The presuppositions in metaphor orientated training

I have found that in training, certain assumptions tend to lead to more productive behaviour on my part as a trainer. My questions is always "am I using the most appropriate behaviour to achieve my outcome?"

I have come to hold the view that all learning is about the learner developing their own metaphors, with a little help from the teacher or trainer, and that a trainers job is to create the most productive environment in which that can happen. I've detailed here the basic assumptions that I have found useful, including an explanation as to how they relate to the trainer and the trainee.

There is no claim that these presuppositions are in any way true, merely useful. "Act as if…" and certain outcomes become more likely.

Everyone has all the learning resources they need

The human brain is hardwired to learn and to seek the answers to questions. Everyone has all the learning systems and skills they need, they may not have access to all of them, they may also access unhelpful resources, they may not access them in the most resourceful order or manner - but all the resources are there.

For the learner, learning is about discovering these resources and making best use of them, for me as a trainer it is about avoiding the delusion that I know more or better, or that I in some way "reprogram" people.

Learning has internal and external evidence

Learners have an internal check for when something makes sense, externally learning is evidenced by change in behaviour, ability to answer questions and provide explanations and ability to function appropriately and ecologically in context.

To the trainer, only the external evidence is available, it is not possible to read the thoughts of another person, and so I cannot "understand" what they are thinking, merely guide them to a point where they display the external behaviours that are my evidence for success.

Everyone has their own set of metaphors for the world

People may share metaphors but this is just a helpful coincidence, each individual has a set of metaphors to make sense of the world, these metaphors make perfect and complete sense to them and to no-one else. This applies to both the trainer and the learner.

The only way to respect another persons map of the world is to treat it and them as though it is perfectly reasonable to think their way, no matter how different their view is to mine.

All learning is the development of metaphor

All learning is metaphorical, learning (see the model of learning and understanding) is accomplished by developing the appropriate metaphors, making connections and meanings. Given the previous presupposition, a learners current state of learning and learning process need not make sense to anyone else.

There are no stupid or irrelevant questions

Every single question is motivated by a desire to learn and to make sense of what is being taught. All questions make perfect sense to the person asking them, given their metaphor at the time of asking.

There are no stupid or wrong answers

Every single answer is motivated by a desire to learn and to make sense of what is being taught. All answers make perfect sense to the person giving them, given their metaphor at the time of giving.

Learners have one learning speed - their own

Learners will develop their metaphors at their own speed - metaphors obey only metaphorical time. Given the evidence check there can be no quick or slow learners.

Memory and imagination share the same neurological circuits and therefore have the same effect

Brains have only one system for thinking, whether the thoughts are "remembered" or "imagined". (What's the difference?)

There is no difference between review and rehearsal

Given the previous presupposition, reviewing a previous experience has the same effect (and is thus the same) as rehearsing for a future experience.

There are no resistant or stupid learners, only inflexible trainers

It is incumbent on the trainer to meet the needs of the learner, thus resistance is the sign of an inflexible or unaware trainer. Whichever party is given credit for resistance must also be given credit for success.

Metaphor is the pattern that connects

Gregory Bateson, in an interview with Fritjof Capra, said that "metaphor, that's how this whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive."

I have seen trainers beautifully and skilfully guide a learner to a new state of understanding, by taking each answer and moving gently to the next step. I have seen trainers be provocative and confrontational, and achieve equally good results.

It has also been my misfortune to witness trainers who are sarcastic when a trainee gives the "wrong" answer, or is patronising when someone asks a question that is "stupid".

In one instance I saw someone who was learning to use a computer for the first time look at the screen to find the ENTER key. The trainer made some sarcastic comment, forgetting that for a beginner it is perfectly reasonable to look at the screen to find the key. In response to this display of sarcasm, the learner stopped learning, and lost all respect for the trainer.

The challenge, in my opinion, is for the trainer to give up being the fount of all knowledge and to abandon the role of the expert, and to take up the role of guide - guide in an unknown and unknowable landscape, the metaphorical world of another person.

To paraphrase John Grinder, to explore someone's metaphor is to truly touch the soul of another human being.