Enriched Environment

Goals

  1. Described an enriched environment.
  2. Set up enriched environments for yourself and other.

Enriched Environment (What?)

An enriched environment is one that brings out the best of human potential as measured by

  1. Best results for the actor (person or group) given their context (surrounding circumstances) and what matters the most to them.

  2. Most positive affect for the actor, given their context.

    1. Affect refers to how people feel.

  3. Most growth where growth refers to improvements in performance, knowledge, products, processes, culture, or similar.

Note: Sometimes I use the label “Enriched Learning Environment”

Rationale

Here are some reasons why being skilled with environments is worthwhile.

  1. Bring out the best in human potential. You achieve things that seem impossible as in “I can’t believe that we did that.”

  2. People feel cared about and supported.

  3. People feel challenged and accountable. They take ownership.

Here are some concerns.

  1. You cannot improve an environment unless you have the right amount of social power in the group. In many groups, this social power largely resides in the upper management or those who have power

  2. Improving an environment takes skills and knowledge (of course) that are uncommon.

Enriched Environments (How To)

Here is the framework. As always, do this process such that you get payback.

Repetitions: While you want an even better environment, take the following actions

  1. Goal State. Figure out what conditions you want in the future along three dimensions.

    1. Community: What kind of people do you most want to be around? How can you find them? Note: Sometimes this applies to one’s context, but other times it does not because the people we are around are not changeable as in a family.

    2. Culture: What improved culture elements (beliefs, values, practices, stories, history, symbols, language, traditions) would be the most worthwhile for you?

    3. Physical Environment: What improved physical elements (tools, colors, equipment, room layout, lighting, technology, transportation, decorations, and whatever) would be the most worthwhile for you?

  2. Planning: Figure out how to make your goal state a reality.

  3. Building: Build your better environment.

  4. Reflective Thinking (RT). On an ongoing basis, figure out your next repetition for improving your environment.

Marian Diamond’s Enriched Learning Environment

The concept of an enriched learning environment comes from the legendary Dr. Marian Diamond and her colleagues. The information and quotations in this section come from a Berkeley News Eulogy .

Diamond was one of the founders of neuroscience. She was the first researcher to show that the brain changes or rewires itself with experience. Her research also showed that an enriched learning environment was the key to effective brain changes. This research was published in about 1964.

The eulogy states the following:

Her main claim to fame, however, came from work on rats, in which she showed that an enriched environment — toys and companions — changed the anatomy of the brain. The implication was that the brains of all animals, including humans, benefit from an enriched environment, and that impoverished environments can lower the capacity to learn.

human brain

Diamond was awed that a small, three-pound mass of protoplasm like the brain was the most complex structure known to humankind.

“Her research demonstrated the impact of enrichment on brain development — a simple but powerful new understanding that has literally changed the world, from how we think about ourselves to how we raise our children,” said UC Berkeley colleague George Brooks, a professor of integrative biology. “Dr. Diamond showed anatomically, for the first time, what we now call plasticity of the brain. In doing so, she shattered the old paradigm of understanding the brain as a static and unchangeable entity that simply degenerated as we age.”

Her results were initially resisted by some neuroscientists. At one meeting, she later recalled, a man stood up after her talk and said loudly, “Young lady, that brain cannot change!”

We now know that the basis of all learning is rewiring of the brain and that the quality of the learning environment is of paramount importance.

Community

The best learning is caused in part by being around the best people to learn with.

The quality of your learning community is probably the most important thing to get right.

Actions: To create an enriching community, find and learn with people such that the following items are true.

  1. Community members are passionate about the subject. If you ask a community member about the subject, they will be so excited that they go on and on.

  2. Some community members are superb performers in the subject.

  3. Community members care about you, support you, encourage you, and so forth. Everyone has your back. Everyone helps you. There is lots of feedback but little or no judgment.

  4. Community members believe

    1. Everyone can excel; there is no upper limit.
    2. Learning takes a lot of time and work, but we all get there when we put our time in.

You only need to find one other person to have a minimum community. Nowadays, you can find people online and you don’t even have to know them: you can watch their videos or read their writing for example.

Physical Environment

An appropriate physical environment is mandatory. The logic is that no one can learn to swim without getting into the water. However, many learning environments feature workshops and classrooms that are far removed from the right physical environment.

Examples of appropriate physical environments:

  1. If you are going to learn welding, find a shop where you can get hands on with the right kind of equipment. Weld a lot of stuff.

  2. If you are going to learn circuits in an engineering curriculum, buy a bunch of transistors, integrated circuits, resistors, and the like. Buy a voltmeter and an oscilloscope. Get hands on with the technology. Connect the abstract stuff in the textbooks with the circuits that we design and build in the real world.

  3. If you are going to learn how to manage people, get out of the classroom, textbook, or workshop. Instead, find chances to manage people in the real world. Figure out how to make the theory work in authentic contexts. If your managees are super productive and they love you, then you are learning effectively.

  4. If you are going to learn French, go forth into the real world and communicate in French. Don’t isolate your learning to a classroom or your office.

  5. If you are going to learn Marketing, go out into the real world and see how well you can increase revenue by attracting potential customers, turning them into paying customers, and then retaining them.

Resources

  1. Response of the brain to enrichment by Marian Diamond, 2001, @Diamond2001

Learning

```