Where Neuroscience Meets Corporate Training

Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

Why Cognitive Load Theory Could Be the Reason Your Training Fails

Cognitive Load Theory explains why most training fails. The brain can only take in so much at once. This article explores how poor training design overwhelms learners, damages retention, and leads to costly mistakes. Learn how to structure your training in a way that respects the brain’s limits and actually sticks.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

The Hidden Costs of Poor Training for Business

Poor training is one of the most expensive problems in business, not because of the upfront cost, but because of what happens when people forget it. This article explores the hidden costs of ineffective training, including lost productivity, higher staff turnover, and long-term damage to organisational culture. It outlines why most training fails and what businesses need to do differently to drive real performance and return on investment.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

How to Design Training That Actually Works (Using Neuroscience)

Most corporate training fails to deliver long-term results because it doesn’t align with how the brain learns. This post explores three neuroscience-backed strategies that dramatically improve training outcomes: active learning, emotional engagement, and spaced repetition with retrieval practice. Discover how these evidence-based approaches enhance memory retention, boost productivity, and deliver a stronger return on investment - all by designing training that works with the brain, not against it.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

Brains, Like Bodies, Need Reps: Rethinking How We Train at Work

Most corporate training is designed for convenience, not retention. But your brain doesn’t build strength from cramming. It builds strength from reps. This post unpacks the neuroscience of spaced repetition, and why real learning, like fitness, only happens with structured, repeated effort.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

From Nodding Off to Neural Fireworks: The Case for Active Learning

Lectures. Slide decks. Videos.
They look like learning, but they don’t rewire the brain.

Neuroscience shows that passive learning barely registers in memory.
Active learning? It fires up multiple brain systems, releases dopamine, and makes learning stick.

In this post, I break down the science behind why we forget so much…
and how to flip the switch with strategies the brain actually responds to.

Read the full breakdown and rewire how you learn:
Stop Absorbing, Start Rewiring

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

The Key Parts of your Brain That Help You Learn

Understanding how your brain learns is the key to better memory, focus, and skill-building. This post explores four powerful brain regions — the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and attention network — and how to harness them to learn smarter, not harder.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

Why Your Brain Feels Overloaded (And How to Fix It)

Have you ever walked into a room, with the intention of grabbing something only to completely forget why you’re there? Or tried learning something new, only to feel mentally drained before you even start? That’s not just forgetfulness or fatigue - it’s cognitive overload.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

The Best Way to Learn Anything? Teach It. Here’s Why.

We have all learnt something new at some point in our lives, whether that be a complex skill, a maths equation, a piece of software, a dinner recipe, or maybe even learning a foreign language. I am also sure that at some point in you will have encountered a moment whereby you had to teach teach someone else what you have just learn’t and it likely felt like a powerful way to cement your own understanding. I know from my own personal experiences, that I feel more secure in my belief that I do truly understanding something when I can comprehensively teach whatever that may be to someone else.

Read More
Daniel Smart Daniel Smart

The Myth of Multitasking: How your Brain Really Handles Focus and Attention

We all juggle emails while attending meetings, scroll on our phones whilst watching TV, and attempt to balance both work and professional tasks. This skill of ‘multitasking’ seems essential. It seems that all successful people have this innate ability to multitask well. But is it really beneficial and are they really multitasking?

Read More