© Copyright 2007. The Training Journal.

All rights reserved

Barbados Group Research Paper Series

Barbados Group Research Paper No. 07-04

Transforming Your Learning Capabilities

by

Sir Christopher Ball

Founder and Chairman, Talent Foundation

June 20, 2007

Source: Training Journal, May 2007, pp. 49-52.

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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=995604

 © Copyright 2007. The Training Journal. All rights reserved

ABSTRACT
Sir Christopher Ball offers a personal perspective on the possibilities opened up by transformational
learning.

Everyone understands what is meant by Incremental Learning (IL): learning the times tables, the kings and
queens of England, foreign languages, or the structure of the solar system. Most of the national curriculum
or university programmes exemplify IL – a process of learning about what you don’t know by relating it to
what you already do know. IL is gradual, logical and predictable.

Transformational Learning (TL) is different. Obvious examples include learning to swim, falling in love, or
the idea of evolution. TL is characteristically shocking, literally transforming our experience of the world –
and of ourselves. TL occurs to us like a breakthrough into a new possibility for life. It opens our eyes to
things we didn’t know we didn’t know. Of course, behind the gradual accumulation of detail which
characterises IL, there always lies a moment of TL – the excitement of discovering the possibility of
multiplication, or the very concept of monarchy, or linguistic variety, or a heliocentric universe. TL is
thrilling – and dangerous: Galileo’s insistence that the earth goes round the sun nearly cost him his life.

Learning to read is a paradigm example of TL. The moment when one grasps the ‘triangle of meaning’
(symbol – sound – sense) is magical. The recognition of the equivalence between the sign ‘2’, the sound
/tu:/, and the idea of duality opens the door to a new world of literacy. (Incidentally, I think children find
learning this easiest to do if they start with reading numbers, as in the example.) Once they have grasped
this triangular relationship by means of TL, IL enables them to develop basic literacy into the advanced
reading skills demanded by modern life and educational targets.

I wonder why we don’t make more of the distinction between these two kinds of learning – teach it to
teachers and trainers, explain it to children and adult learners, research it in the universities? Successful
learning requires both IL and TL. A knowledge-based curriculum of the sort designed to meet the needs of
the 19th and 20th centuries can largely be acquired by IL. But the curriculum of the 21st century needs to
give greater weight to skills and attitudes than its predecessors did, and TL is essential for the acquisition of
good skills and attitudes.

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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=995604


Transforming your
learning capabilities
Sir Christopher Ball offers a personal perspective on
the possibilities opened up by transformational learning
I
remember the day I learned
to ride a bike. My father
held the saddle and shouted:
‘Balance!’ When he let go,
I fell off. But at the third or
fourth try, I got the idea of bal-
ancing a bicycle. I have never for-
gotten it. This kind of learning is
interestingly different from most
of what happens in mainstream
education. I want to write about
the distinction between two kinds
of learning – incremental and
transformational learning (IL
and TL).
IL and TL – the differences
Everyone understands what is
meant by IL: learning the times
tables, the kings and queens of
England, foreign languages, or
the structure of the solar system.
Most of the national curriculum
or university programmes exem-
plify IL – a process of learning
about what you don’t know by
relating it to what you already do
know. IL is gradual, logical and
predictable.
TL is different. Obvious exam-
ples include learning to swim,
falling in love, or the idea of
evolution. TL is characteristically
shocking, literally transforming
our experience of the world – and
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=995604
of ourselves. TL occurs to us like a
breakthrough into a new possibility
for life. It opens our eyes to things
we didn’t know we didn’t know. Of
course, behind the gradual accumu-
lation of detail which characterises
IL, there always lies a moment of
TL – the excitement of discovering
the possibility of multiplication, or
the very concept of monarchy, or
linguistic variety, or a heliocentric
universe. TL is thrilling – and dan-
gerous: Galileo’s insistence that the
earth goes round the sun nearly cost
him his life.
Learning to read is a paradigm
example of TL. The moment when
one grasps the ‘triangle of meaning’
(symbol – sound – sense) is magical.
The recognition of the equivalence
between the sign ‘2’, the sound
/tu:/, and the idea of duality opens
the door to a new world of literacy.
(Incidentally, I think children find
TL is characteristically
shocking, literally
transforming our
experience of the world
– and of ourselves
FEATURE
this easiest to do if they start with
reading numbers, as in the exam-
ple.) Once they have grasped this
triangular relationship by means of
TL, IL enables them to develop
basic literacy into the advanced
reading skills demanded by modern
life and educational targets.
I wonder why we don’t make
more of the distinction between
these two kinds of learning – teach
it to teachers and trainers, explain
it to children and adult learners,
research it in the universities?
Successful learning requires both
IL and TL. A knowledge-based
curriculum of the sort designed to
meet the needs of the 19th and 20th
centuries can largely be acquired
by IL. But the curriculum of the
21st century needs to give greater
weight to skills and attitudes than
its predecessors did, and TL is
essential for the acquisition of
good skills and attitudes.
One of the problems faced by
teachers and trainers is what is
known as the wash-out effect.
Much of IL has a relatively short
half-life. We quickly forget most of
what we learn at school or univer-
sity. Can you remember the proof of
Pythagoras’s theorem, or the forma-
tion of the ablative of third declen-
sion adjectives in Latin, or the three
May 2007 TJ 49
 FEATURE

