Are You Talking to Me?

Have you ever wondered what it is about a seminar, conference or class that makes people seem to naturally pool outside the doors rather than in the classroom?  What is so compelling about being in the hallway rather then in the lecture space?  Is it because we already know the material? Or is it because we want to know more about the other people that were interested in the topic that drew us to the same place at the same time?

Luckily for those that host these sessions, and for those that speak at them, people do eventually sit down (or at least enough for the room to look occupied).  Information gets transfered  from the speakers to the audience and break comes - then the lag to enter the room starts over again.  Typically at some point though the system does break down and the end of the day speakers are mostly speaking to each other - while the audience is busy getting to know each other in the hallway.

Why?

I have become increasingly convinced that it is not so much that we already know the material.  Why bother to go if there is nothing new to learn?  I believe, however, that the learning occurs in the hallways.  We learn from the experiences of the people who have come seeking answers.  We learn from the questions that they bounce off of each other and from the responses they receive.  This instant exchange is proving more powerful a learning tool than that provided by the speakers limited frame.  They cannot anticipate the needs of the audience and are often boxed in by the trajectory of the presentations they have prepared, which do not leave openings for the questions people have or if they do, the time is spent on the slides rather then on the interaction with the audience. 

And this is why the hallways are so important.  In just 30 minutes of hallway banter I may pick up 3 or more highly effective bits of data that will help solve my business needs. Or if the session is of a more personal nature, may direct themselves at helping me work out a particularly difficult element in something I am writing but have been blocked on.  Sometimes this happens at business events, which I suppose I should find schocking as the topics are never really that close together - but inspiration comes from the wildest of places.

The point is - we have entered an age where learning is no longer something we do at the conclusion of a chapter.  It is something we do as we run to complete the task.  In a global age, where the pace of media consumption earmarks our capacity to achieve, our learning curve is now based not on the test at the end of the session, but by the growth achieved during the session.  We can no longer measure the value of our knowledge growth on these antiquated measures, rather the value is on how we can apply what we are learning now to the now of what we are doing.

So that being said, are you talking to me?  If you are and I haven't responded, I apologize, apparently I am not paying enough attention to what you might be able to teach me.  Can you repeat the message?