a lot to each other for broad stimulation, clarification of ideas and creative explorations. It has truly been a mutually stimulating and rewarding project. In doing so we have had to use LIFO Concepts associated with blending style differences to complete the task (not always easy).

We are indeed grateful for the efforts and endorsement of Ethan Schutz, Marcia Johnson and Aki Furumoto who have provided the necessary support to move this project along.

An enormous acknowledgment goes to all of the agents and licensees whose suggestions, criticism and interpretations helped to shape the final form of this work. We will be looking forward to seeing how they apply this material in new LIFO ventures.

Finally, we are extremely indebted to our closest and most intimate companions, Gloria and Marie-Therese, who willingly sacrificed personal time and also added to intellectual sharpness with their comments and discussion of the content as well as their emotional support.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to

Learning Dynamics

In our work as trainers and teachers we find students who are eager to learn, pick up material rapidly, relate new material to old learning and are a pleasure to teach. There are others who are disinterested, have difficulty learning and do not see relationships well. If we allow ourselves the willingness to receive feedback from students we are likely to learn what we already know: some students like our teaching style, find classes interesting and stimulating and others are repelled, find classes boring and disinteresting and do not like us.

Some instances can have major impact on students. One nine year old was receiving failing grades in mathematics. Since he was a very intelligent boy his father requested a talk with the teacher. When he inquired about the boy’s performance he was told it was inadequate. In what way, he asked? She replied, He gets the right answers but fails to show how he got them. The boy was far ahead in knowledge but was being failed because a procedure-bound teacher couldn’t tolerate a deviation. When moved to a private school, the boy performed brilliantly and is extraordinarily gifted in mathematics. Note that failure with one teacher was followed by success with others. A bright student was being discouraged and punished for his brilliance.

An average student experienced a new English teacher who helped students to write by encouraging them to keep journals of their daily experiences and to expand them into essay and poetic forms. The student bloomed during this process, earned outstanding grades and is now a leading journalist. This student was stimulated and encouraged to experiment with new forms of learning that changed her whole attitude toward learning.

Similarly, instances abound in organizational life where experiences with different bosses have inspirational or discouraging consequences.

How can we make our learning and business lives more productive? That’s the concern of this book.

Ideally, as trainers and teachers we want our students to learn as much as possible, to find our material interesting, and to appreciate our efforts. When this occurs, it provides us with enormous satisfaction for engaging in our occupation despite conditions that are often frustrating, unappreciated and poorly supportive of our efforts

In this book, we shall look at styles of teaching and learning that explain these experiences and help us understand factors that affect how people learn. We will provide techniques that can enhance your ability to reach students, to create the favorable conditions that make it easier for them to learn and to help students find ways they can learn from you, regardless of your teaching style.

The emphasis will be on interpersonal conditions that influence us to pay favorable attention to each other, to be empathic and encouraging and leverage the unique strengths and talents of every learner.

To begin, we will ask you to examine how we learn and teach, based on studies of people in more than twenty countries. You will be asked to assess your own experience. You will learn how to interpret the results and apply the new knowledge to enhancing your own teaching prowess. From similar self-studies of how you learn, you will understand what makes it easy or difficult to learn, and how you can manage to make learning more interesting, meaningful and productive.

CHAPTER 2

LIFO Philosophy

and LIFO Method

The LIFO Method founded by Stuart Atkins was developed in the United States in the 1970s by Stuart Atkins and Allan Katcher. It has been under constant development since then, not only by them but by other colleagues, agencies and licensees around the world.

By now, LIFO Surveys are used in more than 20 countries, including Argentina, Australia, The Benelux Countries, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, Rumania, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, The Czech Republic and The United States. More than 9 million people have already participated in various LIFO Training Programs.

Originally it was focused on personal development and group management but applications now include programs on: coaching, consulting, leadership, teaching, learning, stress management, marriage, negotiation, parenting, selling, as well as learning and teaching

We will not jump right into a description of the LIFO Model. You will find detailed and comprehensive references following this chapter. We will first introduce you to those elements of the LIFO Method and Philosophy that we consider the most important for understanding major influences on how we learn and teach.

