The human brain sitting in your skull today didn’t evolve to process bullet points and data tables. It descended from ancestors who survived the harshest conditions on Earth without a single written manual. They passed critical knowledge from generation to generation through stories around fires, tales of where to find food, which plants could heal, and how to avoid danger.
As I often told my high school students: “The perfect brain for PowerPoint died in the Ice Age.”
Our neural architecture is wired for narrative. It’s why people will sit through a three-hour Marvel movie with a full bladder but struggle to stay awake through a ten-minute slide presentation. It’s why every major religious text consists primarily of stories rather than bulleted lists of commandments. And it’s why the most durable pieces of human knowledge are ancient tales that have survived millennia.
Yet somehow, when we design corporate training, we often ignore this fundamental truth about how humans learn.
https://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/142-TMB-Blog-Post-Featured-Image.jpg12001920Mikehttps://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Mike-Burke-Square-Header.pngMike2025-03-20 11:31:442025-03-20 11:31:47Using Narrative Structure to Improve Corporate Training
Growing up, I spent countless hours recording Good Eats episodes for my mom to use in her high school cooking classes. Beyond the science and humor, one concept from the show profoundly influenced my approach to work: mise en place, which is the practice of getting everything in place before you begin.
If I ever time travel back to sometime between 1999 and 2002 to tell myself to buy Apple stock, finding my past self will be really easy. I’ll be at school or within six feet of a Nintendo 64 with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sticking out of the top.
To this day, I remember the songs to summon Epona and warp to the Temple of Time.
Perhaps these pivotal childhood memories are making me see an apt analogy where there isn’t one, but stick with me (through 3,600 words), and I’ll talk a lot about what I think makes for great training experiences.
https://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/140-TMB-Blog-Post-Featured-Image.jpg10801920Mikehttps://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Mike-Burke-Square-Header.pngMike2025-02-18 08:41:362025-03-10 11:09:47My Training Triforce
A major component of my job is asynchronously collaborating with other people, usually subject matter experts from whom I need to get additional information or content approval on something I have created.
All of my project templates have this approval process built in at the appropriate points. This creates a common challenge: the people I’m working with are often overworked or get appropriately distracted by dealing with some type of emergency at work, and reviewing a script for the trainer gets put on the back burner. So, tactful follow-up is a critical skill and often something I’m managing across multiple people and projects at the same time.
https://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/139-TMB-Blog-Post-Featured-Image.jpg12522226Mikehttps://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Mike-Burke-Square-Header.pngMike2025-02-12 10:55:372025-02-12 10:55:39AppleScript for Creating Follow-up Tasks in Things
As a kid, I was never far from my children’s encyclopedia; I was a voracious reader and especially loved non-fiction. However, as an adult, I do most of my learning through audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube. That is until a few years ago when I started rebuilding my reading habit by switching from scrolling social media to reading ebooks.
Even more recently, I have come full circle back to physical books. Mainly because I realized that reading on a phone just looks the same as scrolling social media and doesn’t help me model the reading habit I want my son to build. As a bonus, I got to experience these five books, which have significantly shaped my thinking. Perhaps one will resonate with you too.
https://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/138-TMB-Blog-Post-Featured-Image.jpg11252000Mikehttps://www.themikeburke.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Mike-Burke-Square-Header.pngMike2024-12-28 08:24:182024-12-28 08:24:19Five Books That Changed My Thinking in 2024
Using Narrative Structure to Improve Corporate Training
The human brain sitting in your skull today didn’t evolve to process bullet points and data tables. It descended from ancestors who survived the harshest conditions on Earth without a single written manual. They passed critical knowledge from generation to generation through stories around fires, tales of where to find food, which plants could heal, and how to avoid danger.
As I often told my high school students: “The perfect brain for PowerPoint died in the Ice Age.”
Our neural architecture is wired for narrative. It’s why people will sit through a three-hour Marvel movie with a full bladder but struggle to stay awake through a ten-minute slide presentation. It’s why every major religious text consists primarily of stories rather than bulleted lists of commandments. And it’s why the most durable pieces of human knowledge are ancient tales that have survived millennia.
Yet somehow, when we design corporate training, we often ignore this fundamental truth about how humans learn.
Read morePurposeful Project Folder Structure
Growing up, I spent countless hours recording Good Eats episodes for my mom to use in her high school cooking classes. Beyond the science and humor, one concept from the show profoundly influenced my approach to work: mise en place, which is the practice of getting everything in place before you begin.
Read moreMy Training Triforce
If I ever time travel back to sometime between 1999 and 2002 to tell myself to buy Apple stock, finding my past self will be really easy. I’ll be at school or within six feet of a Nintendo 64 with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sticking out of the top.
To this day, I remember the songs to summon Epona and warp to the Temple of Time.
Perhaps these pivotal childhood memories are making me see an apt analogy where there isn’t one, but stick with me (through 3,600 words), and I’ll talk a lot about what I think makes for great training experiences.
Read moreAppleScript for Creating Follow-up Tasks in Things
A major component of my job is asynchronously collaborating with other people, usually subject matter experts from whom I need to get additional information or content approval on something I have created.
All of my project templates have this approval process built in at the appropriate points. This creates a common challenge: the people I’m working with are often overworked or get appropriately distracted by dealing with some type of emergency at work, and reviewing a script for the trainer gets put on the back burner. So, tactful follow-up is a critical skill and often something I’m managing across multiple people and projects at the same time.
Read moreFive Books That Changed My Thinking in 2024
As a kid, I was never far from my children’s encyclopedia; I was a voracious reader and especially loved non-fiction. However, as an adult, I do most of my learning through audiobooks, podcasts, and YouTube. That is until a few years ago when I started rebuilding my reading habit by switching from scrolling social media to reading ebooks.
Even more recently, I have come full circle back to physical books. Mainly because I realized that reading on a phone just looks the same as scrolling social media and doesn’t help me model the reading habit I want my son to build. As a bonus, I got to experience these five books, which have significantly shaped my thinking. Perhaps one will resonate with you too.
Read more