causes of the First World War? TL

does not fade or wash out in the
same way. TL is thrilling – and
You can’t learn to swim or ride
a bicycle from a book, or develop dangerous: Galileo’s
the qualities of self-reliance and
responsibility from a description of insistence that the earth
them. TL comes from experience,
not instruction. And, at its best, it goes round the sun
transforms lives rather than merely
conveying information. nearly cost him his life
Private investigations
I have been investigating different
forms of TL in recent years and
helping to design some examples
of the genre to test their effective-
ness. ‘KISS (Keep It Simple and
Successful!) Fundraising’, for exam-
ple, is a one-day training course pro-
vided for small charities that find it
difficult to raise money. In the three
years since I created it, not one of
dozens of clients has failed to raise
at least ten times the cost of the
course in the ensuing 12 months.
Most have raised a good deal more.
TL works remarkably well.
‘Talent Key’ is a two-day course
designed by the Talent Foundation
specially to help people with low
motivation and self-belief find
and develop their hidden talents,
though it seems to work with all
kinds of people. Since its incep-
tion some seven years ago, we
have observed that, of the 21 or
so adults in mid-life who attend
a typical course, one third return
to work with renewed confidence
and the desire to play an effec-
tive role in the enterprise, another
third choose to take the offer of difference it made when I saw it The commitment of the children
redundancy so they can follow in action and, several years later, and the quality of their work was
their dream, and the final third I have not forgotten the details remarkable.
seem to be quite unaffected (and of the lesson I was privileged Another outstanding example
as disaffected as before!). ‘Talent to attend. The teacher asked us was the Diploma of Achievement,
Key’ is also remarkably effective to close our eyes and visualise a sponsored by the Achievement
with disaffected teenagers and the journey to a magical place where Trust and validated by the Oxford
unemployed. there was a most wonderful fair- and Cambridge Board in the
These two examples of TL were ground. We imagined the rides 1990s. In its heyday, more than a
designed for adult learners and on the big wheel and the bumper thousand schools and colleges used
lie outside mainstream education. cars, the taste of candyfloss and the materials or entered candidates
But James Dakin’s programme toffee apples, the sounds and the for the qualification. The response
called ‘Teaching Freedom’ provides smells. Then we spent the rest of of teachers, students and employ-
TL for serving teachers and their the morning designing posters to ers suggested that both TL and
pupils. I was astonished by the advertise our own perfect fun fair. IL were involved in the experience

