2. “To win in the marketplace you must
first win in the workplace”
- Doug Conant
Summary
Organizations today face the task of navigating a ‘new world of business’— one that is fundamentally
different from the old world, and one that requires complete transformation of strategies,
organizational design and employee capabilities.
When dealing with change, culture, and the complexities of human nature, we can’t underestimate the
importance of the nuanced workings of our brain, as emphasized by countless research studies, models
and frameworks.
As explained in this paper, changing culture is a matter of changing habits: rewiring the brain for success.
However, our emotions and physiological brain structure drive our behaviors - which can make it difficult
to change. Based on the latest insights from the field of neuroscience, we have therefore developed a new
(EPIC) methodology for accelerated learning, as well as a training solution addressing both the new ‘what’ and
the new ‘how’ of organizational development.
Content
● Era of Change or Change of Era?
● Agile Learning
● State of the Gap
● Accelerated Learning: EPICMethodology
● The Role of Experiential Learning
● Playful learning
● Iterative Learning
● Collaborative Learning
● Applying Neuroscience: Cafe Style Speed Training
● Cafe Style Activities
● Validation
● Case Study and What People are Saying about Cafe Style
● Learning and Development Toolbox

3. Organizations today face the task of navigating a ‘new world of
business’—
One that is fundamentally different from the old world, and
one that requires complete transformation of strategies,
organizational design and employee capabilities. In this context,
organizational culture and employee engagement have become of
vital concern to managers, executives, and consultants on the front
lines of change.
Deloitte’s 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report even shows
that in a worldwide study, culture and engagement were rated as
the most important challenge in today’s business environment. It is
reality you will either manage your culture, or it will manage you.
In the last decade, scientists have been arguing for a shift in
knowledge production, one that is more suitable to our ‘Mode-2’
society. In Mode-1, our knowledge was structured, single minded
and slow to change. Creativity in this context was mostly related to
traditional occupations such as music or art. The language suitable
for this mode was one of ‘command and control’, mostly used to
communicate from the top down - telling employees what they were
allowed to think, do or say during working hours. Mode-2 takes a
different approach. It is about collaboration, it is context-driven,
it is agile, and it breaks down the traditional ways of thinking. And
in that, we are not so much in an era of change, but rather in a
change of era.
Era of Change or Change of Era?
Examples of Mode-1 vs Mode-2
Values and Behaviors
Reliance - Self-Reliance
Stability - Flexibility and Change
Conformity - Commitment and Ownership
Time Management - Output Value
Hard Work – Smart Work
Universalising Needs - Individualising Needs
Governance - Leadership
Rational Thinking - Creative Thinking
Blame - Accountability
Political - Truth and Authenticity
Control of Others - Respect, Kindness and Diversity
Dependence - Insightful
Authoritarian - Trust and Values
Competitiveness - Collaboration and Partnerships

4. Humans have around 60,000
thoughts a day; for the average
person most of these are negative.
Add into the pot the fact that 95% of
the thoughts are recurrent, and
we can begin to understand why
going through change requires the
highest levels of emotional and social
intelligence and a serious increase in
self-awareness.
The role of the leader in this story
is then not to tell his employees
what to do, as has been the norm
for decades, but rather to
facilitate people to think for
themselves – to create an agile
learning culture that allows
individuals and teams to develop an
inquiry-based mind-set, increase
creative thinking, enhance
collaboration and effective
communication, and solve
problems quickly and innovatively.
Whoever wants to lead in this new
era must first understand the
complex ways of how their
organizations and its context
operates. But first, let’s take a step
back and look at how culture is
produced. Simply put, culture is
how and why we do things around
here. It’s a combination of
individual and shared behaviors,
values, and assumptions. The
question is not: do you have a
culture?The questions are: Is your
culture helping or hindering? Is
your culture sending the right cues
to engage your employees? Most
importantly, is your culture
producing the desired results?
To answer these questions, it is
crucial to look at the micro level:
the individuals and the teams in
which they operate. What are the
current behaviors, and what
would you like to see differently?
Many organizations for example
find that old ways of
communicating are not effective
anymore; that employees have
difficulties building trusted
relationships and embedding
values; or that a lack of creative
thinking abilities hinders innovation.
But although old habits die hard,
they can change.
The times, they are a-changing
Unfortunately there’s a massive gap in many
organizations: 86% of executives think culture is
critical to business success, but 51%of employees
think their “culture needs a major overhaul“ (Strategy
& Global Assessment). Add the trend of
ever-decreasing employee engagement scores (now
only 13% according to Gallup) and the shocking
statistic that only 30% of employees identify with their
organization’s purpose (Deloitte), and it’s clear the
awareness with business leaders that change is
needed not yet led to significant improvements.
The truth is that culture change is hard and it
requires sustained effort to have any chance of
success. And though both neuroscience and
psychology have shown that changing behavior is hard
– mostly because it provokes sensations of
physiological discomfort – recent breakthroughs in
cognitive science can also lead and influence
mindful change: organizational transformation that
takes into account the physiological nature of the
brain.
Change is hard, or is it?