Build on Your Strengths

We learn from our mistakes? This is often preached but another alternative is to the personal strengths approach. This is easier, more fun, and more motivating and successful. In studies chimpanzees learned faster how to pick cotton if they were rewarded every time they did something right. In Kenneth Blanchard’s book One-Minute-Manager you will find a similar emphasis: Catch your people doing something right! Nothing makes people more successful than success.

The way to do this is to know what your strengths are and to use them as much as possible.

Long Live the Small Difference

People are different. Somebody who thinks and acts differently than you is not a bad person, let alone an enemy. You should view people with other behaviors as having the possibility to complement you in your work. Together, you have a greater behavioral bandwidth.

Despite a popular idea, nothing is less creative than a team of people who are the same. Sameness only leads to peace and harmony. Of course, it is a real challenge to surround yourself with people who are different than you and it might make you feel uncomfortable. Too often bosses select staff members who are just like them. This represents a high concentration of strengths but also represents a concentration of weaknesses in the blind spots of the team.

Should you have managed to create a homogenous team, e.g. as a boss, you will still be faced with employees’ and co-workers’ reluctance to allow the integration of new team members who behave differently than themselves. An example: It was not possible for a manager to integrate a 28-year-old, very beautiful young woman into a team of about 40-year-old men. She was too outspoken and intelligent and often dressed provocatively. That proved to be too much for the men in the team.

It is nice to be among like-minded people, but . . . 

You also should not be surprised if your colleagues, clients, bosses, etc. do not respond to your usual spiel. Is it not true that you know exactly who and what kind of people respond to you, and who does not? If you examine your own behavior, you will probably find that you have a tendency, for example, to have more and closer contacts with those people with whom you click. You may avoid the others like vampires do crucifixes. If you cannot avoid them, you know that it will not work out, and, of course, your experience will prove that it doesn’t work out. You are right—you think. However, this is actually only a self-fulfilling prophecy, that is occurring. You will always find a good reason to perceive those others as different, even as enemies. Take a minute to look at the other side of the fence: Indeed, there are colleagues who get along better with your favorites. They work out fine. Why? They are on the same wavelength.

Do NOT do unto others as you would have them do unto you (The Golden Rule) . . . but do unto others as they would wish to be done to (The LIFO Rule)

The Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would they should do unto you, or, Treat others the way you wish to be treated yourself seems wrong somehow, and often not very successful. It is easy for the rule to lead you astray. The other person is different, thus I also have to treat him or her differently than I would like to be treated myself. If, for example, you are rather decisive, straightforward and loud, want problems to be explained briefly and decisions to be made quickly, then you will possibly end up miscommunicating with your rather quiet, organized and perfectionist partner. To be successful, you cannot treat him or her the way you want to be treated yourself. He or she needs something else.

Would it not be better if you learned to recognize other styles, too, to accept them and adjust to them—to adjust your own behavior, in other words? You will achieve more by doing so.

Theoretical Background

Here is another, more organized overview of ideas that have influenced LIFO Thinking.

Basic LIFO Method Concepts

To illustrate the LIFO Method’s theoretical background, we will use the summary of an interview that Dr. René Bergermaier, the German LIFO Agent, conducted with Allan. Parts in italics are taken from the summary, which was prepared by Christine Spengler-Rast.

"Every person has his or her own style of dealing with many different situations in life. There is no average style. We tend to behave differently in different situations and to activate different styles. However, there are one or two styles that we prefer to use and thus use more frequently than the others. These are our preferred styles.

Seen through the framework of the LIFO Method, no style, blend of styles or behavior is good or bad. Similarly as in the theory of situational leadership (for example, according to William Reddin), it all depends on the efficient use of styles and how communication partners perceive your behavior and how it affects them. There is no ideal style or ideal blend of styles. On the other hand, one can observe an affinity of certain style combinations to certain occupational fields.

"The LIFO Method assumes that we have to be aware (and have to make others aware) of our behavior—to be able to shape ourselves better and to improve our ability to engage in interactions with groups. In LIFO Training you do not get absolute recommendations, but, instead learn to recognize possibilities and how you can change your style. Principally, you know all the styles, they are all familiar to you. You use them with varying frequency and intensity. If you become aware of this, you can learn to select and alter styles