![snap crackle pop snap crackle pop](https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/creativereview/prod/content/uploads/2012/02/snapcracklepop1933_0.jpg)
Gaseous learning is already all around us - fizzing and popping - thanks to the Digital age where we have 24-hour access to podcasts, blogs, open learning platforms, TED Talks (to name only a few popular sources) - far more than even the most ravenous self-directer learner could ever consume.
#Snap crackle pop professional
The role of the learning and development professional is therefore to recognise it and channel as much of it as possible towards the corporate aims. It flows naturally within and around the corporate gravity and it will run whether purposefully channelled or not. Continual sharing and exchanging across teams, peers and networks. It can be expensive in time, funds and people resources but done well, it will deliver what it says on the tin. You can plan it, mould it, see it, poke it and evaluate it because it is instantly and easily recognisable as ‘training’. It is often classroom-based though increasingly online. Our formal, constructed training is our solid offering. It also works from the training and development delivery point of view of course.
![snap crackle pop snap crackle pop](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-po7FNdluXfU/WDRUI0BxyPI/AAAAAAAAF8o/nCRezfiQANY5UJp_p9qy_IIuGB2NDtjRQCLcB/s1600/snap.jpg)
The more you try to fan them in a certain direction, they faster they disperse. They are insatiably curious about the world around them and want to get in and around every aspect of any topic that they come across. They need to move, they need to explore, often in unexpected directions. Gases won’t sit still in a classroom and can find team work frustratingly constraining. They are especially attracted by the ‘heat’ of new and shiny ideas, though with short attention spans and hyper sensitivity to the learning environment, they will mentally check-out and evacuate through the smallest escape route if they detect something remotely repellent to them. The Gases are learning everywhere they go.
![snap crackle pop snap crackle pop](https://creativereview.imgix.net/content/uploads/2012/02/rk1976_0.jpg)
They hate to run dry and need a steady influx of inspiration and opportunity to keep their learning motivation topped up. Great at team work, and proactive about peer learning, they adapt quickly to change, working out just how much they need to know, to keep the flow going. They have lots of areas of interest and like to go really deep on certain topics where space is created for them to do so. They can be channelled but are easily sidetracked, and often end up somewhere very different to what was intended. The Liquids are fluid, particularly open to ideas and like to go with an easy flow into various organic variations on the original plan (if there even was a plan). They are hungry - but discerning - and will invest time and energy only in those things that have a very clear and tangible value to add to them. The solids will turn up and contribute, they can’t stop themselves.
![snap crackle pop snap crackle pop](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WsE6M_RjBIY/SZjNUCw8bVI/AAAAAAAAT1Q/MjD3K6Xmx6s/s400/Snap+Crackle+Pop.jpg)
They need their teachers to have serious credentials and once they have enough experience clocked up, they too will want to teach others. When they commit they complete - and they are deeply proud of formal achievement. They want to know the point, before they commit. The Solids are organised in their learning highly focused, strategic and scheduled. Life-style, and how that might impact upon how they learn. This is about more than diagnosing a learning ‘style’ - this is about understanding the learner’s fundamental This is about more than diagnosing a learning ‘style’ - this is about understanding the learner’s fundamental life-style, and how that might impact upon how they learn. I was struck by the simplicity and the implications of his analogy and reflected on what that could mean for those of us involved in designing and delivering workplace learning. I was in a meeting once where the Principal of a world-famous Performing Arts College described his highly-creative student community as being ‘ like solid, liquid or gas’ in their approach to their lives, their art, and consequently their studies.