When I first tried out my new approach, it felt weird and I ended up hitting my leg instead of the shuttle! It was here that my coach stepped in and said that because I’d been playing in a particular way for so long that doing anything different will feel weird but the more I keep doing it eventually it will seem natural and I won’t even think of it anymore.

She then proceeded to get me doing what seemed like hundreds of serves and I started to see some amazing results even though it still felt weird, so I will stick with it and work through the weirdness on my quest to be amazing!

It reminds me of how when we are learning a new way of doing something it can often feel weird, awkward or clunky and this feeling can lead us to go back to our old less effective ways. So as trainers, what can we do to encourage our learners to work through the “it feels weird” stage of a learning new approach (associated with Conscious Incompetent phase of learning) so that they can get better results?

Answers on a post card please

‘Leadership at the Edge’ offers  leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition by Dennis N.T. Perkins. Perkins has taken ‘one of the greatest survival stories of all time , one of the most extraordinary Leadership sagas… and translated into a set of powerful strategies for leaders’. It was written in 2000, long before our current economic crisis thus it’s comparison with the hardships faced by Shackleton and his crew seem even more relevant today.

For example, Shackleton and his crew:

• Had their ship crushed by the expanding pack ice
• Were then stranded on the floes of the frozen Weddall Sea
• Had two perilous journeys in open boats in the dangerous and raging Southern Ocean
• Were separated when part of the team were marooned on the forlorn Elephant Island whilst Shackleton and five others went off in search of rescue to South Georgia Island , where a whaling station was located

Buy it here

All this stretched the very limits of human endurance. However under Shackleton, teamwork, self-sacrifice and astonishing good cheer meant that the men did not die, they all survived. And this is the message of the book, that leaders do a make a difference, a critical difference .

‘Exceptional leaders inspire a level of teamwork that can mean the difference between life and death. Today’s business world can be a harsh world like the world of Antarctica:

• Constant and unpredictable change
• Fierce competition
• The complex sale
• Technology trends
• Downsizing
• Mergers etc.

It is in this environment that exceptional leaders can inspire a level of teamwork that can mean the difference between success and failure in the most demanding times. Under conditions of physical danger, this means the difference between life and death. ‘ In a harsh business environment, individuals may not die, but a lack of leadership can spell death for an organisation’.

The book is easy to read and well organised. It provides the Shackleton story and then it is divided into four parts.

Part One

Identifies ten Strategies for Leading at The Edge and also incorporates some modern examples. At the end of each strategy there is an Expedition Log to help you action what they have just read about.

Part Two

Explores Case Studies in Leading at The Edge

Part Three

Dennis N.T. Perkins shares his perspective on what constitutes success or failure and comments on learning the art ‘of leading at The Edge’.

Part Four includes a number of resources, including tools for individual assessment and for further reading about leadership and adventure.

It is a truly inspirational book and Shackleton is now one of my great leadership heroes, because he put his people first, from getting up in the morning and getting them a hot drink, to being the first to do what was being asked and giving away his own gloves in freezing conditions to a team member who needed them more. His men were always his number one priority and he got them back alive.  Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Everest and to cross Antarctica successfully, later wrote, ‘When disaster strikes and all hope if gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton’.

Think about the leaders within your organisation, including yourself, how well do they(and you measure up) measure up.

What shifts need to take place to make you the best leader you can possibly be?

Buy it here

or buy the film

I believe in today’s world we need Shackleton’s extraordinary leadership skills more than ever and this book tells us how. I cannot recommend it enough – brilliant. Also the film ‘Shackleton’ starring Kenneth Branagh is superb.

We tend to think that businesses with a training team and a structured development plan for all individuals have got it right but more recent thinking may suggest that they are no nearer being a learning organisation than those who are bumbling along hoping for the best.

Controversial?

Read on to find out how you can build the culture that will support learning throughout your organisation.

It may well be a controversial comment but if you believe what many commentators on the world of workplace learning are saying – that 80% of our learning at work comes from informal methods – then you may begin to see the point. Some l&d departments can also foster a dependency on formal learning when in fact there are other more effective ways to improve performance. Take the manager who sends someone on a course rather than manage a performance issue themselves.
Add to that the fact that many Learning and Development professionals have become so preoccupied with methods – classroom, distance learning, e-learning, m-learning, social networking and analysing and choosing the best method and missing one very simple fact…..
Most people do most of their learning with no intervention from anyone at all – least of all L&D.

So do we just let them get on with it?
Well the answer to that is yes and no! Yes, in terms of avoiding the temptation to try and manage informal learning. And ‘no’ in the sense that you can’t simply hand responsibility for learning over to learners unless they are ready to take it. How ready learners are to take on that responsibility depends very much on the culture of your organisation.

As a start here are our Top 3 indicators for an easy transition to a highly effective informal learning culture:

• Trust: Do your managers truly trust people to achieve results or do they want to micro-manage? Here’s a good indicator ‘Does your business allow people free access to the internet, including social networking sites or are some sites blocked (other than those with inappropriate content).
• Openness: Do people talk at work – about their strengths, weaknesses, hopes and desires? How easy is it for people to admit to mistakes without the fear of blame?
• Innovation: Can people experiment and try out new ideas. Is this actively encouraged?

