SuperLearning: Extraction Skills
In This Episode
Did you know that there are techniques to help you learn faster and achieve more? Listen to this episode on extraction skills as your first step to becoming a SuperLearner.
Transcript
Vanessa Tanicien: Hello, and welcome to The LeaderLab, the podcast powered by LifeLabs Learning. I'm your host and LifeLabs leadership trainer, Vanessa Tanicien. In each episode, my Labmates and I distill our findings into powerful tipping point skills — the smallest changes that tip over to make the biggest impact in the shortest time.
Vanessa Tanicien: So, as we dive into 2021, we're excited to make learning a little more meta. What does that mean? Well, before anything else let's think about what it means to learn well. At the LeaderLab you know we like to bundle our episodes into themes. So for the next four episodes, we're going to be talking about how we learn as well as strategies and tactics for successful learning, a topic our co-CEO, LeeAnn Renninger, has dubbed SuperLearning. We're talking about metacognition, and if you're wondering what that is, it's really about thinking about thinking, knowing about knowing and essentially becoming aware of one's awareness and the benefit is that our learning sticks, which allows us to use our skills more efficiently and effectively, so we can be more strategic. And today to help us unpack one of the first skills of super learning is a LeaderLab OG, our talented leadership trainer and our newest L&D Lead at LifeLabs, Massella Dukuly.
Vanessa Tanicien: She's back and I'm already obsessed. So, in creating an L&D strategy, she's been thinking about what conditions it takes to make learning stick. Well, that and a lot of daydreaming about the first place she'll go on vacation after the pandemic.
Massella Dukuly: I know I can't be alone people, I'm going everywhere.
Vanessa Tanicien: I am in that seat right next to you Massella. So I'm curious, what is the piece of SuperLearning skill that you brought to the lab today?
Massella Dukuly: So, SuperLearning is all about knowing what it takes to make the learning sticky, essentially. So today we're going to be talking about extraction skills and what I love about these skills is that they really tip us out of the zone of simply being informed. We are not just having heard of something or recognizing it, but instead, really taking us to the zone of true learning, which means that we really understand we can connect the dots to tech patterns and in turn, transfer it.
Vanessa Tanicien: Well, that sounds super sexy, but I want to make it super nerdy. So what does the research say about extraction skills?
Massella Dukuly: Extraction skills are quite interesting. One of my favorite pieces of research around them comes from Jeffrey Karpicke. He did this research in 2012. What he was exploring is what's known as retrieval based learning and retrieval based learning is the type of learning where you pause to extract before, during and very much after. What was interesting was that they tested students' abilities under four different conditions and types of information retrieval to see which condition actually helps students remember the most vocabulary words. What they found was that the repeated studying (AKA reading and rereading) didn't actually help anybody remember the vocabulary words instead-
Vanessa Tanicien: I knew it.
Massella Dukuly: Right. Yeah.
Vanessa Tanicien: Shout out to you, Miss Hamner. .
Massella Dukuly: I know, I'm like, if only we had known that beforehand. What was most effective was repeated retrieval, which is when they actually had to extract the information repeatedly. So think about the way that you might use flashcards by trying to see what you can remember.
Vanessa Tanicien: Got it. It also reminds me of the Cornell note taking method that's near and dear to my heart because there's three different components. There's the notes you take, the questions about the notes that you're taking and then the summary at the bottom, and in doing these three components of note taking, you're consistently extracting and being able to self-test yourself, which I find so valuable. Sounds like there's a lot of extraction going on there.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. It's very much the same sort of thing that you'd experience with the Cornell note taking method and essentially what you want to do, ask yourself along the way, like what's actually most important here rather than just trying to get as many notes as possible.
Vanessa Tanicien: So if we were to bring this into the world of work, how do you imagine that would look for a person who's really trying to super learn, do this extraction? What might you suggest?
