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I play softball in the old guy's softball league in Florida.
I started playing a few years ago and I discovered I wasn't
really very good. This was a bit surprising since I had played
in the University softball leagues while I was a professor
and had only stopped playing in my forties. I wasn't a bad
player then. There hadn't been that long a hiatus. And I was
playing against people a good deal older than myself since
I am rather young as recent Florida transplants go. I used
to be a good hitter and I wasn't now. The reason was easy
enough to understand. In the university leagues they play
fast pitch. A batter has a second or so to decide about swinging.
It is all instinct, at least it was after having played for
forty some odd years.
But, in Florida, old guys play slow pitch. The pitcher throws
the ball in a high looping arc and it is a strike if it lands
on the plate. Quite a different experience from trying to
hit a ball that is zinging by your head. Should be easier,
no? Not for me. It took a bit of thinking to figure out why.
I analyzed how I was swinging, when I was swinging, what
kinds of pitches I was swinging at, and I came to many different
conclusions. I realized I needed to wait longer before I swung.
I realized I had to stop swinging at inside pitches (the ones
that almost hit you.) I realized that I had to stop swinging
at pitches that looked good but yet dropped in front of my
feet. I realized I had to see the bat hit the "sweet
spot" on the bat. I realized I needed to change my whole
approach to hitting in fact.
OK. I realized a lot. I had come to many conclusions. Now
what? Just do it, right? Aha. Not so simple.
You can't just do what you know you should do. Why not? Because
your unconscious isn't listening to what you have to say.
You can tell yourself to do this that and the other but your
"self" isn't listening. Did you ever wonder why
what you learned in school isn't still in your head, or why
you can't remember what your spouse wanted you to get on your
way home? Or, why the things you decide to do to improve your
business or make more money or be a better person don't actually
ever get executed? The answer is simple: you can't learn by
listening - not from teachers, not from your spouse, not from
helpful suggestions from wise people, and not even from yourself.
Why not? Because it is your unconscious that is in charge
of executing daily activities -- from swinging a bat to driving
home to talking to people you want to make an impression on,
to getting along with your spouse. Your conscious can make
decisions, but your unconscious pretty well does what it is
in the habit of doing. The unconscious is a habit-driven processor.
Bad habits, as they say, are hard to break. Actually, all
habits, good or bad, are hard to break. A new swing is really
hard to develop as is a new way of selling or a new way of
treating people or driving a new route home.
This is the real use of education: the creation of new habits.
This can only be done in one way. The unconscious only learns
in one way. It learns by repeated practice. The only teaching
that works is the kind of mentoring that helps someone execute
better while they are practicing.
And this brings us to my key question about education. How
is a high school football coach different from a high school
history teacher?
Before we attempt to answer this question we need to consider
why it is an important question to consider. In general, I
think most people would agree that the behavior of these two
types of teachers is likely to be quite different. In our
mind's eye, we see images of yelling and crude behavior versus
refined lecture and discussion. But, let's get beyond the
superficial stereotypes and think about what they teach rather
than their style of teaching it.
The history teacher at his worst, teaches facts, and at his
best, teaches careful analysis of sources of facts.
The football coach at his worst, teaches that someone could
never possibly do something and, at his best, coaches someone
to do something better.
The history teacher teaches the conscious. The football coach
teaches the unconscious.
This makes sense if we view education (in school) as a conscious
affair. It certainly seems to be a conscious affair. We discuss
history we don't do history. And, it makes sense in football
since the coach doesn't need players who can discuss football
he needs players who can execute.
Which of these is relevant in corporate training?
For most employees it is the unconscious that needs to be
taught, not the conscious.
All those power point presentations that tell employees where
the bathroom is and what the company values and who is in
charge of accounting and how to behave on a sales call? Forget
them. No one remembers them two minutes after they hear them.
And if they did happen to remember them? They wouldn't recall
the information when they need it because the information
was presented to the conscious out of the experiential world
in which the unconscious operates.
What to do then? All this information to convey and an unconscious
who doesn't listen. What's a trainer to do?
Stop talking for one thing. No one is listening.
Then, figure out how the unconscious listens. One way the
unconscious listens is when it sees proper behavior. Children
model parents and new employees model old ones. Make sure
the old ones do it right - or give trainees good models to
hang out with. Another way the unconscious listens is when
it is frightened or excited. The unconscious is an emotion-driven
entity, quite different from the rational conscious. Talk
to it emotionally. Make it care. Stories work too. Why? For
the same reason people remember movies. Because they were
moved by them. Stories have an emotional impact when the viewer
identifies with the situation and feels that it is happening
to him.
And then there is PRACTICE. The unconscious learns by practice.
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