Here’s a story for you.
An old man lowered his clay jug every day at the well. He did it by hand with the jug attached to a rope. He was very careful to not let the jug bump the edge of the well which was made of stone or else the jug may break. A young man saw all this and proposed a wheel built over the center of the well with a rope that would lower the jug straight down every time. It would be easier and faster. All he had to do was crank the wheel up and down. The old man listened to the young man’s idea and said, “No, thank you. Without the work of lowering and raising the jug, I’m not sure the water would taste as good.”
Over one year ago, I began surveying clients and colleagues and having lunches and Zoom meetings with them to discuss a new two and half day workshop I was developing on communication skills. Their reply was unanimous: these skills are desperately needed in our workplace. I asked a lot of questions, have written, rewritten and rewritten the course over and over again, and the program launched this past Wednesday.
Could the program be delivered remotely? Yes. Could it be pre-recorded and done online at the leisure of the participant? Yes, I think so. Could it be shorted to one day? Or maybe half a day? Probably, but none of that’s going to happen.
There is a saying in the addict recovery world: What do you do when the very thing that is destroying you is what gets you through the day. For the addict, it is drugs. For many of us today, though, it’s urgency. It’s more and more. It’s busyness. Its fear of missing out. It’s the dopamine hit of the flashing or buzzing phone, and I’m as guilty of it as the next guy. Too much of it is not good for me. I’m addicted to it, but it gets me through the day. I suspect I’m not alone.
So, in an effort to make a difference with the people who began with me Wednesday, I’ve created a program that slows the pace of learning. It’s not cramming. It’s learning. It’s savoring the new knowledge. It’s dialogue, discussion, eye-contact and thoughtful progression through learning and relearning skills that, per my colleagues, is desperately needed in their workplace.
No PowerPoint. No Audio or Video. Instead, it will be flip charts, instruction, dialogue and practice. Even pencils and not pens. It’s the hard, slow, deliberate work that creates results and will lead to a more fulfilling and successful workplace for my participants. It’s, in a sense, retro learning the way it used to be done back in the days before all these tools we’ve created made things, what? Quicker, better, easier? Maybe all of those, but what I’ve created will be memorable and transformational.
To many of my participants, what’s old will be new again. It’s been a year in the making, and we could get to end of the program much quicker than two-and-a-half days, but, like the old man lowering the jug by hand every day, the water wouldn’t taste as good.
I’m Cam Marston, and I’m just trying to Keep It Real.
