S3E29: Why Understanding Diverse Learning Styles Unlocks Unshakable Employee Loyalty

What if I told you that the key to loyalty at work isn’t perks or pay, but simply being understood for how your brain works? We stumbled on something that left a seasoned manager dumbfounded after 30 years—and it might just flip how you see your own work (and your coworkers) for good. Ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about learning styles and loyalty? Stick around.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:00 - Introduction and Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive Function 

00:01:00 - Challenges of Following Non-Traditional Instructions 

00:04:30 - Alternative Learning Styles and Workplace Awareness 

00:08:00 - The Impact of Anxiety and Traditional Education on Learning 

00:10:30 - Systemic Issues in Education and Testing for Neurodiverse Learners 

00:13:32 - Building Employee Loyalty Through Being Seen and Heard 

00:15:54 - Challenges in Hiring the Right Candidates and Reducing Turnover 

00:18:58 - Understanding Strengths and Improving Workplace Efficiency 

00:20:28 - Managing ADHD and Interruptions in the Workplace 

00:23:30 - The Power of Open Conversations About Mental Health and Anxiety 

00:25:52 - Managing Deliveries During Busy Periods 

00:26:01 - Deciding to Conclude the Episode Early 

00:26:06 - Teasing Future Discussions on Sleep and Wellness 

00:26:17 - Encouraging Audience Engagement and Sharing 

00:26:25 - Closing Remarks on Word Blindness and Dyslexia Awareness

Transcript:

00:00:02
Welcome back to word blindness Dyslexia. Suppose this is Juliet Hahn, my co host, Brent Sopol, and I'm giggly.

00:00:11
I got nothing to say right now. I am giggly. I'll just say I am. I don't. I am going on weeks with not a lot of sleep, and so I have that mindset.

00:00:23
But the reason why I'm giggling is because I was like, oh, I want to do this. Ooh, I want to do that. And you were like, can you just hit record? Because I was going to listen to you for 20 minutes. Then they're like, oh, we should hit record.

00:00:35
Okay. So there was a couple things that I wanted to talk to. One about how brains work without sleep, and the other is about instructions. And we've talked about instructions before, but there's been a couple different posts going around, and I thought it was really interesting because you and I both have said we read, like, one or two things, and then we go and figure it out. We don't read the rest, and usually we mess up somewhere in between, but then we figure it out.

00:01:02
Oh, but y' all actually moving the house, you know, the last couple weeks, you know, cabinets and, you know, putting this together and. Yeah. Ring doorbell and all these things. And, you know, I. I look at the instructions, then I got to figure it out myself. I got to figure out what it means.

00:01:25
I can, you know, I look at it, you know, I got to get it, lay it all out and visually see what, you know, and visually see where it is, you know, on. On the cat, you know, cabinets, on the. On the wall or the ring doorbell. I'd go back and forth, you know, 25 different times until I figured out what, you know, what it meant. And I couldn't just read the instructions and knew exactly what was going on.

00:01:51
I had to go out there. All right, see what. This is all screws out there, and, you know, the ring doorbell. I'm like, oh, I found. You know, I figured out.

00:01:58
And Elizabeth, of course you did, but it's. It's not traditional how you open a box, and here's the instructions. That's not, you know, it's not how we do it. No. So it's funny you said that, because that's exactly what it was like, you know, last week.

00:02:15
It was, you know, cabinets. I had them up in certain places. I had to figure out my head, how I'm doing it, and what it meant to go up there or what wasn't going to be my process, you know, to get there, and not just oh, step one, you go and do this. I don't know what that means. Step two, I don't know what that, you know, the shower door.

00:02:42
So every, you know, everything, it's not, you know, it's not traditional. No. And I, I know that you were doing that all last week. And I was like, I'm not gonna. Because I had like so many questions for you, but I was like, that's really not helpful.

00:02:56
That's the hard part. Yo. Everybody's like, you know, so I hung all these cabins by myself, like nobody. No, you didn't ask for help. Well, you know, that's a hard part, is that, you know, asking for help.

00:03:12
Sometimes it's more a hindrance than a help 100% because we can't get it out of, you know, and they're not meaning to be hindered at all. They're trying to help too.

00:03:25
Obviously, me doing my stuff by myself, you, you know, it's more the being let down, I'm just gonna do it myself, you know, mentality now at this point in time, my life. But you know, Vince is like, oh, you didn't call help? No, it's so, it's not so much, you know, we don't want to, but sometimes it's harder. It makes it harder because now we're trying to put something up or put something together and we're asking for help, they're not. I won't understand.

