‘Brain Secretary’ the Enemy of Learning
The clinical name is the reticular activator -- a part of the brain about the size of the end of your pinkie. Sharon Bowman calls it the “brain secretary.”
“Hold up your pinkie,” she shouts to two dozen court administrators at a recent training seminar at the National Judicial College. “Say it with me -- ‘brain secretary,’ ” she says, her bracelets jangling as she adjusts the glasses perched atop her head.
It’s a key part of the lesson from the former Lake Tahoe-area teacher turned corporate training leader who is attempting something many consider more difficult than brain surgery. She’s trying to teach Fortune 500 executives, court clerks and college professors to push training manuals aside, and teach their students and co-workers in compelling ways that keep their minds from wandering. Or, as one of her book titles suggests, “Preventing Death By Lecture!”
Bowman explains that the brain secretary puts the main brain on autopilot while doing a repetitive chore, such as driving a familiar route to work. It is an enemy of good teaching.
“The brain secretary is programmed to take care of the routine. It says, ‘Been there, done that. I’ve got it covered. Your mind can take a hike,’ ” she says.
If a dog darts in front of the car, the brain secretary “bangs on the door of the thinking brain,” which clicks into gear.
“You have to keep the learner’s brain active,” she tells the students at the Judicial College.
So she flings a rubber ball at one participant. Or urgently seeks an answer to a trivia question from another. Or briefly flips on an overhead projector.
“Research shows that if you leave a group of adults sitting, listening for more than seven minutes, their minds begin to drift into sexual fantasy,” she tells the mostly middle-aged class that has spent most of two days sitting through traditional lectures from judges, lawyers and legal experts.
“Really, it takes seven minutes?” one fellow says to laughter.
Bowman is off and running. Literally. Up and down the aisles. Flipping on projectors. Drawing on easels. Throwing things.
“Move around. Ask a question. Show a video. Use a prop. Talk softer -- which is a hard one for me,” Bowman said. “Do anything that will set off the brain secretary. Learning is directly proportional to the amount of fun they are having.”
A Los Angeles native who taught grade and high school mostly in California and Nevada for 23 years, Bowman decided in the mid-1990s that it was time for a change. “Teaching is my passion but I needed a different forum,” she said.
Today, Bowman makes a living writing books and giving presentations to corporations like Exxon, MetLife, AT&T; and Adelphia Communications. She also speaks at community colleges, school training seminars and professional associations.
Tim Christian, a training manager for AT&T; in Minneapolis, praised Bowman’s “spirited, energetic delivery style” while promoting one of her half a dozen books, including “Presenting With Pizzazz” and “How To Give It So They Get It.”
Denise Ammaccapane, senior training director for Sodexho USA Inc., has tried to incorporate Bowman’s ideas at one of the world’s largest food service management firms. “It’s truly the little things you do throughout the session that makes a difference in people’s lives,” she said.
Lori Gaskin, vice president of academic affairs at Lake Tahoe Community College, said Bowman’s presentation to faculty and local business leaders demonstrated “the varied and innovative strategies that make teaching the art that it is.”
Bowman believes that community colleges in particular could benefit from closing textbooks and using innovative techniques. “Adults are going to have to learn new skills, new technology to make it in modern society,” she said.
Bowman said it’s easiest to get her message across in corporate boardrooms. “Their bottom line is the return on their investment. So if the training of their employees doesn’t stick, they have to retrain,” she said.
So, who are the most difficult audiences she’s worked with?
” ... Four-year college instructors, because they are used to teaching the way they have always taught,” she said. “Once they have your tuition, you are there for the duration regardless of whether you learn anything.”
Bowman advises students to incorporate an idea or two into their training curriculum.
“Use what you can use and leave the rest behind,” she said. “All learning is experience. Everything else is just information. If I want them to hear it, I talk. I want them to learn it; they talk. Hold up your pinkie. Say it with me.”
