USING NEUROSCIENCE PRINCIPLES TO CREATE POWERFUL COHORT LEARNING 

MICHAEL A. KESTER (HE/HIM/HIS) CEO/FOUNDER, LEAD BELAY
 

Cohort learning can be a powerful tool for learning functions, but most L&D professionals don’t know where to begin. They want to try cohort learning, but 1) they don’t have a budget to buy new technology and 2) they have lots of questions about how to start: what types of learning works best with cohorts, how large should a cohort be, how do you get and keep people engaged, and how do you measure results?

This session is designed to help L&D teams launch successful cohort learning projects and determine if it should be scaled globally. We also suggest strategies based in neuroscience that don’t require a request for more budget. Using these strategies, even a small L&D team with limited resources can build a prototype version of a cohort community to experiment, then expand and scale across their organization.

We will demystify cohort learning and help learning professionals develop a roadmap to get started. This includes how to:

This session will include an overview of some neuroscience-based principles applied to case studies, plus some small break-out discussions and interactive Q&A. Our presenter, Michael Kester, is a long-time ATDRMC member and recently presented on this topic (with co-presenter Dr. Grace Chang) at the 2023 ATD Conference in San Diego. This session is appropriate for leaders/decision-makers as well as designers tasked with making cohort learning come to life.

Michael Kester is the CEO and founder of Lead Belay, Inc., which provides peer-supported, coach-led leadership development for new managers. Before founding Lead Belay, Michael served as co-president of The Regis Company, which uses neuroscience principles, experiential learning, and technology to create custom leadership development programs for large enterprises. Michael is a former McKinsey & Company consultant and financial analyst for Lehman Brothers’ Merchant Banking group. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a B.A. in philosophy, summa cum laude, from CU Boulder, and is a recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.