00:03:52
You know, then it just ends up being kind of headbutt and takes even longer and sometimes even a lot more frustrating than it could have been a billion percent. And I. That resonates so much because I've back, you know, throughout the years putting things together. And I actually, I've always enjoyed it. Even like when I was younger, my mom would always.

00:04:15
Anything that needed to be put together, she'd be like, you do it. But I would do it in a very different, as you said, a non traditional way. And if someone tried to come in and be like, well, no, you need to do this step, it would completely throw me off. Because in my head I have how I have to do it. And a lot of Times it's not 1, 2, 3, 4, right?

00:04:32
It's a little different. And you, as you're doing it, sometimes you're like, I this. If one thing gets messed up, which usually that happens, I usually mess up one thing and then I have to undo it. But then I know how to do the next one, right? If there's one, two or three things, it's like, okay, the first one is usually like a little messed up.

00:04:50
And. And then I don't even look at the instructions. I will look at the picture and that's how I don't read instructions. And it's funny, you know, I was it Saturday, you know, Saturday when I golf, you know, at that event, and I was work, you know, with Jim Point and from the Plumbers and another guy that was there, he sells insurance. So they sell like 65 of the insurance to, you know, the farmers here in Illinois.

00:05:17
And big money, big guy and been doing it 30 some years. And we're talking about obviously, you know, foundation and dyslexia. He's like, holy. He always said, I've been doing this for 30 years and I don't know what company, you know, he works for. Obviously big company.

00:05:36
He goes, not once ever has anybody ever spoke to me about doing something or learning differently. Wow. You know, obviously it was a long golf. It was. Ended up being a big event.

00:05:49
So it was like six hours. And I, you know, obviously talked the whole time. And he goes, I can consider myself a, you know, smart guy, educated guy. He goes, now I feel dumb. I've never, ever heard this.

00:06:03
And he goes, like, when I'm training people and, you know, I got five, 600 guys working underneath me, I tell him, this is how you do it. This is how I do it. And I said, you know, I just use an example. And it's kind of everything we're talking about right now is, you know, what about an email needing it in bulletproof rather than, you know, rather than, you know, long paragraphs. He looked at me again, guys, six years old.

00:06:29
He's like, I've never, ever, ever heard somebody mention what you just did. And I feel terrible. Right? You know, my way, you know, and he's like, we can talk more about it. I said, it's.

00:06:51
It's the love languages. It's, you know, instructions. You know, we. We do. We get to our end game the same way, right?

00:06:59
But we don't go that the same way. And now we're judged. You know, how we get there. And. Yep.

00:07:06
And that's why traditional school and these different styles of learning that we are always are talking about is because like, traditional school teaches you abcd and we need to see the bigger picture of things to make sense of it. And if. If there's something I remember, like science or math, one of them that I really struggled in, and I was like, I need to like, I. And it was so frustrating because I couldn't explain Why I wasn't getting it. But then it's just like you're just pushed through, right?

00:07:37
So you never get those steps. But if I can visualize something, I am like really smart, like, and actually will be like, I can explain it. And the people like, oh, wait, what? How do you. Like that's so crazy that you.

00:07:50
Prime example of. You know, he's big in his company. He's a teacher. Right. He had no.

00:07:57
And I say this all the time. They don't even know there's another way to think. Right. You know, I said, you know, work smarter rather than harder. Yawn.

00:08:08
You know, people. He's like, I. I just can't believe I've spent 30 years or something and I've never heard this. So that's. That's teachers right there, right? You know?

00:08:16
Yeah, what you just said. And I was telling him. And the crazy part is he used to have a speech impediment. So he was talking about reading in class where you have to count. Where you have to count the sentences, right?

00:08:30
You know, paragraphs. When it's coming to him. And he kind of had to. He said he, you know, had to time it when they're done just. And he can start reading right away.

00:08:40
They can, you know, was kind of a gap. No gap, just right into it. And then we talk about the anxiety. He was. It's funny.

00:08:49
He goes, I've never talked about it, you know, but I'm like, oh my God, you know, I'm like, you know, he goes, I've never talked about. Because nobody had ever understood what came with that. The anxiety comes with it. You got him thinking he's a red Irish redhead. So we, you know, having fun out there.

00:09:09
But oh yeah, he was thinking. He's still thinking. He's still thinking, being like, holy shit. Right? You know, and that's obviously, you talk about him, you know, successful.

00:09:22
How much more successful could that company be? Can his employees be. Yo. Oh, my brother in law, yo. He's taken his test to be.

