Learning Nugget 1 - Agents of Meaningful Change
Quick Question #1: How long did it take Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day YouTube Channel fame to learn how to ride his backwards-brain bicycle? (Watch video below)
Not So-Quick Answer #1 in Destin’s Own Words: “Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes you cannot change that, even if you want to. So here's what I did. It was a personal challenge. I stayed out here in this driveway and I practiced about 5 minutes every day. My neighbours made fun of me. I had many wrecks. But after 8 months, this happened. One day I couldn't ride the bike, and the next day I could. It was like I could feel some kind of pathway in my brain that was now unlocked. It was really weird though. It's like there's this trail in my brain, but if I wasn't paying close enough attention to it, my brain would easily lose that neural path and jump back onto the old road it was more familiar with. Any small distractions at all, like a cellphone ringing in my pocket, would instantly throw my brain back to the old control algorithm and I would wreck. But at least I could ride it.”
Quick Question #2: How long has the entire enterprise business technology industry being saying, “We need to get outside of IT and become relevant to line of business executives!”?
Quick Answer #2: Forever!
Quick Question #3: So why haven’t we actually done what we keep saying we need to do…especially now that over half of all new enterprise business technology initiatives are being funded outside of the IT organization, primarily with CMOs?
Quick Answer #3: Because we not yet been individually and organisationally disciplined enough to devote the 5 minutes of practice each day over an 8 month period that is needed to rewire those new pathways in our brains.
Quick Question #4: So how do we start and sustain that 8 month process of rewiring our brains and the brains of the people on our teams?
Quick Answer #4: The same way you get to Carnegie Hall…practice, man, practice.
Sooooo, after that worn-out old joke, we do have something designed to help you along on that journey toward the all-important “Culture and Platforms of Continuous Learning”.
This blog is designed to help you Think Different over a long enough period of time that you can actually rewire those pathways in your brain toward a more customer business outcome-driven mindset and habits of behaviour.
So what is the topic for this first Leadership Nugget ?
It is a recent article from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) entitled, 4 Reasons Managers Should Spend More Time on Coaching.
The importance of this article is not that managers should coach, it’s that together we were learn more, grow more and accelerate transformation as a collective pack when and if we coach each other. Peer coaching can in fact be more powerful than leader led coaching. It goes both ways, anyone can coach anyone, up and down the organisational structure. Why ? We all have vastly different levels of experience, knowledge and skills that others don't have. The opportunity to tap into that and learn from each other is the foundation for success.
