Make it Safe to Try
Have you read Hidden Potential by Adam Grant? The part that stuck with me is what he writes about why kids pick up languages so much faster than adults. Check out this 1.5 minute video for a glimpse of his take. To paraphrase, a lot of us ("us" being adults) feel embarrassed. We're afraid to mess up. And that gets in the way of something really important: practice. To effectively learn a new language, we need to jump in and say the words out loud. Grant argues that children aren't as self-conscious about sounding silly or picking the wrong verb tense. Kids practice more. Practice leads to fluency.
I'm paraphrasing. There is a lot of research about brain development that I will not pretend to be an expert in.
But, WOW. What might be possible if we weren't so afraid to try? (By "we", I'm referring to leaders, managers, teammates, and grown ups).
This big question is central to how we design and facilitate leadership development experiences. We intentionally create a warm and safe community of learners. We introduce a research-based framework. We give the leaders in the room permission and freedom to try it out. They apply tools to real-life scenarios and practice the actual words they will say with their teams. One more thing: we ask them to reflect and share how it went after they try it for real, outside of our workshops and in the real world. And it works.
There is a lot that goes into great curriculum design and facilitation. There is a lot that influences how well our learning sticks. One thing I know about effective learning. We have to try. We have to practice. And we have to create communities that offer one another grace when it doesn't always (ever?) sound perfectly fluent or work exactly as planned.
We invite you to try two things this week:
You know that thing you're feeling a little too self-conscious to try or say? Try it.
The next time you notice someone in your life stumbling through something new, thank them for their bravery giving it a try.
In partnership,
Christina (and Jodi)