Massella Dukuly: So, first and foremost, I'd say that modeling is probably one of the most effective things that we can do at work for one another, when it comes to this type of learning and really what that means is normalizing the fact that taking the time to reflect is okay, and it's healthy. We live in a world where we're just moving so fast and we have a tendency to not be able to put things into action. So if you want to model extraction very deliberately, there are a few things you can do.
Massella Dukuly: First, this might be adding an extraction section to project retro meetings. Maybe you even want to do something like this in one-on-ones when you're focused on individual growth at the end of the quarter or the end of the year. The other thing that can be really helpful is making sure that there is space to talk about what you've learned from both your wins and your failures and-
Vanessa Tanicien: Love that, like this idea of that, everything is a learning moment, not just the successes, right?
Massella Dukuly: Exactly, exactly that.
Vanessa Tanicien: Got it. So I'm curious, how could we just give this a spin right now, Massella? What do you think we should do?
Massella Dukuly: Absolutely. So, one thing that can be really helpful for us right now is to just pause for a second and I want you to think about what you've learned thus far while listening to this podcast. What have you taken away? What's standing out in your mind.
Vanessa Tanicien: Got it. I feel like you've just put me on the spot for a pop quiz, but I know you are thinking of me. So...
Massella Dukuly: It's the retrieval.
Vanessa Tanicien: Okay. The research that you mentioned was Karpicke and the folks were learning vocabulary words, and it was the retrieval based learning, them retrieving the words that actually worked better than just reading and rereading, which makes my elementary heart feel so good. Additionally, this idea of deliberate pause to extract, and I love how you actually broke it down into the kind of meetings we could be using it in whether it's our one-on-ones or our retros. I think it makes it really valuable to point out where we could potentially do it and then I talked about the Cornell note taking method, so feeling pretty good about that too.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. So it sounds like you've remembered tons of things from our conversation. So you've done a lot of the retrieval and to take it to the next level, now let's make sure you can actually do something with this information. My question for you, Vanessa, would then be, what are you going to do with what you've learned? Like, are there any action steps that could come to mind?
Vanessa Tanicien: Yes, actually. So I have a direct report starting in just a few weeks (shout out to Thu-Hang) and I think I want to build this into our 1-1. We have a great 1-1 template at LifeLabs that we use for all of our manager training. They get it as part of the Effective 1-1s workshop that we teach but this idea of like this deliberate pause for extraction, I think will go long way, not only for her development, but also for mine.
Massella Dukuly: I love that. Thu-Hang, you've got a great manager who's just waiting for you.
Vanessa Tanicien: So if I had to recap this, what I'm hearing is extract before, during and after, just keep the learning going.
Massella Dukuly: That's exactly it.
Vanessa Tanicien: All right. Well, that brings us to our LeaderLab listener experiment of the week. So Massella, our L&D Leader, what should people be trying in their laboratory of life?
Massella Dukuly: Yes. LeaderLab listeners, create some pause for yourself to extract. We go so very fast; back to back meetings, or back to back Zoom meetings, that is, and it feels nearly impossible to be able to do this. Build in a 15 minute block in the middle of your week, in the end of your week, to really extract the learning from your meetings, your interactions, the things that will make you not only a more effective team member, but also one that people actually enjoy working with. Additionally, I'd encourage you to see where you can create those opportunities for extraction for your team.
Vanessa Tanicien: Well, thank you for always pushing me to extract my learning Massella and for all your future Labmates out there, Massella's gotcha. All right.
Massella Dukuly: I gotcha.
Vanessa Tanicien: Thanks for being on the show.
Massella Dukuly: Thanks for having me.
Vanessa Tanicien: And that's a wrap of another episode of the LeaderLab. Make sure to subscribe and share this with at least one other person so we can all benefit from being super learners. It's pretty exciting. The LeaderLab is executive produced and hosted by me, Vanessa Tanicien. NeEddra James is our senior producer and Alana Burman is our director and editor. If you'd like to hang out with us on social, go ahead and find us on LinkedIn at LifeLabs Learning and on Twitter at LifeLabsLearn. To bring training to your team, head on over to lifelabslearning.com. See you in the lab soon.
