The World Economic Forum estimates that, by 2025, 50% of all employees will need reskilling due to adopting new technology. The study also found that “Five years from now, over two-thirds of skills considered important in today’s job requirements will change.” However, when your employees need to learn a new skill while feeling burned out, experiencing productivity pressure and feeling a little derailed and exhausted from all the change — this can be challenging. How do you set up a system of learning that takes these challenges into account? And what does the brain have to do with this?

Here are five work-based principles that learning leaders can practice when upskilling themselves and their workforce:

1.   Think of Technology as an Extension of Yourself

Ask people to think of technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) as an extension of themselves. Your brain has evolved such that when people expect to have future access to information through a search engine, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The internet has become an extension of our memories, so rather than resisting technology, think of it as an extension of yourself that may help you feel less stressed and more fluent.

2. Integrate Technology Into Your Workflow

Integrate new technology into your workflow but do not offload your decision-making capacity. When you integrate new technology into your workflow, it becomes less disruptive. This requires asking yourself not just how you will use new technology, but when you will use this. Even if you’re using technology to take a meaningful break while upskilling, like Reulay, Calm or Headspace, ask yourself, “How much learning can I tolerate before I need to take a break and give my brain a chance to absorb and integrate what I have learned?” Many people forget about this integration time, which is crucial to learning. Good decision-making requires breaks.

3. Accept Change as Part of Healthful Living

We need to re-contextualize change by thinking of it as part of healthful living. Rather than change management programs, consider change leverage programs, which can allow you to immerse yourself in change more productively. For example, I teach a program on “positive disintegration,” which is based on mindset changes that you need to employ to “come apart” in a productive and successful manner. The self-circuits in the brain are built for change. It’s a much more positive way to think about change and upskilling. Often, when you upskill, you must let go of the past.

4. Detach From the Negative Collective Narrative

The feeling of being burned out is contagious because we have mirror neurons that mirror the emotions of others. While the actual contagion is likely more complex, know that you can sometimes automatically pick up the burnout emotions such as anger from others. It’s important to let people become aware of this and to also allow for a contagion of positive emotions like group laughter.

5. Encourage people to take an active role

The most important navigator for you is the possibility you imagine for yourself. This is the way to keep from being distracted by constant change. Ask, “How do I make the change serve me, rather than simply serving it by upskilling? This is a subtle mindset shift, but it can make all the difference in the world.

By starting with this simple self-talk and team communication, upskilling can become that much less cumbersome.