This Brain Juice Is Worth The Squeeze, Twice

What do you know about the neurochemical, acetycholine?

If you forgot your Behavioral Neuroscience notebook at home, here's the refresher: acetycholine (ACh) is a chemical released in the brain to help neurons wire together. Research indicates that it helps with alertness, focus, binding certain synapses together, and suppressing other synapses from binding.

It's Brain Gorilla Glue.

When we engage in learning and aren't super stressed, our brain splooges ACh and starts making neural connections. Neurons that fire together, wire together. The more ACh, the path gets clearer and easier to navigate. The more times you put a layer down of Brain Gorilla Glue, the path gets wider and connects to related paths.

After 10,000 hours of intentional practice and gallons of ACh, you've turned a dirt path into a bustling highway. That's how you learn to juggle, or do improv comedy, or recite a poem, or interpret body language.

Making this more practical, two of the more effective ways to lube your brain with ACh in the workplace is Group Training and 1-1 Coaching.

(Learning nerds and neuroscientist learning nerds, I know this is gross oversimplification but run with me on this. Sources cited at the bottom of this newsletter.)

If you've ever sat in a classroom with a bunch of people or stuck around after school to meet with the teacher, you can visualize these two experiences. If you've got a great teacher, you can learn a lot in one format and you can learn a lot in the other format, but like peanut butter and jelly, combining the two is far greater than the sum of their parts.

Here's how these formats drive effective learning:

Perks of 1-1 Coaching

• Personalized examples and explanations enables ACh to effectively bind to your pre-existing neurons.
• Hyper-specific and immediate feedback reinforces the correct neural pathways, versus "learning it wrong the first time."
• Less stress and consistent attention (again, assuming you've got a good coach here) allows more consistent ACh to be drizzled into your neural synapses, making stronger synaptic connections.

Perks of Group Training

• Social learning can be stimulating and engaging in different ways than 1-1s, again leading to hefty and consistent ACh release.
• The social cues from other learners can serve as alternative reference points to bind to your neural pathway-in-training; hearing another learner reword something the instructor said can be the connection your brain needed.
• Social engagement, such as competition or collaboration, can also squeeze more ACh into your brain and connect to other brain regions like the hippocampus or amygdala that help with long term memory retention.

When you pair 1-1 personalized coaching with social learning environments, you're learning in the fast lane:

• Keeps Learning Fresh and Engaging: Mixing individual and group sessions offers different kinds of mental and social challenges. This variety helps you stay interested and focused, which can boost the release of brain chemicals (and there's lots more flavors of brain juice than just Acetylcholine) that aid learning.
• Stronger Understanding and Recall: One-on-one time helps pinpoint and fix personal learning gaps with focused attention, building a strong foundation. Group activities then allows you to remember, discuss, and use what you've learned with others. Explaining and debating ideas in a group solidifies memory and strengthens brain connections.
• Builds More Robust Brain Connections: Learning in different ways creates stronger and more flexible brain pathways. Connecting information to various situations and people helps to remember it better.
• Suits Different Learning Preferences: Some people hate group work and some people hate being under the thumb of a teacher: combining both approaches means everyone gets a chance to be engaged in a way that works for them, whether they prefer quiet focus or lively interaction. Important note: "learning styles" is a fucking myth.​

The next time you are doing a little learning, see if you can find ways to get 1-1 attention and talk it out with some peers.

A TL;DR from the CRO

Afternoons, like most people, are usually my refactory period.

-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer

The Summer of Strength Continues

In the last TL;DR, not one but TWO people asked for more Strengths images specifically featuring CRO Roman Noodles:

From now until September 1st, the Team Strengths Accelerator is $500 off the regular price. Use these long summer days to foster more trust and collaboration in your team!

Did I mention that the Team Strengths Accelerator combines 1-1 coaching and a group workshop? Hmm, wonder why...

ROCK TUMBLING UPDATE

My last supply of rough rocks (sodalite and red quartzite) went into the tumbler a few weeks back. In about a month or so, they'll come out and then I'll be fresh out of rocks.

What a tragedy...but I never let a good crisis go to waste.

Now's the time to figure out what should be my next batch of rocks to tumble. I've narrowed it down to five types, linked them to images, and used AI to tell me the woo woo behind them:

1. ​Mexican Lace Agate: Uplifts with joyful patterns, promoting inner stability.
2. ​Labradorite: Ignites magic, enhances intuition, and shields your aura.
3. ​Desert Jasper: Grounds exuberance, fuels creativity, and connects to Earth.
4. ​Aventurine: Attracts prosperity, fosters leadership, and calms the heart.
5. ​Sardonyx: Imparts strength, offers protection, and inspires virtue.

I will end up picking two: Rock Hudson and Rock Lobster are awaiting your decision.

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From the brain of a guy who generates dopamine when thinking about rocks,

Dan from Learn to Scale​

​Opt-out from the newsletter | Unsubscribe from all emails | Update your Preferences | | www.learntoscale.us, Boston, MA 02119

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​PS. Magic Eyes were made on MS-DOS?​

PSS. A newsletter that talks about neurotransmitters needs to cite its sources. Here's what I referenced while assembling this TL;DR:

• Hasselmo, M. E. (2006). The role of acetylcholine in learning and memory. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16(6), 710-715.
  • DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2006.09.002​
• Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105-119.
  • DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x​
• Riener, C., & Willingham, D. (2010). The myth of learning styles. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 42(5), 32-35.
  • DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2010.503139​
• Smale-Jacobse, A. E., Meijer, A., Helms-Lorenz, M., & Maulana, R. (2019). Differentiated instruction in secondary education: A systematic review of research evidence. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2366.
  • DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02366​
• Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415.
  • PNAS:https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1319030111​