Tamsen Webster challenges the popular visual/auditory/kinesthetic learning styles model and presents a validated distinction: about 75% of people are example learners, while others are rule learners. She advises communicators to pair rules with examples, saying "a rule for every example and an example for every rule" to make messages stick.
How do you make a message stick? The answer comes down to learning styles, but probably not the ones you've been taught. I'm Tamsen Webster of TamsenWebster.com, and that's what we're talking about this week on Find the Red Thread. It makes sense that after you've put so much work into your Red Thread, you want to make sure that the message that comes out from it sticks. So what do we do and how do we do it? One of the first things we have to get past is the fact that we tend to rely on our own preferences when it comes to what we use to illustrate or provide evidence for our ideas. If we like stories, we tell stories. If We like research and data, we use a lot of research and data. And so we want to make sure that there's a mixture of what we put out there. But there's in fact a deeper problem with defaulting to our own styles. And it comes down to how people learn. Now you may have been told that there are 4 learning styles: visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic, where people touch and move things. But one thing you may not know is that that's never been validated. In fact, the opposite has been true. They found over and over again that regardless of how that information is presented, people learn the same. They may prefer to learn by visual or listening or reading or touching and moving, but they will learn the same. So what's really going on here? Well, there is one learning style difference that has been validated over and over again. What is it? The difference between what's called a rule learner and what's called an example learner. Now, what's the difference? Well, rule learners are able to see the underlying commonalities between a couple different examples or problems or case studies. We're the ones that are able to find what is the through line, the red thread between things. We just kind of see it. The other is example learners. Example learners are people who learn by seeing something repeated over and over again, and they associate those things, we associate those things with stories and case studies and things like that. But what we do is we focus on the stories. Now, here's an important thing for you to understand if you are a communicator and you are trying to get your message to stick. About 75% of the population are example learners, that they don't see the underlying concept behind a whole bunch of stories that you tell, or a whole bunch of quotes, or a whole bunch of exercises, or a whole bunch of data. So what does that mean? At the highest level, it means that we need to make sure that we support our biggest concepts in ways that both rule learners and example learners can get what they need. So what does that mean? Well, it means that for your most important concepts, the concepts in your Red Thread, just as a hint, you want to make sure that you have a rule for every example and an example for every rule. What do I mean by that? Well, it means that whenever you tell a story, you want to make sure that you tell people what is the meaning of that story. For example, if you are somebody who really loves to default to rules and you like a lot of concepts, make sure that for every important rule you you put out there, that you give people examples and stories so they can see how it comes to life. Now, you might have a question in your mind, well, how does this actually solve the problem of people learning differently? And here's where a really important piece of information comes into play, and it's this: once example learners are taught to see the rule in those examples, they become just as good as rule learners at seeing that rule in other things. That's why it's so important to make sure you do both all the time. A rule for every example and an example for every rule. If you need help finding the Red Thread of your message, go to findyourredthread.com and download the free Red Thread worksheet. And if you need any help, contact me at tamsenwebster.com/contact.
