What does it take for learning to make a real difference at work? According to Stella Collins, the answer is not another course, a higher completion rate, or more content. Meaningful learning changes what people do, how they think, and how effectively they contribute to the organisation around them.
In this episode,
Stella Collins, author of Neuroscience for L&D and The Learning Organization, shares her perspective as a performance alchemist, neuroscience specialist, and entrepreneur. She breaks down the science behind effective learning and explains why effort, attention, motivation, repetition, curiosity, and resilience matter more than simply delivering information.
The conversation also looks at the wider environment in which learning takes place. Managers, leaders, workplace culture, collaboration, communication, and psychological safety can either reinforce new behaviours or make them almost impossible to sustain. For L&D teams, the challenge is to understand what the business needs, identify what is preventing progress, and support learning as part of everyday work.
Some curious takeaways:
- Design learning around effort, attention, motivation, energy, and repetition
- Build organisational cultures where people can experiment, collaborate, and learn from failure
- Use AI to support performance while protecting human judgement and creativity
Episode highlights:
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00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner
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01:08) What it means to be a performance alchemist
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02:36) Stella’s journey from neuroscience to L&D
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04:40) What L&D needs to understand about neuroscience
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05:57) Challenging myths and pseudoscience in learning
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07:49) Neuroplasticity and the possibility of lifelong learning
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09:24) How curiosity and resilience support learning
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10:11) From individual learning to organisational learning
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15:50) Experimentation, collaboration, and shared responsibility
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18:02) Why managers are essential to learning transfer
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26:23) How L&D can hunt the friction
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28:52) Why L&D must measure business outcomes
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33:58) Why decision-making is a uniquely human capability
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37:36) Helping people develop discernment in the AI era
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39:53) Connecting learning strategy to expensive business problems
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41:53) Thinking about learning beyond the course
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What is Harald’s Curious Corner?
Harald’s Curious Corner is where curiosity meets connection.
Harald chases that question with a guest, gathers perspectives from voices across the industry, and then steps back to reflect on what it all means. The show unfolds like a story arc, part exploration, part roundtable, part reflection, blending imagination with analysis.
The result: trusted insights, meaningful conversations, and forward-looking takeaways that shine a light on where learning is headed next.