Learning Through Experience

How do different emotions impact everyday life? And what are the kinds of experiences we want and need—in the classroom, at work, and in our own developmental trajectories—to be able to deepen our emotional wisdom so we can make better decisions and have healthier relationships? In this episode of Learning Through Experience, we dig deep into feelings with Dr. Marc Brackett.

As he underscored during our conversation, “We all have emotions, whether we want them or not, and they can either help us achieve our goals or derail us.” The founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center at Yale, Marc is on a mission to ensure everyone gets an education in emotion and learns to navigate emotion effectively. After all, emotions are not going away; we have to learn to work with them wisely.

Watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics

2:54 An Emotional Journey – Marc reflects on his childhood experiences, including bullying and abuse, and an uncle who came into his life “at the right time, at the right place, with the right context,” greatly impacting his professional trajectory.

5:55 Learning Emotion Across the Lifespan – There’s a need for emotional education at every stage of life.

9:47 Emotions in the Workplace: A New Perspective – Organizations can create spaces for emotional expression. And they must; emotions influence performance and satisfaction at work.

20:51 The RULER Framework for Emotional Intelligence – Helping people develop emotional intelligence and fosters healthier emotional interactions in relationships and workplaces

32:29 Building Connection Through Listening – Getting to know people's stories to build true emotional understanding is paramount.

34:05 Cultivating Emotional Well-being – Practical strategies for enhancing emotional well-being at work, including intentional scheduling and creating spaces where people feel appreciated and heard.

39:45 The Future of Tech and Emotional Intelligence: There’s an app for that. AI can help us track our emotions and receive personalized suggestions for emotional regulation.

Additional Resources from Marc

• Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

• How We Feel app

• Dealing with Feelings webcast

• Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence 

• RULER

• Selected scholarly articles 

How can we overcome change and learn to create a better experience at work—for ourselves and our teams? To launch us into Season Three of Learning Through Experience, my first guest explores with me the pedagogy of hope and transformation, focusing on interpersonal and group dynamics.

As Dr. Lisa Lahey aptly put it during our conversation, “When we invest in our relationships and our own development, we pave the way for a more hopeful and transformative future.” A renowned author on adult education and development, Lisa specializes in identifying personal and organizational impediments to change, and helping them unpack and understand these insights to ultimately break free of unproductive habits in order to achieve their goals.

Watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics

05:34 Formative experiences – Lisa shares two personal experiences that shaped her commitment to (and emphasized the importance of) listening and understanding group dynamics

08:06 Adult development theory – Introduction to adult development theory and its impact on personal growth

09:11 Navigating personal relationships – The challenges of balancing personal relationships and self-identity

12:13 The role of development – Emphasis on the necessity of personal development to navigate workplace challenges

16:09 Distinguishing learning and development – The difference between learning and deeper personal development

19:09 The role of others in development – How interpersonal relationships can support or hinder personal growth

30:50 Immunity to Change approach – How the immunity to change approach can help individuals and groups overcome barriers to personal and professional growth; applying the framework in the workplace

35:00 Future of work – How the evolving nature of work requires a shift in mindset toward collaboration and shared leadership

Additional Resources from Lisa

• Vox—I’ve spent my career studying bad habits. Here’s what I’ve learned about breaking them.

• Brené Brown podcast episodes—Immunity to Change, part 1 and part 2

• Putting the “Development” in Professional Development: Understanding and Overturning Educational Leaders’ Immunities to Change—a substantive piece linking adult development with ITC

Welcome to a new season of Learning Through Experience! This season will echo the cadence of one of my popular courses here at Yale since it is a learning through experience pedagogy. My conversations are with brilliant guests who help us think about how we learn through interpersonal and group experience from their area of expertise. This podcast is not just for students though—it’s for everyone who wants to co-create a future of work that is compelling, enlivening and worth fighting for. I’m glad you’re here!

Watch this episode on YouTube.

