Over the past 15 years I have learned a lot (in no particular order):
– I thought I was way smarter when I graduated from college than I actually was. Maybe that’s why I was fired from my first job?
– I learned I don’t have the one best solution (for pretty much anything). Sure, I’ve got ideas, but in today’s world there is far too much information available for any one person to comprehend.
– I am beginning to understand why diversity and inclusion matter. I once turned down a role focused on D&I because I didn’t see a need for it – I thought people should just do it.
– People are messy. We have emotions. We have a unique history, different perspectives, life experiences, and cognitive beliefs that drive how we act every day. And most of us don’t even realize it.
Probably the most impactful insight for me came a few years back. I was working to help an organization change behavior of roughly 30,000 people, many of whom had deeply rooted ways of working. A consultant we were working with showed this video:
My mind was blown. I still get chills when I watch the scene at 5:18 when Destin gets on the normal bicycle and says “It’s backwards!” In fact, the whole Amsterdam scene is fascinating, especially at 6:00 when it “clicks” for him. The fact he could sense when his old behavior was taking over is unfathomable to me.
There are so many things to take away from this video. Here are a few that stand out to me:
1. It took 8 months of practicing every single day to learn how to ride the backwards bicycle. Think about that – a small change to something he had been doing most of his life took him that long to learn how to do.
2. While learning how to ride the backwards bike, a small distraction was enough to cause failure. As you work to change your own behavior, don’t be discouraged from setbacks. You know that leader in your organization who is trying really hard to change, but maybe falls down once in a while? Help her back up.
3. After learning how to ride the backwards bike for 8 months, it only took Destin 20 minutes to revert back to his old behavior. Learning a new way of working can be hard, and it will be easy to go back to the old way. Catch the switch as it is happening to minimize the fallout.
At the end of the video Destin highlights three things he learned. Here are my takeaways for you related to them:
Welders are often smarter than Engineers.
Take away: How can you tap into those around you, learn something, and make a solution even better? You never know who the next breakthrough is going to come from.
Knowledge does not equal understanding.
Take away: Just as Destin felt his brain “click” as he was re-learning how to ride a normal bike, how can you realize when you may be falling back into old habits?
Truth is truth.
Take away: What are yo doing to expand your truth?
I could go on all day about this video, but I’ll stop here and let you share your own insights. What did you learn? What stood out to you? And more important…how are you going to change because of it?
“This shouldn’t be this hard.”