Two activities I’ve done over the past month have re-iterated to me how uncomfortable learning can be.  We all know this, have experienced it, but I find it useful to be reminded of it.  It helps to focus and improve my work.

The first activity was a swimming course I went on.  Last year I took up triathlons and over this winter I decided to enrol in a “Swim Stroke Correction Course” to improve my technique.  Trying to unlearn my swimming style and replace it with new and seemingly bizarre ways to do things was quite confronting.  Particularly when you’re taking big gulps of pool water as your body tries to respond.

The second activity was in a presentation skills workshop I just ran.  Two things: I showed some mildly confronting videos of good presentations.  The presentations were excellent and got my point across, the content was the mildly confronting part (one on obesity and one on cancer).  The other thing in the workshop was an activity called the red blue game.  It’s an activity looking at co-operation, trust, competitiveness and it’s set up to strongly test those values.  Many learners break the trust between each other and the debrief can get quite tricky.

So all this prompted me to think about uncomfortableness and how in the early years of my career I would try and avoid it.  “Make a nice comfortable environment for the learners to learn in” was my motto.  Over the past couple of years I’ve come to realise the value in uncomfortableness and pushing people further and further.  There is a balance to be struck but ultimately at the end of a workshop or learning project it’s not about everyone thinking you’re a nice, top bloke.  It’s about them learning and growing and sometimes that means being a little uncomfortable.