Can a mindfulness practice help us at work? In a season focusing on how we learn through experience, I wanted to make sure that we heard about some of the social science that supports the practices. My guest on this episode has lived a fascinating life and has so much wisdom to share on this topic. 

Lindsey Cameron is an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the future of work and mindfulness. In addition to being a professor, she is also an experienced practitioner and teacher of meditation.

Key Topics:

01:24 Caring about individual stories: These individual stories link to a much broader social structure - Lindsey’s career journey;

05:02 The capacity to reflect: One of the core practices of learning through experience is the capacity to reflect;

09:27 Wisdom traditions and practices: Discovering and exploring wisdom traditions and practices despite an atheist upbringing;

16:03 The power of place: Place is not just held by the work setting itself but in all the small details we add to it;

19:22 Mindfulness practices: Why, how, and when reflection mindfulness practices, especially at work, can make a difference;

27:23 The future of work: Maintaining forward momentum and agency by crafting a narrative around oneself;

34:09 Being a less conventional presence in a conventional space: We all have a role to play in creating spaces that matter;

36:15 Mindfulness as an individual practice: Mindfulness practices were never meant to be done alone, they have always been practiced within some sort of community.

Additional Resources from Lindsey

Website 

Helping People by Being in the Present: Mindfulness Increases Prosocial Behavior

Harvard Business Review: Research: When Mindfulness Does — and Doesn’t — Help at Work

How can we change and transform the education system through leadership? The Broad Center at the Yale School of Management fosters the ideas, policies, and leadership to help all students in K-12 public schools — particularly those from underserved communities — to learn and thrive. 

Broad is a stellar example of the unique mission of Yale SOM: educating leaders for business and society. Since I feel connected and inspired by the mission, I appreciate how much the presence of Broad in my experience at Yale keeps me particularly connected and inspired by the noble and meaningful work of transforming the school system.

In March of 2024, the Broad Fellows were part of an immersion learning experience with me. I love Broad and was inspired by the way they engaged in learning through an immersion intensive. This episode is a window into their learning experience in the interpersonal and group dynamics course. 

Hanseul Kang, the executive director of the Broad Center, began her journey as a Broad Fellow. The Fellowship for Public Education Leadership is a program for public education leaders dedicated to strengthening public school systems and the communities they serve.

In this episode, we also hear from current Broad Fellows: Xiomara Herman, Andrew McRae, and Jorge Robles.

Key Topics:

01:48 Challenging our understanding of leadership: How the current definition of leadership is too narrow to change and transform the education system;

03:21 The limitations of defensive interpersonal dynamics: Managing complex interpersonal dynamics from a place of defensiveness or self-protection can limit leadership effectiveness;

04:49 Why the education system needs to be transformed: In addition to individual agency, there are structural forces that play a large part in the reality of many learners;

09:59 Building range and expanding leadership capacity: The hope and challenge of learning through experience;

13:30 Directing your learning as a leader: When you need to change and transform people, systems, and possibilities, it's not just about pedagogy, transaction, or expertise- it’s also about your aspirations and how you show up;

20:35 Transforming the education sector: Reflecting and inquiring about the education sector and ways of learning that hold individuals as capable of growing as human beings.

Additional Resources

The Broad Center

Hanseul Kang

Xiomara Herman

Andrew McRae

Jorge Robles

This podcast season is all about the HOW of learning through experience. We learn through experience using four core practices: challenging your perspective, stretching and building range, directing your learning, reflection and inquiry. The core practice that we are paying attention to in this episode of Learning Through Experience is reflection and inquiry. 

In this episode, I spoke with reflective writing practitioner and teacher Stephanie Dunson about reflective practice through writing. We cover the practice of reflective writing, including the struggle of writing, and she offers some prompts for you to use in your own reflective writing practice.

Stephanie is a renowned facilitator who uses writing as a tool for problem-solving and collaboration in both the academic and corporate worlds. 