00:09:36
I don't know. What is it, Elizabeth? Like, oh, certified financial planner. Seven hour test.

00:09:45
45 questions. Like a break 40. 45 break, 45 questions. I'm like, what the. Yo.

00:09:54
And also, you know, Jim, Jim Coin. Yo. He's got. Guys are amazing in the field, but can't pass the test portion. Yeah.

00:10:05
You know, and that. And there's no. It's him. It's. Those people are what are running organizations that look, you know, that just don't know what to do.

00:10:19
Right. You know, Here in Chicago, teachers unions, that bullshit. But, you know, they just, I think, laid off, you know, 400 and something people. Like 300 of them were special ed teachers and, you know, teacher assistants. So there are, you know, we're already upside down in that ratio.

00:10:42
But then who do you go get rid of, Dino? That. All the kids that need that help. You just got rid of all those teachers. So that's.

00:10:53
That's your solution, right? Is get rid of. Right. But it comes down to no understanding. The wrong people are running it and talking to these guys, you know, you can see them like, oh, man, I never thought about it that way.

00:11:14
Never thought about that way. And interesting.

00:11:19
They had no clue what I was saying, you know, speaking to, you know, speaking to them. They laughed when I said, am I speaking to a Canadian American? My talking miles an hour. Kilometers. Deal.

00:11:28
But that's. That's what's going on in the world. That's what's going on in the workplace. So she's writing this seven hour test. I'm asked, I was asking questions about it.

00:11:38
Can you bring pen and paper? You can't. Because they don't want to steal answers. So people take them home, give them out. You can have a whiteboard to write on, but then they hand the whiteboard back.

00:11:53
At least, you know, there's some. But there's, you know, it's just so many things that can be tweaked, you know, administrating tests a different way. I talked to Jim about that. You know, we'll talk more about that. But, you know, working.

00:12:11
I got IKEA coming here right away. You know, those instructions, they're all in Swedish. Swedish meatballs were good though. But it's.

00:12:21
Yeah. And all the pride to her. That's. I can't, I can't. Oh, I was like, wait, where are we going?

00:12:31
Just pissed me off. Hey, y. What about us? You know, and these guys, you know, I was with, they're like, I had no idea it was so prevalent. I had no idea the numbers, you're like, they were just, you know.

00:12:42
But the other thing though, that, you know, it comes down to the understanding. I mean, if someone's listening to all of our. We bring it up, I mean, how many times? And it, I'm sure is going to click for people more times as they listen because like, oh, this is what they're talking about, the understanding. So understanding ourselves as we're doing the instructions, right?

00:13:05
Like, as we're doing, putting things together, you have to understand how you learn to be able to do that. And that's a hard thing. You know, if you think about that. Then the other, other thing is that you brought up that I wanted to touch on is the company that you're like, how much more successful could they be if you understood? Not only that, but think about if you have someone that you're working for that understand you or is trying to understand you.

00:13:32
Right. Like they're not going to understand 100%, but, like trying to understand you and trying to make your job easier or make you feel okay, Think about the loyalty you have to that person. Then that. Then it's like, you know what? I believe in this company because I believe I'm.

00:13:48
I'm being seen and heard. I'm seen. And so. Right. So that doesn't only strengthen a company from within, but it also makes loyal people.

00:14:00
It makes loyal people that are going to want to work harder for you because you see and hear them and you're like, I. I understand that you can't pass this test. And I understand that has to be frustrating. You're so good here. But it's those things that people. Again, everyone's in their systems.

00:14:15
This is how it has to be. You have to go abcd. No, it's not that way. And not everything has to be. The world would be so much better if we can think outside the lines and think outside the box, you know?

00:14:26
And for us, I think the company would be even better in a way that they don't even understand. Because when we feel seen and heard, we tell everybody we shoot shove from the rooftops. Oh, totally. Now, a normal person, they don't know what that means being seen and heard to the degree we do. So they go to work, they do the thing like, you know, come home, you know, like, no, Hahn's not one of them, right?

00:14:53
Go to work. You know, he do it way he could do it, right? Different than us, right? So he's not shouting that he works at this company. Yo, the way we would talk about being seen and heard.

00:15:06
Yeah. Yo, Company xyz. Oh, my God, this has been so great. They've been y'. All.

00:15:12
They would throw that into every single conversation. Everywhere, Grocery store, you know, at the Christmas at party. We would have that broadcasted in a way that, you know, the other people wouldn't. Right? They.

00:15:26
They wouldn't talk. It's a jaw to them, right? The community would that. It builds the SO one. Obviously, we get our job done, right?

