Make It Stick the Science of
One book, placed in its field — what this book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-make_it_stick_the_science_of
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Make It Stick the Science of
One book, placed in its field — what this book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide · bicycle.guide/guides/profile-make_it_stick_the_science_of
The problem
Durable Retention erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The model
- 01Retrieval Practice
- 02Spaced Practice
- 03Interleaved and Varied Practice
- 04Generation and Effortful Problem Solving
- 05Elaboration
- 06Reflection
- 07Effortful Cognitive Engagement (Desirable Difficulty)
- 08Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 1 of 5 · Retrieval Practice
A single practice test after reading produces more long-term retention than rereading the same material four times.
Misconception
Practitioners treat quizzing as a way to measure learning that has already happened, not as the event that produces it.
Reality
The act of retrieving a fact changes the memory itself—each successful recall reconsolidates and strengthens the trace, so the test is the learning, not the audit.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 2 of 5 · Spaced Practice
Spacing the same total study time across sessions beats massing it, with no extra hours required.
Misconception
Learners assume that studying feels harder after a gap because they are losing ground, so they cram to keep material 'fresh.'
Reality
The forgetting that occurs between sessions is what makes the next retrieval effortful, and that effort is precisely what drives durable consolidation.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 3 of 5 · Interleaved and Varied Practice
Interleaved practice hurts practice-day scores but produces markedly better test and transfer performance.
Misconception
Practitioners believe you should master one skill or topic completely before mixing in others, because blocked practice produces visibly faster progress.
Reality
Blocking inflates in-session performance while crippling later retention and discrimination; interleaving feels slower because it forces you to repeatedly identify the problem before solving it.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 4 of 5 · Generation and Effortful Problem Solving
A wrong attempt followed by correction beats simply studying the correct answer.
Misconception
Learners avoid guessing before instruction because they fear that a wrong answer will 'set' as a false memory.
Reality
Unless errors go uncorrected, a failed generation attempt primes you to encode the correct answer more deeply—the wrong guess creates the gap the solution then fills.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Step 5 of 5 · Elaboration
Putting an idea in your own words is a reliable test of whether you actually understand it.
Misconception
Practitioners think elaboration means adding more detail or highlighting more of the text—accumulating information.
Reality
Elaboration is about forging connections, not volume: relating an idea to prior knowledge and translating it into your own metaphors gives it more hooks by which memory can retrieve it.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
A framework to use
Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning
This framework is part of the full guide. See the guide →
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
The cheat sheet
- Retrieval PracticeA single practice test after reading produces more long-term retention than rereading the same material four times.
- Spaced PracticeSpacing the same total study time across sessions beats massing it, with no extra hours required.
- Interleaved and Varied PracticeInterleaved practice hurts practice-day scores but produces markedly better test and transfer performance.
- Generation and Effortful Problem SolvingA wrong attempt followed by correction beats simply studying the correct answer.
- ElaborationPutting an idea in your own words is a reliable test of whether you actually understand it.
- ReflectionReflection works because it recruits retrieval and elaboration, not because it is 'thoughtful.'
- Effortful Cognitive Engagement (Desirable Difficulty)The strategies that feel least productive during learning are often the ones that produce durable knowledge.
- Memory Consolidation and ReconsolidationLearning continues after the study session ends, during sleep and rest, so leave time for it.
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide
Sources
- Make It Stick the Science of
Make It Stick the Science of · Mike West, Editor · HR Leader Guide