Key Topics:

04:24 The challenge of writing: The limits of writing towards an outcome in contrast to writing for the reflection and exploration of our own thoughts and feelings;

08:33 The meander of writing: Writing doesn’t work in a straight line, rather it follows a natural sort of meander. By meandering through a piece, we get to know the writer’s mind;

15:18 Reflective writing: The concept of using writing as a tool for deep thinking and developing relationships with complex material;

21:15 Reflective writing in groups: Engaging in the moment of making new ideas as a group and combining the strengths of the individual with the power and diversity of the group;

23:03 The practice of writing: Developing the capacity to reflect, notice, and meander as a practice in life and writing;

30:48 Prompts for reflective writing: What have you considered writing about but abandoned? Explore the places of resistance and write into that space.

Additional Resources from Stephanie Dunson

Podcast: 100 Mistakes Academic Writers Make …and How to Fix Them

Website

This season we've been taking on HOW to learn through experience which fundamentally challenges the brain-bound assumption that learning starts and stays in the brain. We aren't so great at honoring the wisdom, expertise, and leadership that emerges from lived experience, but our own life may guide us – especially if we tap into learning practices, like reflection and challenging our perspective.

My guest on this episode is a shining example of widely acknowledged wisdom and leadership gained primarily through powerful life experience. You will hear how he came to take risks without the fear of failing, and a good dose of learning through reflection in the company of others.

Erik Clemons is co-founder of the Connecticut Community Outreach and Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) designed to explore and implement opportunities for economic development and investment in New Haven. 

In all his work creating systems and community change, he has found that before any transformation of others takes place, you need to be personally transformed.  Erik Clemons is a natural storyteller- and his story of transforming himself and creating transformation for and with others is a joy to experience.

Key Topics:

03:49 Becoming through experience: Learning the world and teaching yourself – Erik’s story of learning and becoming through experience;

10:56 From mail handler to executive director: Knowing who you are and understanding who you want to be;

15:33 The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology: How Erik’s lived experience equipped him to understand and serve his community;

18:47 Failure as part of learning: To be truly innovative and able to create change, you need to be willing to take risks;

20:22 Transforming a major artery in New Haven: Listening to community members to create service, beauty, and dignity in a community that deserved it;

27:02 Unconscious competence: Believing in your own capacity and using all of your lived experience to find a way;

29:10 Changing systems and supporting communities: We can’t transform community unless we are willing to be transformed by community;

36:04 The power of hope: Hope is what allows striving to happen.

Additional Resources from Erik

Podcast episode: Building Community Wealth and Power

LinkedIn

ConnCORP

Since this season of the podcast is all about the HOW of learning through experience, I wanted to talk to Annie Murphy Paul who basically wrote the book on learning outside the brain. 

She’s the author of several books, and I love to talk with people after they have had a chance to learn through the experience of their book being out in the world. In this episode, we focus on The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. Her book challenges the perspective that brain-bound cognition is the best way to learn.

There are so many great nuggets in this book and in this conversation with Annie. She adds quite a bit to the conversation about HOW to extend our learning capacity beyond the brain. The brain evolved for survival in a very different era to the one we live in today, and the tasks our brains evolved to solve are so different from the tasks we are expected to do now. To more fully utilize our learning potential, we can extend the mind by utilizing the body, physical spaces, relationships with other people, and material objects. 

Key Topics:

00:45 Challenging our perspective regarding social and emotional learning: As children, we are encouraged to learn from and through our environment. However, we are expected to put this kind of learning aside as we get older;

07:05 The limitations of the human brain: Understanding that the brain evolved for survival in a different era is crucial to changing the education system and preparing students for the modern world;

09:58 Bringing the body into learning: Moving the body to build range and enhance our cognitive abilities;

17:34 Restoring our attentional resources: We have a finite supply of attention, we can restore this by spending time in outdoor spaces;

24:41 Designing interior spaces to support effective thinking: We can use certain objects, symbols, and signs to extend our thinking, evoke a certain version of ourselves, and direct our learning;

33:34 Extending our thinking through experiencing people: Learning again as adults how to experience people around us as an individual and as a group.