00:15:39
Loyalty, that's all you want. You never want turnover, retraining money Everything that goes in, you wouldn't have it. The recruit, it's you be a recruitment within.

00:15:54
And this is like one of the things. Back in the day, I was working on a project and we almost launched it and we didn't, but it was literally for HR people. It was when I was doing, like, doing my own thing for my own business. And it was training companies on how to hire the right person. Because what people do is they just hire.

00:16:15
It's like, okay. And it's because of the interview process, right? You're not getting through the interview profile, you're not getting the person. You're basically getting someone that's like, okay, how do I interview for this company? They look it up on Google or they talk to people, they give you the answers that you want and then you're like, okay, on paper they look the best, but then they get into the workforce, they get into your company and this is why there's so much turnover, there's so much high turnover in companies.

00:16:39
And they've talked about how it's getting worse and worse and worse. Everything now. So your resume goes in. If it doesn't catch it, like, so AI is going to catch mine. This guy's a retard.

00:16:49
And not, you know, not going to the second step, right? So we're even less of a chance of getting to that introvert process now than what we were back then. Right. And so there's so many levels to it that are going to make a company more efficient, you're going to make more money, the stress is going to be way down, people are going to be healthier, they're going to want to show up and they're going to want to produce for your company and it's almost going to be like they're proud to be a part of it, as you just said. I mean, I'm working for a company, right, that now it's a little different because I know, you know, obviously know one of the co founders, but if it was still, if it was a different situation, you don't.

00:17:27
When you can be yourself in a position and you don't have to hide and worry about like, oh, my God, I can't do this, or whatever, it is such a game changer. And I look back when I was in my 20s, before I had kids, and I look back and think about it and think I had fun, but I also drank a shit ton because they're. Half of the time I was like, okay, how am I not going to. How is someone going to. I Mean, I, as, as the listeners know, I would interview, I would get jobs that I was not qualified for because as a really good interview.

00:17:56
And then I would get into the position and be like, okay, now I have to figure it out. And then by the time I would figure it out, it would be like, okay, I had to do so much work to be able to have that front up and then find the people that could help me do certain things. And this wasn't in every position, but a lot. And it is a really stressful thing. So then, you know, at the end of the night, yeah, I'm going to go, go to the bar and fucking tie one on.

00:18:20
Because it's like, ugh, interview process for us. Is our strength talking. Yeah. Oh, I could interview. And again, it's the same group of guys who's, you know, a six hour golf round because of the tournament so big.

00:18:33
And we had a lot of conversations like, well, I would have never thought about, you know, they said, I don't know how many times, as usual. Everybody always says it. You know, it's never would have thought that, you know, that that plays right to our strengths. Right? Speaking now, now the next part of doing the job, you know, whatever that next step is, it's what's your strengths?

00:18:58
And I went, I was telling him, I'm like, if you could learn just the email process, you know, for. Use that as example, sending an email, bulletproof, where they get it in 10 minutes rather than, you know, 50 minutes. Right. Because it takes us longer to read it. Take that through a week.

00:19:14
How many hours? Extra hours, that is minutes, you know, how many days, you know, it, it adds up quickly. So I have a question for you. So last week when you were doing all of the instruction stuff, were you more tired at the end of the day because you're using your brain and you were also doing physical stuff. But yeah, you know, like, but did you have like a different tired.

00:19:39
No. You know, it's because you, because you weren't really reading, right? Where you know, we're using the brain the way our brain succeeds. Okay. Right.

00:19:49
So it's, you know, it's like handing me a, you know, you know, a novel and say, okay, now you got to read this and then do. No. Yeah. No. Okay.

00:20:00
No. It wasn't just. Did it take longer than. For sure. I had to put the, just put it out there and just kind of piece it together my own, you know, I end up going kind of just drifting in my own little world because I'm trying to Try to put it together.

00:20:16
Yeah, Right. And then if you get interrupted, well, you know, it's so. It's. You know, it's funny, you know, Elizabeth actually said this yesterday. You know, you know, adhd, and I was talking to them about this.

00:20:28
You know, it's hard. You know, it's not a doing problem. It's a getting going problem. Mm. So, you know, with her, and she's working, right?

00:20:38
Then I leave, and the dog is an asshole. And interrupting. How many times? So how many times she has to start and stop, start and stop, start and stop, start and stop. She's not used to it.

00:20:50
Yeah. Hard to get back on. You know, it's. I'm in the mode. I'm working.