If you are already there with this type of culture we’d be surprised if you haven’t already embraced informal learning.

If you have some way to go then your Learning and Development function has two key roles:
1. Helping to develop a culture throughout the organisation from CEO to new recruit that supports informal learning
2. Helping people to rediscover the joy and power of informal learning by showing them what’s out there and how to be a great learner.

To read more download our free report ’3 practical steps towards a learning organisation’ here

What are you saying you will “try to do?” …. stop trying and just get on with it

As L&D professionals we are familiar with the Conscious Competent/Unconscious Competent model of how we learn. What I learnt from that experience that has stayed with me, is that when you are under pressure it is sometimes the bits you least expect to, where you will make a mistake and it is those bits that need extra attention until you just can’t get them wrong, regardless of pressure.

In the fast moving world in which we work and live, how can we help our staff practise so they can’t get it wrong?

This is where the work we do with them on the job is so absolutely crucial and we will shortly be serving up 10 top tips to help you embed learning so they absolutely can’t get it wrong!

We firmly believe that most workplace learning happens on the job and the more this can be encouraged then the more people will learn.

However if you have a culture that very much looks towards the Learning and Development department for all workplace learning then you will need to encourage greater self sufficiency gradually.

So why not start by looking at the workshops you run.

We like the quote:

‘Don’t do for the learners what they can do for themselves’ David Meier

So what do you do in your workshops currently that learners could do for themselves?

Learners will remember more about:

• The information they research
• The case studies they create from their own experience than from the ones you produce
• The quizzes they write for each other to test learning
• The ‘teach backs’ they run to share their findings with each other.

Can you really change a workshop in 90 seconds?

Yes, because you don’t actually have to prepare anything, just make the decision to get out of the way and let your learners do the work for themselves.

There are parallels in our working lives too.

How often do we take time to review what we are doing and challenging ourselves to find a more efficient or smoother way of doing stuff? Perhaps if we did we would be pleasantly surprised that we could get more out of our tanks with less effort!

Action – take 15 minutes and one learning activity you deliver routinely.

Evaluate how you can do this in shorter time and provide greater impact through your debriefing strategies and action planning.

English Proverb

What will you do today that helps you plant a tree to flourish?

So what was different about this server?

He connected with us instantly, we felt he was on our wavelength, he was down-to-earth funny, he was sincere in his interest about how we were enjoying our food.  When I looked around at the other tables on our section,( curious to see how he was connecting with others), I noticed that he took the same sincere interest with each table but interacted slightly differently depending on who was at the table.  For instance, he showed compassion with a lady who was on her own with two children, one of whom was a very impatient toddler.  With another table next to ours were four elderly people and again he connected with them as if he were the same age but blended in with a different sort of respect.  Intrigued, I had to tell our server how much we appreciated his approach and I asked him what it was that drove him to be like this.

After thanking me, he said that he just loves having fun with people and making them smile.  He then said that he was very tired, they had been extremely busy but serving people with a miserable manner “…isn’t going to help anyone, is it?”

I guess the thing that struck me is something I believe to be fundamental in customer service and that is ‘attitude’.  This server may have had all the right things technically but the thing that set him apart from his colleagues was his attitude.  The other thing that struck me was one word that he said, “love”.  He said he loved to have fun, not likes, but loves.  This is a much stronger emotion which brings with it a different kind of energy – one that drives people to lift cars to save a trapped loved one, one that fuels people to run miles to raise money for a worthy cause etc.  So if we take any lessons from this server about really delighting customers maybe it should be to find ways to incorporate love into our approach.

What will you do today, on the day of LOVE to show people you really do love what you do?

1. What motivates you?

Check what motivates you in each goal. If you approach a goal with the wrong mindset you are fighting an uphill battle. Take a look at your goal detox from last week – are these goals that:

• Help you grow?
• That you are driven to achieve or just a should do?
• Bring you joy when you think aboutachieving them?

Use this checklist to review and to really consider how you will enjoy the accomplishment. If it helps write it down, draw pictures or cut them out from a magazine and focus on these, each day, to help you achieve.

2. How realistic is the goal?

Unrealistic goals are the ones that can stop you before you have even started. If you are in danger of doing this take some advice:

Raymond Aaron, a world-renowned expert on goal setting and member of Jack Canfield’s Transformational Leadership Council, teaches us to set three levels of goals:

• Minimum. What is the minimum level you need to establish a strong foundation? This might be creating a positive stakeholder group who supports you in one particular business area/level.
• Target. Once you’ve establish a foundation, what is a milestone goal that will stretch you? This might be, active consultation and involvement in the strategic decision making process
• Outrageous. This is the level that looks unrealistic from where you are starting, but that is possible as a long-term goal. To be given ultimate decision making powers for an empowering L&D budget.

3. Do you have too many goals?

Last week we encouraged you to detox your gaols and establish a top 3. Now is a good time to check in with these and ensure they are the right goals for you. To help you with this:

• Create a matrix of six columns.
• List your goals down the left side of the page in column one.
• In the remaining columns, answer these questions about each goal:

By completing the matrix, we’re able to easily see which goals will generate the most money, impact and happiness as a return on our investment of time and energy.

Think about how you can share this with other managers in your business to help them increase their motivation and contribution in work. Please pass it on widely. Thank you.