5. When dealing with change,
culture, and the complexities of
human nature, we can’t
underestimate the importance
of the nuanced workings of our
brain, as emphasized by
countless research studies,
models and frameworks.
With so much at stake, leaders
would be well-served to utilize
every tool available. As explained
above, changing culture is a
matter of changing habits:
rewiring the brain for success.
However, our emotions drive
our behaviors and our behaviors
create certain chemicals specific
to those behaviors.
The body gets used to these
chemicals and eventually starts
becoming dependant on them.
This is when change becomes
difficult. The best solution is
thus to replace old habits with
new ones, while limiting the
sense of discomfort caused by an
imbalance to chemicals in our
body.
When we are in a positive
emotional state,
counter-chemicals are produced
that restore this balance,
making change a less painful
process. At the same time,
changing habits does not happen
overnight.
We need repetition, and most of
all experience. And the good news
for managers: all this works best in
a social environment – when we are
collaborating and being part of a
team.
Based on these latest insights from
the field of neuroscience, we have
developed a new methodology to
accelerate learning that leads to
engaged, agile and high-performing
teams: EPIC.
Experiential
Playful
Iterative
Collaborative
Agile Learning: EPIC Methodology

6. “I hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand”
~Confucius
It is hard to argue that
experience will not lead to
learning, under the right
conditions. Unfortunately, way
too often you will encounter the
classic ‘show and tell,’ a trainer
standing in front of a group,
showing slides from a
presentation, explaining what
should and should not be done.
Countless studies1 varying from
Educational science to social
Psychology, from neuroscience
to pedagogy, have emphasized
that information conveyed in this
manner is very quickly forgotten.
In the best cases, 10% of the
Information sticks. Experiential
learning, on the other hand, is
memorable. When we do
something we are engaged, we
are involved, we experience -
causing up to 90% of the learned
information to be remembered.
The Role of Experiential Learning
– Learning by Doing
1
See for example on Experiential Learning Studies: Blakemore & Frith (2000); Kolb (2014);
Holmqvist (2004).
The three main pillars of bite-size, experiential learning capsules:
1. Applied knowledge: Naturally, experiential learning is not about imposing knowledge, or concepts on
the learner; it is about immediately ‘applying’ without the fear of getting it wrong.
2. Incremental structure: The moments that stick rarely last longer than 30 minutes. Research shows that
breaking a large chunk of work into smaller portions is much more effective.
3. Contact with the environment: By learning in a familiar environment, team learners are more likely to
be open to new information. A recent study found that groups are hostile to criticism from newcomers and
are likely to resist, dismiss or ignore it.

7. ’
Playful Learning
– the Neuroscience of Play
Science has shown that adult
learning is most effective in a
positive emotional state: when
it’s fun2. It makes intimidating,
perplexing material engaging and
easier to comprehend. When
playful, the learning occurs
through self-discovery. In other
words, not by ‘consciously
thinking and trying to ‘memorize’
and ‘interpret’ information from
outside, but instead
subconsciously imagining and
creating, bypassing the conscious
mind - like advertising. Being in a
state of ‘play’ allows us to explore
infinite possibility. Many areas of
neuroscience provide proof that
without play, we cannot have the
creativity and innovation we need.
Play increases imagination and
invokes creativity, because it
creates a simultaneous sense of
safety and adventure. Play
encourages us to adapt to the
outside world while remaining
authentic. It is one of the essential
ingredients in a creative process.
2
Studies on the Neuroscience of Play are eg. Bavelier et al. (2010); Brown (2009), and Kestly
(2014).
“A complex system that works is
Invariably found to have evolved
from a simple system that worked”
~Jason Fried
Iterative Learning
Adding social and collaborative
elements to learning, leads to
significant improvements in
outcomes. When working together
to achieve a shared goal, everyone
needs to believe in the goal and
trust the others as well as
themselves. Furthermore, studies3
have shown that social
embededness improves cognitive
functions by broadening mental
capacities of thinking, learning and
understanding. Add the fact that as
much as 70 to 90% of workplace
learning occurs informally and
socially through discussion with
fellow employees, water cooler in
discussions and even trial and error.
Since most of learning occurs in
informal and social settings,
perhaps the greatest single
potential gain for learning is in this
area.
Collaborative Learning
3
A very interesting book on Collaborative learning Trentin’s Networked Collaborative Learn-
ing. Other studies are from Gokhale (2012); Baker et al. (2013); and Mason & Watts (2012)
Experiential Leads to engagement, causing up to 90% of the learned information to be
Remembered.
Play Makes intimidating, perplexing material engaging and easier to comprehend.
Iterative Repetition and building on the outcomes of previous iterations has up to twice
the impact as traditional linear learning.
Collaborative Improves cognitive functions, learning outcomes, and increases a sense of solidarity.
Iterative development involves a
cyclical process, and can – because
of its repetitive nature – have up to
twice the impact traditional linear
learning has. Just as we pass
through the four seasons every
year, our learning passes through
these same areas of study
repeatedly over time. This doesn’t
mean that you should repeat the
same thing over, and over again.
But when the major themes keep
reoccurring, you’re learning
spirals continually deeper with
every cycle you are part of.

