I have a lingering regret. In a previous role, I was managing our organization’s learning services team, and one of our main responsibilities was new colleague orientation. The training room we primarily used was a typical corporate setup —row after row of desktop computers, wires, cables, fluorescent lighting and no windows. The walls, beyond a light blue hue, were barren. It was a sterile environment — something to be expected and endured.

I walked into the room and a stroke of insight came: “We should put up pictures or art in this room to change the feeling.” I could imagine other environments in which inviting and colorful artwork provided a feeling of welcoming and comfort. Without natural sunlight in the room, we could mimic our own by displaying warm vistas. It was a fine idea — that was never implemented. As I have grasped a better understanding of the entangled dynamics of our emotions and our learning, I regret my failure to follow through on my idea more and more.

Emotions to Help Us Learn and Heal

Sometimes learning and development (L&D) professionals take for granted that emotions play an inescapable role in learning. If a colleague comes into the office having just been told a beloved parent passed away unexpectedly, I can’t imagine many facilitators would expect the colleague to be able to force their cognitive abilities through the emotional tsunami they had just been struck by. Yet, many facilitators can miss the mark in creating a genuinely inviting and appealing learning environment for learners who deal with unseen factors every day.

Healing, like learning, is a process similarly affected by emotions. Thus, some healing strategies are applicable to learning. Sakallaris et al. detailed an “Optimal Healing Environment (OHE)” and its elements. One element is the external environment that includes “ambient qualities,” such as “light quality, sounds, air quality, and temperature.” Can you imagine learning calculus in the Florida Everglades in the middle of August?

“The role of the healing environment,” writes the authors, “is to reverse stress or harm and create a supportive space for healing to occur.” In the spirit of Dave Brailsford’s 1% improvement model, I believe the environments within which we facilitate and teach, including virtually, can be refined through small adjustments —the use of music, positive emotional displays by the facilitators and, yes, even encouraging or inspiring artwork.

What Can You Do?

• Before a training class or session begins, take sufficient time to appraise the learning space. Evaluate the “ambient qualities,” such as lighting, sounds and the temperature.
• The use of appropriate music can subtly change the feeling within a room as participants are arriving or even during specific activities; for example, using calm instrumental music that encourages contemplation can be useful during reflection activities.
• Watch carefully for affective changes in your learners; based on their emotional state, a facilitator may need to take a scheduled break earlier than expected.

Emotional Connections Between Instructor and Learner

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote, “Even when conditions are ideal, think of all the emotions that are involved in mastering a hard subject like algebra: curiosity, excitement, frustration, confusion, dread, delight, worry and, hopefully, perseverance and joy. You’ve got to have an educated emotional vocabulary to maneuver through all those stages.” In like manner, imagine (or remember) the experience of a new colleague or a new leader stepping foot into a wholly unfamiliar place or role.

In some ways, the greatest impact an L&D professional might have on someone’s learning is not the skill by which they facilitate material but the emotional connection they make with the learner — helping them feel at ease, encouraged and optimistic in their prospects of mastering a new subject. I’m not negating the need for skills in facilitation or instructional design; rather, I’m pointing out the inescapable dynamics of pedagogy and emotions.

What Can You Do?

• If facilitating in person, never forget the power of “Greet them, feed them and let them go early.” Even if budgets don’t allow for a lunch to be provided, sharing small snacks or candies can ingratiate learners to the facilitator.
• Be genuine in your concern for each learner and don’t overlook anyone if possible. If facilitating a large virtual session, interact with learners via the chat function or other social features.
• Embrace a growth mindset while teaching others. Your mindset or belief about your learners will induce subtle changes in your words and actions.

Emotional Flow

With so much talk of feeling at ease and low stress environments, we might mistake the ideal learning environment as one of little cognitive tension or struggle. As I have written before, easy learning is usually not the best kind of learning. A state of flow (that vaunted holy grail of conscious experience) exists between anxiety and boredom. The “Flow Channel,” as detailed by scholar Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is perpetuated by a delicate balance between an activity being too easy or too hard. Perhaps the same could be said of learning.

L&D professionals should never underestimate the power of the emotions flowing through the minds and hearts of their learners and should stay attuned to affective changes which occur in real time. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, points out that “different emotions serve different purposes for learning.” A burst of excitement and energy could obviously assist in a team-building exercise, but a tinge of anxiety could help a learner focus their attention on a difficult task and thereby enable them to master it.

What Can You Do?

• Vary the learning experience between activities which require greater and lesser levels of difficulty. You could implement a low-risk test which might cause some feelings of anxiety but then follow it up with a brief stretching exercise.
• Leverage the power of music to energize a team-building exercise; the music should be noticeable but not distracting.
• Ask learners, “How are you feeling?” Pay careful attention to their responses as you determine what and how to facilitate upcoming content.

Conclusion

To quote Brackett again, “Feelings are highly impervious to cold logic.” Approaching the learning experience from only a frigidly analytical perspective might accomplish some pedagogical goals, but the complexities of learning extend far beyond important methodological considerations. So, when your stroke of insight comes to pay a little more attention to the pictures on the wall or the feeling in the room, don’t ignore the idea. You won’t regret it.