The Learner Lab

A little bit of reflection can lead to a lot of benefits for learning and performance.

Giada Di Stefano joins to discuss the her work on the surprising benefits of reflection.

Her work shows how valuable it can be to the learning process and that in some situations it’s more beneficial than additional practice.

We work through her paper that outlines:

– the best strategies for reflection
– when reflection is most effective
– how we can use these strategies as individuals and leaders

This is a great episode for both learners and leaders.

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Giada Di Stefano
Learning by Thinking: Giada’s huge paper

Giada Di Stefano is an Associate Professor of Strategy at Bocconi University.

Her general research interests lie in the broad area of strategy and innovation. More specifically, she studies the factors that foster or inhibit the creation and transfer of knowledge, within and across organizations. From a methodological standpoint, her research is prevalently mixed-method, with a focus on experiments and field work more broadly. To this end, she has partnered with a number of organizations to conduct experiments “in the wild.” Her work is often conducted in the context of creative industries, broadly defined – from gourmet cuisine to science, from computer programming to academia.

Her papers have been published in top academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal. Her research has also been featured on the Financial Times.

We can all change. But we usually don't. The good news: we can fix this

Katy Milkman is one of the world's leading experts on change and human behavior. She shares specific tools to overcome:

– Laziness
– Forgetfulness
– Procrastination
– Getting Started
– Impulsivity
– Conformity
– Confidence

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Katy Milkman
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The Learner Lab

Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a secondary appointment at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Her research explores ways that insights from economics and psychology can be harnessed to change consequential behaviors for good, such as savings, exercise, student achievement, vaccination and discrimination. To that end, she co-founded and co-directs the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2021 Katy was named one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers and the world’s top strategy thinker by Thinkers50. The New York Times also named her bestselling book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be one of the eight best books for healthy living in 2021.

There's been some exciting advancements in the world of growth mindset. David Yeager joins to share some of his latest research.

– A quick growth mindset overview
– Addressing growth mindset controversies
– The new era of growth mindset
– David Yeager: A Synergistic Mindset Intervention
– Tips for building a growth mindset

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David Yeager
The Learner Lab
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Stress Mindset Episode

Dr. Yeager is an Associate Professor at The University of Texas. He is interested in understanding the processes shaping adolescent development, especially how social cognitive factors interact with structural and physiological factors to create positive or negative trajectories for youth.  He is also interested in learning how to influence these psychological processes, so as to improve developmental and educational outcomes for youth. 

The way we think about stress can change the way it affects us. Understanding the way our mindsets impact stress is essential for better learning and leadership.

Kelly McGonigal explains how it all works.

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Kelly McGonigal
The Upside of Stress
The Learner Lab Podcast

Studies:
Jeremy Jamieson GRE Study
Alia Crum 2013
Alia Crum 2023

Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University who specializes in understanding the mind-body connection. As a pioneer in the field of "science-help," her mission is to translate insights from psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies that support personal well-being and strengthen communities.

She is the best-selling author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress. You might also know her from her TED talk, "How to Make Stress Your Friend," which is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time, with over 20 million views.

Through the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism, she helped create Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training, a program now taught around the world that helps individuals strengthen their empathy, compassion, and self-compassion. 

In January 2020, Oprah Magazine honored her ability to “transform scientific data into wisdom” by naming McGonigal the first ever O! Visionary, people whose groundbreaking way of seeing the world mean a better future for us all.

Boomer, Gen X, Millennial - we use these labels all the time, but there's two problems:

1. There's no scientific support for real generational differences
2. Using the labels actually causes a bunch of problems, especially for learning & development

Two experts in the field, David Costanza & Cort Rudolph join us to to discuss:

- the limits of traditional generational research
- the problems that the perceived generational differences/ labels cause
- a better way to think about group differences

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David Costanza
Cort Rudolph
Learner Lab Podcast

Studies:
NASEM Report
Generations, We Hardly Knew Ye: An Obituary
Generations and Generational Differences: Debunking Myths
Generationally Based Differences: Is There a There There

Hardiness is a strong predictor of our ability to deal with challenges and change. Decades of research shows it plays an important role in both learning and resilience. Yet, it doesn’t get enough attention – it’s time to change that.