00:20:56
I get interrupted by somebody asked me something, somebody calling me, something in between. They don't understand what that means for us to get back. Going. Yeah. 100.

00:21:07
And it's really interesting being a mom, because that was one of the things that I had to work on really, really hard, especially when I started my own business and the kids were still young, is to take a breath and not get frustrated, because the second I'm taken off. Right. It. As you said, it takes time to get your brain back, but as you gets more accustomed to it, it does become a little bit easier. Not.

00:21:36
Not all, but like, one of the things, like, you know, if the kids need. Oh, wait, I'm like, penelope, I just got finished work, right. If I was on a call and I could, like, when I was my own business. Okay, I'm in the middle of something. Wait, let me pause.

00:21:46
I can go run and get her. I got really good at it. But that was after years of being like, okay, I have to shift back and do it also. It's something I love, and this is what is so important. It's something that I love, that I, like, excited to do.

00:22:02
So getting myself taken off of something that I don't love is very different. Well, and those are two different things. Those two are things getting interrupted, you know, to go and physically do something. But it's the, you know, on the computer, men, numbers, Right? Yeah.

00:22:21
Doing those things and then getting interrupted when you're in the middle of that, to go and, you know, to fit. So it's. You know, those are the things that people have no clue about. No. Like in the middle of an email.

00:22:37
Like, I can't tell you how many times I would get interrupted in the middle of emails, but I would be like, okay, I'm going to. I have to pause because I get to you know, they need to be picked up. And so it was. It's either you stop and finish doing it, but then it's on your mind, like, well, wait. And then my mind.

00:22:52
Right. It's taken off, you know, especially now with cell phones and all the ways that you can be interrupted. It's not just back in the day where it was like someone popped in, but I do. Yeah, it's. It's something that I love that you were able to talk and someone at a company is able to see what we talk about.

00:23:16
And those are the things. That's why he was like, so important that you go, yeah, it was. And the conversation. It was just me talking, as I always talk, about the foundation, wasn't directed at him. I was just, you know, telling him, you know, all.

00:23:30
All this kind of stuff. And then he came up to me and. And said that, you know, I'm kind of dumbfounded right now. I was like, I'm, you know, I'm a position. Yeah.

00:23:41
I didn't even know what he did know, so I had to ask, you know, what he did. And it was. Nobody's ever. It's been 30 years. And how many people have wanted to maybe talk to him about it.

00:23:54
What do you think about, like. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because you take wherever you are. You want to be comfortable. Yeah.

00:24:06
You know, so over 30 years, it's come across a lot of us. Right? Yeah. Especially what he's doing. Right.

00:24:14
Wasn't comfortable enough to share it. So that's that piece that. That's still there. Right. So that there weren't.

00:24:22
If you're able to be, you know, comfortable in your position, that. And that's part of the. The loving what you do, you know, if you can wrap that all in there. But he was just like. He came up to me.

00:24:33
He's like.

00:24:36
He's like, After 30 years, I've never heard anything like this. I'm like, you know, where'd I work? I'm like, oh, what do you do? You know, I train all these guys. I tell them, this is how you do it.

00:24:46
This is how you have to do it. I'm like, well, that's how you do it. Right? But he couldn't. He had no concept of doing it any other way.

00:24:57
I love that so much because, you know that he has woken up every day. The next time he goes trains, you're going to be in his head. Oh, I'm like, you know, I was in. In his head by the end of it. Well, you know, because again, he was the one with the stutter, you know, and reading in front of class like.

00:25:12
Yeah. He said to me, I've never talked about it because I never. I, you know, I knew nobody understood what the anxiety come with it. I said, my mental health, you know, my anxiety that leaving and you know, we're talking about all these things. I'm like, this is all stems right from that.

00:25:30
Yeah. I love that you were able to have that conversation. That's why it's so important when you do those kind of events. It's great. Yeah.

00:25:38
Ikea's here.

00:25:42
Only on the shelving for a closet. Oh boy. Nice. Is that what you're doing for the rest of the day? No, they're coming Thursday to put all together, but we just.

00:25:52
Oh, that's great. Deliver all shit ton of boxes. Right. So it's happening right now. The shadows right now.

00:26:01
So guess what? We're going to cut this short. Yeah. Well, it's perfect. And we'll talk.

00:26:06
We'll talk about sleep one of the other times. But this was, this was perfect. So you guys know what to do, like rate, review and share. Because you don't know who needs to hear this. You don't know what companies out there like, shit, I haven't done that.

00:26:17
I need to do that. You don't know who needs to hear this. So we will see you for another episode of Word Blindness. Dyslexia exposed.