Influencing learning works best when we are psychologically flexible in terms of noticing what works and what is getting in the way of accomplishing our goals. We can only notice our behaviors from the perspective of the present moment. Even noticing our past behavior takes place in the present, i.e. “I am noticing in this moment that yesterday I had cereal for breakfast”.

When it comes to influencing others toward learning, perspective-taking and being flexible helps tremendously. Let’s say I have a group of students I am teaching or showing something to. There are multiple perspectives present. I can notice my perspective which is me speaking and doing other behaviors in front of them (writing on a board, pointing, moving around the room). Each student will be noticing me and his/her fellow students (watching, listening, drawing, fidgeting). We will all be noticing or perhaps avoiding what are minds are up to (being interested, bored, inspired, etc.). There’s a lot going on in any context of learning which affects what kind of learning occurs. We are influencing each other all the time whether we notice it or not.

We have two things at our disposal to influence learning- our words and our actions. To influence others in ways which facilitate where we want to go we should choose our words and actions carefully. Our verbal and nonverbal behaviors are the context we create to influence the learning of others.

Remembering the power of modeling in our lives it is best to choose words and actions which promote psychological flexibility. It is also necessary to take into account how our behaviors are being received by the learners. Do our behaviors feel flexible to us? What do we notice about the learners five sense experience? Are we willing to take our anxiety with us and try something new? Can we notice when our words or actions result in less flexible reactions from our students and choose different behaviors or do we notice ourselves getting stuck in doing the same thing over and over expecting something different?

With the Matrix we can learn to notice the difference between what it feels like to move toward effective learning and what it feels like to move away from what is uncomfortable. Either way we will do the next behavior. Which do you choose? Notice what happens.