“McCoy: Respect is a rational process. Didn’t it ever occur to you that they might react emotionally…with anger?
Spock: Doctor, I am not responsible for their unpredictability.
McCoy: They were perfectly predictable, to anyone with feeling.”
( Star Trek, Episode 16)
Recently my young son of 7 years old saw a rerun of Star Trek on television. My inner nerd enthusiastically described each of the characters and naturally my son was drawn to the character of Spock as he was the most alien. I had described him as an alien from a culture that had no emotions and was treated unfairly by his crew and co-workers because he was so different. I vaguely remembered that most episodes of Star Trek tried to address come sort of civil rights theme due to the time when it was written.
However, my recollection failed me. Spock alienation and personal struggle was not due to his otherness. I had forgotten that Spock was actually half human and the theme of most stories was actually about his struggle to reconcile his logical human half with his emotional human traits.
I feel that a lot of training programs suffer from the same crisis that Spock faces. They have all the information presented in a logical, intelligent form but are not able to achieve their goals until the emotional needs are met.
Ironically, Spock becomes so consumed with crowding out his emotional side that he develops a near pathological obsession with logic that he often becomes illogical in its pursuit. Training classes can also fall victim to the same error. A course that is solely focused on the passing content to the learner can be at best engaging and at its worst upsetting.
In this best case scenario, I often hear that some training like safety or software has to be rigid as there are little to no interpretation to the rules and regulations of the content. However, this can be very engaging and since it is so rigid, it needs an emotional component to connect and motivate the learner. Safety can be tied to a sense of providing for your family or software training can be tied to helping customers better and the empathy needed to solve their problems.
In the worst case scenario, an instructor can be so focused on the structure, schedule, and content of the program that they create an environment where the learner is intimidated and so overcome with emotion that they cannot even begin to learn.
In situations like this, all the content is available to the learner and presented in a logical manner but remains inaccessible due to the emotions blocking them. Before any content can be taught and the learner can succeed, all emotional needs must be met.
In fact, in Star Trek, Spock is so consumed with his inner balancing act between logic and emotion that he is unable to grow professionally and never achieves the rank of Captain. He is more intelligent and knowledgeable than those around him but is unwilling to address the emotions needed to truly learn.
Josh Stubbs 3250 