Do you over-complicate the simple?

Do you over-complicate the simple?

“Creation not consumption” doesn’t have to mean complicated.

Given any circumstance or situation animals have a fairly concentrated set of decisions to work on:

• Is it safe or dangerous?
• Can I eat it or not?
• Is this an opportunity pro-create or not?

The thing that differentiates humans from animals is the simple question

What does this mean?

Simple question, massive implications.

Humans are “meaning makers”. We are programmed to figure out what is going on and make sense of it. (The way we do this through a complex set of filters is the topic of a whole different article to come. Watch this space!)

This programming is one of the fundamental reasons why Brain Friendly learning works so well. The concept of “creation not consumption” introduced by Dave Meier in his outstanding book “The Accelerated Learning Handbook” is one of our Brain Friendly pillars but there can sometimes be a tendency for even the most experienced facilitator to over-complicate the process at times.

However, when used in it’s simplest form, it can still generate outstanding learning opportunities for our delegates.

During a recent change management workshop I asked the group to throw a koosh ball to each other, ending at the person who threw the ball first. This took 3 minutes.

I then asked them to do it again but in half the time. They succeeded easily but after three more rounds, the target time being halved each time, they got stuck and began to go slower rather than faster.  By this time it was taking about 7 seconds.
I asked them to take a time-out and discuss how they might complete the exercise in under 2 seconds.
They came up with a solution, completed the exercise and we could have left it there with a discussion around continuous improvement and change.

What I actually did was ask them to get into threes and fours and discuss what they thought the point of the exercise was.

What they came up with was awe-inspiring. Each group came up with at least 5 things that they thought the exercise was about (some of which I had never thought of) There were some common themes but there were also some truly unique insights. I then asked them to consider these insights in the light of their own change management projects and apply this learning to their day to day activities.

This short 15 minute session was later cited as one of the most powerful sessions in terms of “things I have learned” of the whole day.

What this demonstrates is that humans are fantastic at making their own meaning. Almost everyone in the room had their own “take” on what the exercise was about without any input from me. Their individual understandings were then reinforced and added to when they shared this with the rest of the group.

This demonstrates 2 factors that some facilitators loose sight of at times:

• It doesn’t need to be clever or complicated
• You don’t need to know the answers when you ask the questions

Sometimes, facilitating “Creation not Consumption” is more about setting up something simple, asking the right question and just getting out of the way to allow the learners to create their own meaning in their own context.   After all, that is what we are programmed to do.

Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info

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