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Hardiness by Paul Bartone
The Learner Lab

One of the world’s leading experts in hardiness, Paul Bartone joins to talk about his research. We focus on why hardiness is an important topic for learning, and different strategies to build it.

Paul Bartone is a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Defense University, and Adjunct Faculty in Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Research interests focus on understanding individual differences in stress responding, and clarifying the role of personality hardiness and related factors in facilitating healthy adaptations to stressful conditions, as well as organizational and personal strategies for increasing hardiness.

This is a great episode for both individual learning & leadership.

Outcome Bias Outcome Bias is a common trap we all fall into, when we judge a decision based on the results, instead of looking at the process itself. This impacts learning, leadership, and decision making more than we realize. Annie Duke and Övül Sezer show us how to change that.

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Annie Duke
Övül Sezer
The Learner Lab Website

Annie Duke is an author, speaker, and consultant in the decision-making space, as well as Special Partner focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed stage venture fund. Annie is the co-founder of The Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. She is a member of the National Board of After-School All-Stars and the Board of Directors of the Franklin Institute and serves on the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative.

Övül Sezer is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University. Her research has been featured in top management and psychology journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Harvard Business Review and covered in leading media outlets including New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Gaining experience and expertise is great for us – as individuals. However, research shows, this can hurt our capacity to connect with, lead, and advise others. This is called the curse of expertise and to become a more effective leaders we need to understand what it is and how to avoid it.

Ting Zhang, from Harvard Business School, outlines her research on the curse of expertise – focusing on what it is, why it matters, and strategies we can use to avoid it.

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Ting Zhang
The Learner Lab
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Daniel Coyle joins the podcast to discuss his new book: The Culture Playbook

Daniel Coyle is the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code, which was named Best Business Book of the Year by Bloomberg, BookPal, and Business Insider. Coyle has served as an advisor to many high-performing organizations, including the Navy SEALs, Microsoft, Google, and the Cleveland Guardians.

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Daniel Coyle's website
The Learner Lab website

Learning is the most important skill. Great learners are agile, resilient, and adaptable. Great learners can acquire new skills when new demands arise. In times of change, learners will thrive.

The best news: learning is a skill – one that anyone can get better at.

This book will provide the tools and science to help you do just that.

Learner Lab Website
Trevor Ragan
Learner the Audiobook

Episode 5 Overview:
- How to become a better learner
- Learner action plan
- Learning more efficiently 
- Better Practice

Topics: purposeful practice, desirable difficulties, contextual interference

Guests: Elizabeth Bjork, Robert Bjork, Michael Merzenich

Table of Contents

Episode 1 – Jungle Tiger
Chapter 1 – Rudy
Chapter 2 – Why Learning
Chapter 3 – Tigers
Chapter 4 – Why We Zoo Tiger

Episode 2 – Growth Mindset
Chapter 5 – Mindsets & Learning
Chapter 6 – Mindsets & Action
Chapter 7 – Misconceptions
Chapter 8 – How to Build a Growth Mindset

Episode 3 – Overcoming Fear
Chapter 9 – Fear, Discomfort & Learning
Chapter 10 – How to Overcome Fear
Chapter 11 – Flaws of Fearless
Chapter 12 – Putting Emotions in the Backseat

Episode 4 – Resilience
Chapter 13 – Finding Opportunities within Challenges
Chapter 14 – Turning Resilience on its Head
Chapter 15 – Learning like a Scientist
Chapter 16 – Into the Wild

Episode 5 – Taking Action
Chapter 17 – Taking Action
Chapter 18 – Better Practice