If you are coming to the conference, let me know! If flying to Chicago is not in the cards, you can also sign up for a digital ticket and get recordings of all of the workshops. Consider using my code MIKEBURKE50 when you register, I’d appreciate it!
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 08:41:362025-05-08 09:08:39My 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
I’m Presenting at Macstock!
I am excited to be giving my first conference presentation since 2017 at the Macstock Conference and Expo next month!
The workshop will help attendees create automated systems for their creative projects: both purposeful folder structures and project management workflows that actually get the work done.
I was interviewed on the MacVoices podcast, which you can check out here to get some more details.
If you are coming to the conference, let me know! If flying to Chicago is not in the cards, you can also sign up for a digital ticket and get recordings of all of the workshops. Consider using my code MIKEBURKE50 when you register, I’d appreciate it!
Read moreUsing 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 more