Behavioral science has the power to motivate people to learn and change. But it can be a complex, nuanced subject. Advice previously offered from the learning industry often lacked scientific evidence, but times are changing. So how can you design a learning experience that actually motivates your learners to learn?

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9 Practical Tips for
Using Neuroscience to
Power Learning Design
A little about us.
CHARLOTTE HILLS | SABA
PhD Researcher and Learning Consultant
CARL CRISOSTOMO | SABA
Product Manager, Content

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massification
Which of the
following are
challenges
to achieving
critical
learning
outcomes?
Inability to measure learning’s impact69%
Lack of alignment between learning and outcomes60%
Lack of learner engagement54%
Poor learner experience34%
Other20%
Lack of effective content4%
Source: 2018 Brandon Hall Group Learning Strategy Study

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Do You Want To:
Make learning
memorable using
core emotions?
Use
‘loss aversion’
to motivate
your learnings?
Engage the
social mind
to change
behavior?
PRINCIPLE 1
Emotion

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How do you feel?

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Do you remember 9/11?
Where were you?

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Five Core Emotions
Joy Fear Anger Disgust Sadness
Emotion: Practical Tips
TIP 1:
seek out emotive content
WHY?
Emotion helps to
embed things in
long-term memory
TIP 2:
use negative emotion
WHY?
Negative emotions
are powerful
TIP 3:
don’t overdo it
WHY?
It loses impact

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Questions?
PRINCIPLE 2
Loss Aversion

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Neutral
0
Extremely
happy
+10
Extremely
unhappy
-10

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Neutral
0
Extremely
happy
+10
Extremely
unhappy
-10
Neutral
0
Extremely
happy
+10
Extremely
unhappy
-10
+4-8

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That moment
when…
Remember?

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Loss: Practical Tips
TIP 4:
use risk and loss
WHY?
Loss aversion is more
powerful than gain.
TIP 5:
make the loss personal
WHY?
Loss aversion is powerful
when it’s personal
TIP 6:
be brave
WHY?
Loss aversion may reduce
your willingness to do
something different

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PRINCIPLE 3
Social Stories

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Social Norms
seek out quietly influential peers

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Social Stories: Practical Tips
TIP 7:
find your influencers
WHY?
Peers are powerful when it
comes to social norms
TIP 8:
get their stories
WHY?
We are predisposed
to be interested
in real stories
TIP 9:
keep it real
WHY?
Scripted or overly corporate
speak is
a turn off
In Summary
• Seek out emotive content
• Use negative emotions
• Don’t go overboard
• Use risk and loss
• Make it personal
• Be brave
• Find your influencers
• Get their stories
• Keep it real
EMOTION
LOSS
AVERSION
SOCIAL
STORYTELLING

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The Role of Technology
PERSONALIZATION
AT SCALE
• A fully self-authored experience – think
Spotify dashboards and playlists
• Aggregates data and curates personalized
content relative to the learner
• Intelligently pushes targeted content to
the learners in a context-sensitive way - it
knows who they are, what they want to
learn, how they like to learn, where they
want career to go, etc.
• Easy for users to discover, consume and
collaborate on training content
• Enables learners to find content quickly,
complete a topic quickly, or come back to
their course, wherever, whenever they like
ACCESSIBLE,
RELEVANT CONTENT
• Offers richer, more interactive content not
restricted by protocols of an LMS
• Converges formal and informal content,
traditional and non-traditional
experiences AND professional and
personal learning journeys
• Enables business leaders (users,
managers, teams) to curate a wide variety
of content types from internal and
external sources
• Allows L&D to mix, match, track and
report on traditional content like SCORM
courses and more modern experiences
like videos and blog posts
PROOF OF
LEARNING IMPACT
• A consolidated view of learning (single
record across all learning)
• Connects to a wide collection of tools,
content types, and delivery methods
• Learning connected to skills and
competencies; performance
• Deep analytics that can provide more
information about individual employee
learning impact, and the overall success of
program
• Enables a business to proactively find
individual and organizational skill or
knowledge gaps
A Guide
to Success
In this step-by-step guide,
you'll learn how to apply these
three neuroscience principles of
motivation – emotion, loss
aversion, and social storytelling
– in your own organization.
http://bit.ly/Neuroscience-
Learning

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Would you like to learn more about incorporating
Saba learning solutions at your organization?
Charlotte Hills
chills@saba.com
LinkedIn
Carl Crisostomo
Ccrisostomo@saba.com
LinkedIn
Contact us

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Thank you
Do you have any questions?