Additional Resources from Annie:

Book: The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul

Website: anniemurphypaul.com

Linkedin: Annie Murphy Paul

I love how art can take us on a journey to another way of seeing things. And, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that the human condition is a little rough and rocky these days — so I feel drawn to opportunities to cultivate joy.

In my role as Chair of the Art Committee at Yale School of Management, I have the chance to impact the space through the iconography on the walls. I wanted to do something real and uplifting. Then I met Clara Nartey and experienced her work. I am delighted to welcome her to this podcast so others can hear about her perspective and process. 

In this episode, we speak about art as a reflective practice, the impact of art on education, and the power of art to encourage discussion and change minds. Clara encourages us to explore art as a means of reflection and a way to navigate difficult topics and conversations that we may have otherwise avoided. 

The Joy of Living Exhibit at the Yale School of Management is a permanent exhibit by artist Clara Nartey. Clara is a textile artist and former management consultant, her exhibit at Yale is a reflection of her experience of the pandemic, and it has become a part of the context and fabric of the experience of this building. 

Key Topics:

04:10 Finding your way through experience: Challenging our perspective around difficult experiences and allowing them to become learning opportunities that lead us to courageous leaps.

10:02 The journey of becoming an artist: Learning through and from opportunities as they come to you in life, stretching and building range from them.

14:50 Creativity and self-reflection during the pandemic: Reflecting on what life means and creating art and joy from that place of reflection. 

17:25 Art as a reflective practice: Being in a relationship with the creative process, directing your learning, and letting the work speak to you and evolve.

19:19 The power of art to change minds: There is a stretching of mind, heart, and spirit that happens through perceiving human issues through the arts.

Learn more:

See Clara Nartey’s Collections on her website.

Listen to Clara discuss the works in the exhibit.

In this first episode of season two, I talk with Tracee Stanley about how to have an experience of yourself through skilled and intentional rest, self-inquiry, and aligned learning.

This season is about how we learn through experience using 4 core practices: Challenging your perspective, stretching and building range, directing your learning, and reflection and inquiry. Tracee’s way of working is a deep way to learn through experience—listen to hear how our conversation touches on all four of these practices that might just change your life.

Tracee Stanley, a yoga teacher and bestselling author who transitioned from a successful filmmaking career in Hollywood to teaching Yoga Nidra and self-inquiry, challenges conventional ideas surrounding work culture and productivity by emphasizing the need for balance, rest, and reflection so we can leave a greater legacy behind us.

Key Topics:

01:24 Learning through experience to honor a less conventional path: From successful Hollywood filmmaker to yoga teacher;

08:03 Experience can offer a thread to yourself:  There is a difference between knowing the self and coming into the self.  Certain practices can help us peel back the layers of who we are not.

10:17 Experience opens a door: How the experience of rest practice opened new possibilities 

16:30 Challenging your perspective: Understanding yourself, experimenting, and learning what you truly want;

19:11 Stretching and building range: Asking questions that allow you to learn through experience and make shifts towards what you want;

25:27 Directing your learning: Using intentional rest and the space of the liminal to capture what you already know;

28:45 Reflecting and inquiring: What legacy do we want to leave behind? How attachment, aversion, and fear are keeping us from intentionally resting and leaving a legacy of exhaustion behind us.

37:09 The group is more powerful than the individual: How community can help support you as you shift old patterns and learn through experience.

Additional Resources from Tracee Stanley 

Practice: Grounding Deep Relaxation

Website: https://www.traceestanley.com/

Books: The Luminous Self: Sacred Yogic Practices and Rituals to Remember Who You Are  |  Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation & Awakened Clarity