in which I say way too much about nothing and admit to being stupid

April 8, 2008

Did you ever feel like your “learning” bucket has overfilled and you actual feel stupider? (Yes, stupider is a word the stupid use when they are too lazy to spell out “more stupid” or, it’s not a word at all if you are an uncool teacher of English). Anyway, my stupid bucket runneth over. I know this because my Outlook reminder popped open 30 minutes ago and reminded me.

It feels like those times in the smoke-filled room where you were certain you understood everything about life but then forgot it on the exhale (or at least that’s what I heard). For me, it resurfaced while standing in front of a group of peers talking about -what was I saying again? – and wishing I could stop talking before everyone thinks I’m a total dolt.

I believe my current stupidity is driven by choice overload. The reading I was doing on various social learning technologies made me all agitated. It was just too much. What blogging platform? What wiki? What social network? Which leads me to…our responsibility not to force people into a learning environment where there are too many choices.

Did you ever work with a SME that wanted to show the seventeen ways to process a transaction vs. the one or two that are sufficient? Resist!

Here is some research from social psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? that you could use to bolster your position and save your employees aggravation.

…when people have “too many” options to consider, they simply strive to end the choice-making ordeal by finding a choice that is merely satisfactory, rather than optimal.

The three studies described in the research (on essay writing and chocolate choices) demonstrate for the first time the possibility that…

although having more choices might appear desirable, it may sometimes have detrimental consequences for human motivation.”

So perhaps when we think people just aren’t motivated to learn we’ve really just given too many choices. And from now on, I’m just going with the plain Hershey kisses. Time to snooze the Outlook reminder. I decided I won’t be stupid again for 4 hours.

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  • http://www.daveswhiteboard.com/ Dave Ferguson

    The “too many choices” route is especially counterproductive for people new to some technology, process, or set of tasks. Teaching someone that he can use a menu choice or a function key or a keyboard shortcut or a mouse movement to do the same thing is not efficiency, it’s cognitive overload.

    I recently helped a retired friend set up a blog related to his textile collection. In my urge to clarify the things that had given me trouble when I first started, I wasn’t listening to his own purpose. He didn’t want comments — his view of his blog was as a sort of text-and-graphics lecture.

    And it wasn’t my business to tell him otherwise. Nothing he was doing would prevent a switch to accepting comments later. If I’d listened more carefully to my “client,” he’d have been up and running sooner.

  • http://www.daveswhiteboard.com Dave Ferguson

    The “too many choices” route is especially counterproductive for people new to some technology, process, or set of tasks. Teaching someone that he can use a menu choice or a function key or a keyboard shortcut or a mouse movement to do the same thing is not efficiency, it’s cognitive overload.

    I recently helped a retired friend set up a blog related to his textile collection. In my urge to clarify the things that had given me trouble when I first started, I wasn’t listening to his own purpose. He didn’t want comments — his view of his blog was as a sort of text-and-graphics lecture.

    And it wasn’t my business to tell him otherwise. Nothing he was doing would prevent a switch to accepting comments later. If I’d listened more carefully to my “client,” he’d have been up and running sooner.

  • http://mariaslearningblog.blogspot.com/ Maria Hlas

    I agree with both of you. Offering too many choices or ideas can also be a way of watering down your message without meaning too. People get so overloaded with all the great examples you are giving them, for instance, that they forget what you were trying to emphasize in the first place (not that I have ever done that!). In trying to seem intelligent, prove that you’ve thought of everything, and take into account everyone’s background you wind up looking a little crazy, disorganized and never get to the point.

    This can also happen with the “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. Everyone has to get their two-cents in and you wind up with a dollar when you really only needed a quarter (hey – good little metaphor – I need to figure out where to use that now!!)

    In an e-learning course, this is where branching can help (yes I know, you are giving them choices!). But if you give them a choice near the beginning that has them choose a specific area of expertise, relates to their division or specific job, etc., then you can tailor a message specific to their needs so you are not trying to be all things to all people.

    And, on a personal note, if I would quit being stupid and trying to do everything for everyone, I might get back to my fledgling blog and write something!

    P.S. Janet, I have NEVER thought of you as stupid!!

  • http://mariaslearningblog.blogspot.com Maria Hlas

    I agree with both of you. Offering too many choices or ideas can also be a way of watering down your message without meaning too. People get so overloaded with all the great examples you are giving them, for instance, that they forget what you were trying to emphasize in the first place (not that I have ever done that!). In trying to seem intelligent, prove that you’ve thought of everything, and take into account everyone’s background you wind up looking a little crazy, disorganized and never get to the point.

    This can also happen with the “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. Everyone has to get their two-cents in and you wind up with a dollar when you really only needed a quarter (hey – good little metaphor – I need to figure out where to use that now!!)

    In an e-learning course, this is where branching can help (yes I know, you are giving them choices!). But if you give them a choice near the beginning that has them choose a specific area of expertise, relates to their division or specific job, etc., then you can tailor a message specific to their needs so you are not trying to be all things to all people.

    And, on a personal note, if I would quit being stupid and trying to do everything for everyone, I might get back to my fledgling blog and write something!

    P.S. Janet, I have NEVER thought of you as stupid!!

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