8. Over the past few years, there has
been another common theme in
research about culture change,
employee engagement and
workplace transformation:
middle management is key for the
success of these programs. After
all, managers are the ones
charged with giving their
employees the tools and processes
to be effective in their jobs -
leading them to high-
performance. Building on this
knowledge and the latest insights
in Neuroscience, we designed the
EPIC methodology and a full range
of learning products and services
based on that. The full name of
the method is CaféStyle Speed
Training, though it tends to get
shortened to Cafe Style.
Applying Neuroscience:
Cafe Style Speed Training
At the core of our approach are
our unique bite-sized Cafe Style
Activities, of which there are
500+ and growing. Each activity is
focused at achieving one
particular outcome in less than 30
minutes. They can be facilitated
by managers, HR managers,
learning practitioners and other
internal champions during team-
meetings, breaks, or other
moments that you’re together as
a team. Or, they can be put
together to fuse into current
learning sessions, or create
whole programs. There is no
need for training infrastructure;
they could be done even in the
cafeteria, hence the name. Café
Style activities are fun, engaging
and amazingly effective: learning
practitioners and manager’s
experience immediate and
lasting impact. In our products,
tools, platforms and programs,
we mostly use a mix and series
of activities that together lead to
the desired outcome (as outlined
in chapter 3.3)
Though the Cafe Style activities
vary, the major themes are
recurrent, leading to a model of
play-learn-change; play-learn-
change; etc. Because the
learning is experiential, playful,
iterative, and collaborative, the
Cafe Style activities develop an
inquiry-based mind-set of
learning through self-discovery
and experience, resulting in
rapid culture change, right
there in the working operation.
Cafe Style Activities
“Insanity is doing the same
things in the same way, yet
expecting different results.”
-Stephen Haines
Example of a Cafe
Style bite-size
learning capsule.
When required, some
many include
download
attachments.

9. Validation
4
Validation = the learning outcome is met; Reliability = the percentage of people that under-
stood the instruction in the same way
Case Study
The success our clients has shown how easy it is to leverage the principles of neuroscience for organizational learning
and development. In a study of over 15.000 participants over the period of a year, Cafe Style activities and programs
have been validated to achieve their specific learning outcome to the level of 82% at a reliability factor of 88%.
This means that the specified learning outcome (plus other non-specified outcomes) is achieved in 82% of cases and
can be applied immediately back in the business operations. The language of design and the material is fully
understood in the same way in 88% of cases. These validations are not essential in traditional training and would tend
to exist. The reason they are important in bite-size learning capsules is that the facilitator is unlikely to be an ‘expert’
on the subject being taught, therefore the learning outcome must be evoked by the design of the activity.
For a regional service center
operation of a bank active in
more than 70 countries with
100.000 employees worldwide,
understanding the organization’s
values and behaviors was an
important part of performance
standards and organisation
development strategy. The
client’s key desired outcome
was to enable the 7000
employees in the organization to
recognise and display the
behaviors that aligned to the
values & beliefs of the
organization. This could only
happen if the employees could
relate the values and the beliefs
to their day job and it became a
part of their operating language
at work.
To achieve this, leaders and
managers of the various client
sites called Value Champions &
Enablers, hosted “Value Cafes”
every Friday, where teams came
to participate in Cafe Style
activities in an informal
environment. Within six
months, six values were
sustainably embedded into the
hearts and minds of their people.
The client reported a
measurable change in culture,
engagement and performance,
and a steep decrease of
employee turnover with 40% “I
must acknowledge and thank
you for helping build our ‘DB
Culture’ in India in such an
engaging & impactful manner.
We believed that a change in the
operating language would be the
driver for change in behaviors
and change in the overall culture
of the organization. And what
better way to change the
language than to embed the new
language in every coffee
conversation? Since the
activities are highly participative
in nature and completely non-
threatening, they allowed every
participant to express freely,
bringing in their own
experiences, thoughts and
feelings. This not just ensured a
higher level of ownership in
driving the change within the
participants but also helped
them align their own personal
values to the organization.” Full
case study available on request.

