Remember playing the telephone game as a kid?

Or perhaps you played it recently at a conference or leadership workshop?

It’s the game where someone whispers a story to the person next to them and then that person attempts to tell the same story to the person next to them, and so on down the line (or around the circle). When the story gets to the last person he/she is asked to tell the story they were told.  Then the original story is read. The stories typically do not resemble each other, with important facts missing or distorted, and in most cases much laughter ensues.

It’s not so funny when the same thing occurs with real research. The findings get skewed, even slightly, from one blog to the next until the reality of the original research is lost.

Google is amazing. It brings us information at blazing fast speeds, but does little to confirm facts. Most of us look at the site, the author, and our own intuition to make a value judgement on the content. But that’s where it ends. However, there are those who question the internet. They dig deeper.

Meet Dr. Will Thalheimer. One of the few practicing Learning professionals willing to dig into original research published in peer-reviewed journals to find the original facts of the story being told throughout the internet’s version of the telephone game. Armed with the facts from original research he fights the battle of mis-information that continues to spread.

He blogs at WillatWorkLearning.com and provides all the data you need to debunk the most common myths spreading in our industry.

I had the pleasure of talking with Will recently. We discussed his work, Learning Styles, Learning audits, and more. In this first video of a 3 part series you’ll get to know Will and how he got to where he is today.