50 TJ May 2007

of the course. The enthusiasm of
those involved was tremendous.
Personal experiences
Some of the most effective – and
life-changing – training I have
experienced in my life so far was
provided by the British Army
(during my National Service 50
years ago) and by the Samaritans
more recently. This is classic TL
– enabling people to make break-
throughs into new ways of being.
I learned how to be a leader in
the Army and the skill of active,
compassionate listening from the
Samaritans. Both use elaborate
role-plays to create TL.
The most impressive examples
of TL I have ever come across are
commercial programmes, many
of which I have tested and evalu-
ated. In my view, the top three are
Essence, Investment in Excellence,
and Landmark Education. So
impressed have I been by my expe-
rience of TL - and the quality and
impact of these remarkable pro-
grammes – that I have completed
the full basic curriculum of each of
FEATURE
them, and even proceeded to qualify
as a trainer in the second, although
I don’t actually practise.
Each of them achieves remark-
able results in TL, enabling people
from all backgrounds and of any
age to live and love the life of their
choice by transforming relationships
at home and effectiveness at work.
Essence draws its power predomi-
nantly from Jungian psychology
and systemic therapy; Investment in
Excellence brings the effectiveness
of coaching methods in sport to
ordinary life; Landmark Education
is rooted in ontology, the theory
of being. I have benefited – and
continue to benefit – from all three.
Perhaps because I am a teacher
and a trainer, Landmark Education
particularly appeals to me. I am
also deeply impressed by its success
rate of more than 90 per cent with
people of all kinds, from all over the
world.
Challenging prejudices
When I tell people about TL – and
my investigation – they are scepti-
cal. To be fair, so was I at the outset.
These courses challenge some
of our latent prejudices: they are
mostly American in origin, com-
mercial, enthusiastically endorsed by
their graduates, and sound too good
to be true! TL by definition trans-
forms people. Those who have once
learned to ride a bike, or swim, or
fall in love, or take responsibility for
their own lives, are never quite the
same again. They also turn out to be
capable of remarkable achievements.
In recent years I have run mara-
thons, written and published poetry,
and raised millions of pounds for
charity; others have done a lot more.
I have met people who tell me
that, as a result of attending one of
these courses, their degree result
was transformed from the predicted
Second to a First. Others say that
they have been turned into highly
successful and effective teachers,
or that they have learned how to
overcome earlier educational failure.
And they all believe that, in princi-
ple, their own success is available to
May 2007 TJ 51
 anyone who is prepared to explore
these programmes of TL with an
open mind. I share that belief. But I
would also like to understand how
TL works.
Thanks to the work of a group
of experts convened by Landmark
Education, I am beginning to do
so. The Barbados Group (as we are
called) has been trying to establish
a new paradigm of performance for
the past three years. Our conclu-
sions sound simple but are, in fact,
profound. They are:
• People’s performance correlates
to the way the world (including
ourselves) occurs to us;
• This ‘apparent reality’ is created
by language, and
• Language that re-orders the
perceived world alters apparent
reality and can transform human
performance.

Or, to put it another way, a new

distinction changes the way the
world occurs to us – and we act
accordingly. When I learned to
separate ‘what happened’ from ‘what
did I make it mean’, my relation-
ships at home and at work were
transformed.
My conversion to eating yoghurt
is a trivial, but interesting, example
of TL! I used to hate it, saying:
“It tastes like sour milk.” Then it
occurred to me that ‘tastes like’ is believe that TL in principle opens marathons is not compulsory!)
distinct from ‘is’, with the result that the way for you to achieve what- The distinction I have made in
I now love yoghurt. What intrigues ever you want – that is possible for this article between IL and TL
me about this example is the dis- people to accomplish. I hope others offers a further example: once you
covery that what I thought was part will try it for themselves. (Running have truly got it (experienced it),
of my essential nature is amenable the world of learning will be trans-
to transformation. If TL can change
our likes and dislikes, it is a much
The curriculum of the formed for you for ever – and your
pedagogic practice will inevitably
more powerful form of learning
than IL.
21st century needs to give change (for the better). Language
alters our perception of reality.

Creating new possibilities

I have been acting as my own
guinea pig (or laboratory rat) to see
just how far you can go in creating
new possibilities for life. Two years
ago I ran seven marathons in a
week; this year I shall run ten in ten
days (aged 72). I have never been an
athlete and only took up running a
few years ago. But I have come to
greater weight to skills My father was right after all:
it’s just a question of shouting:
and attitudes than its ‘Balance!' 
predecessors did, and Sir Christopher Ball is chairman of the
TL is essential for the Achievement Trust and patron of the Talent
Foundation. He was previously Director of
Learning at the RSA, founder of the National
acquisition of good skills Campaign for Learning and Chancellor of the
University of Derby. He can be contacted at
and attitudes candwball.oxford@btinternet.com

52 TJ May 2007