4 variables to influence the elephant

I recently attended the 2020 Learning Solutions Online Conference. It was supposed to be in Orlando, FL, however, as we all know, a lot of awesome events were canceled…or in this case, converted to an online format.

One of the session speakers, Julie Dirksen, shared her perspective on influencing learner motivation in the learning content we create, and she introduced me to the rider and the elephant.

We all have two sides: the rider is the rational side and the elephant is the emotional one.

Think about it, if we didn't have to plan or think about the consequences of our actions, we'd be engaging the elephant constantly. Want French fries? Yes, please! How about some Disney+? Let me warm up my vocal chords! Here's the thing: we all have goals we want to achieve that typically are not instantly gratified. With that being the case, we need to engage the rider, or the rational, future-thinking side of our brains.

When both the rider and the elephant are on the same page, super! No conflict. What about when they're not on the same page - how can we influence the elephant? One way is to focus on value. Julie defined value as containing four variables: size, immediacy, tangibility, and likelihood. If we can tailor our learning content to incorporate big outcomes, with little effort, our learners will want to come back for more. Let's help our learners become lifelong learners.

This is the first item in my instructional design toolkit. I hope you find it helpful.