10. We LOVE the training. We‘ve rolled
out the Cafe Style concept to the
operational management and
there’s a real buzz around the
advantage it can bring to an
environment like ours.
More than 15.000 managers and industry leading organizations and facilitators have already experienced the
power of Cafe Style Speed Training to deliver on change objectives.
I learned something very important
about human motivation and how
wrong we have it, I took away so
much new stuff.
Cafe Style has transformed our
organisation. Our performance has
risen, our sickness levels are lower
than even and we have a genuine
buzz about the place; a new
language, which is all down to Cafe
Style.
It was a gush of fresh air to training
and development, pure magic and so
engaging. The timing for Cafe Style is
now.
Cafe Style should be on prescription! IlearnedmoreintheonedayCafeStyle
boot camp than I did on my six weeks
management training programme.
The activities are simply fabulous, I
really, really enjoyed the experience
and remember everything for the
first time on any training session,
thank you.
Cafe Style lends itself perfectly to
today’s business environment. I feel
empowered to reinforce key
messages and change attitudes of
my team. What’s more, it was
amazing fun!
Thought provoking, loved the
approach, looking forward to using
the method and games with my
teams, unique approach to
development and change.
Cafe Style is so obviously effective
and the results I experienced can
be used straight away…thank you
again!
Hi, I was at the World of Learning last week at the NEC and spoke on both days about the stuff we are doing here at
xxxx. It could be that we are getting 3 x Outstandings and 1 x Good for our last HMIC inspection on Leadership,
Efficiency and Legitimacy, so once published Cafe Style can take the credit for that. You need to go to the World of
Learning, there is nothing like you and companies are crying out for something different like Cafe Style. It was so
1980’s and if I had money I still wouldn’t have bought anything.
What people are saying about Cafe Style

11. Let’s talk - if you’re interested in trying Cafe Style Speed Training within your training room, team
or organization, please contact us via email or go here. Talk soon!
FiHaywoodandtheCafe Style Team
TRAINERS / FACILITATOR’S
TOOLBOX APP
If you are a learning
practitioner, get access to the
full Cafe Style portfolio via our
mobile App. The App not only
houses the portfolio, search
and play, it also allows you to
build and design play lists for
play lists for workshops and
much more. The Cafe Style App
is a must have toolbox for
today’s learning practitioner to
create bite-size learning
capsules to extensive
programs, without the tedious,
time consuming design.
CAFE STYLE ONLINE
TOOLBOX
Our method has been proven
to work regardless of goal to be
achieved, knowledge to be
transferred, issue to be
addressed or teams to work
with. Currently we have 500+
Cafe Style activities on the
shelf, so there must be
something right for your needs.
With a license, you get access
to the activities you want, for
the time you need, via our
Cafe Style Culture Club
platform. Pay and play – it’s
that simple.
TRAIN THE FACILITATOR
IN HOUSE AND OPEN
Facilitating Cafe Style is easy to
learn. We can equip your
facilitators / champions with the
skills and tools needed to be
great Cafe Style facilitators, so
that you can use the power of
our EPIC method as much as
you like. In combination with a
license to a selection of the
500+ Cafe Style activities, your
function now has the ability to
deliver on expectations from
your organization’s leaders and
learning practitioners.
CAFE STYLE IN HOUSE
BOOT CAMPS
Change does not need to be
hard, or take long: experience
makes all the difference. Our
Boot Camps are designed to
tackle whatever challenge your
team is facing, based on our
method of EPIC learning. More
than just a boost of
inspiration, our half-day or
full-day Boot Camps accelerate
change and learning like you’ve
never seen before – tailored to
your needs. Learning
practitioners can also buy our
ready made boot camps!
CAFE STYLE VIRTUAL
BOOT CAMP
Our Boot Camps are famous for
turning around dysfunctional
behavior – on any subject.
As kick-off for your Cafe Style
Accelerator, or as a stand-alone
session, we facilitate group
coaching session(s) in a virtual
classroom. No matter where
your team members are
based, after the virtual Cafe Style
Boot Camp, you’ll experience a
shift in collaboration,
engagement and performance.
Or, you can buy these as
packages and do it yourself!
DO-IT-YOURSELF
CAFE STYLE ACCELERATORS
Cafe Style Accelerators are
designed to accelerate change
and learning for achieving a
particular outcome in 10, 30,
90 or 100 days. Accelerators
include targeted Cafe Style
Activities, relevant videos and
articles, and step by step
guidance via our online social
learning platform the Cafe Style
Culture Club. This is a DIY-
package for managers: no prior
knowledge or experience
required. Again learning
professionals can use these for
clients.
Learning and Development Toolbox

12. “Play is the highest form of research”
- Albert Einstein
http://www.cafestylespeedtraining.com
http://cafestylecultureclub.com
info@cafestylespeedtraining.com
(c) 2015, Cafe Style Development Ltd
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