Finding Your Keys and Online Training

We have all been there. You need to grab your keys in the bedroom so you head up the stairs. You walk through the door and….. “wait, what was I here for again?” It’s called the Doorway Effect and it’s why online training is so effective.

You’re probably thinking “What? How does poor memory tie into a Grow2Serve class?” Well it‘s not about memory, it’s about context. And online training beats the physical classroom for context every time.

You see our brains are amazingly efficient. Your brain is constantly capturing and applying information. You watched Beauty and the Beast three days ago and now you’re pretty sure that Italian guy is hitting on the lady he is sitting next to. Why? Because the movie let you know that Belle’s “…name means beauty…” and now this guy is making eyes and using the word “belle” every other sentence. You picked up a bit of info, stored it, and applied it to make sense of a situation going on in front of you; all without having to consciously think about it. If you already knew where I was going with that example then you know firsthand how crazy good are brains are at this stuff.

This amazing capacity for learning must be managed, though. Imagine if every time you were asked a question your brain divulged every bit of information it had on file. But here too our brains are amazing. It filters through the information you know and finds the piece you need now. Here is where the Doorway Effect comes in.

To ease and speed the process of finding info our brain creates shortcuts. It groups and associates information. This is why when you are in the middle of talking about the game last night you can remember the score quickly but if asked out of the blue you won’t be able to remember. In the context of your sports conversation that information was important and currently relevant but in your day to day that information is less pressing. Hence the Doorway Effect. Your brain understood the importance of the keys when you were downstairs but now you left that room, you’re in a different context, so your brain put that need on the backburner.

Missionaries often suffer a parody of the Doorway Effect when they go overseas. They received helpful training and resources back at the home office, but now they’re in Cambodia and struggling to remember “observe without judgement.” Their brains could take in the information and apply it in a classroom setting but it was never connected to any other context.

The same is true even after they have been in the country. Just like with the Doorway Effect, they know the information gaps and their urgent questions in the context of the field but now they’re in a refresher training classroom and that information is placed on the backburner. Unless the missionary is able simultaneously to occupy both contexts, the disconnect will be an obstacle.

Thankfully they can. With online training context becomes a strength not a weakness. A lesson learned can be applied the next day, or even hour, so context disconnect doesn’t happen. Urgent questions don’t have to be remembered through change in context and over travel time; they can be asked immediately. In fact, with online training, lessons can be incorporate into their actual job; no simulations or semi-connected examples required. The real life context drives the training rather than training being stretched to uncomfortably fit context. To stick with our analogy it’s as if you think about needing the keys and somebody gives them to you in the room you are already in. You don’t walk through any doors (leave the Field) so the Doorway Effect (context disconnect) never happens.