I linked the two through learning and development. We can't increase our skills and leadership abilities without stepping out of our comfort zone.
To set it up I stole the image below from a wonderful book by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky called “Leadership on the Line." The zone of optimal learning indicated by point B in the figure below is where one lives during out of comfort zone experiences. Our stress levels are heightened, we focus more, try harder, and learn more.
The trick, I said, was that when we leave these experiences we stay at a level of performance higher than what we came in. That point C needs to be higher than point A.
Managers think about this a lot in terms of staff. What type of experiences can we give staff to increase their abilities and go from point A to point C? The big question I posed was that if we can do it at an organizational level can we also do it on a regional level?
My answer was absolutely. We have to. I used the lessons we’re learning at 21inc to discuss how. I talked about three specific elements that need to exist in any out of comfort zone experience to maintain a high level of performance: support, practice, and time. For each I told a story and played a video of one of our alumni talking about it.
I want to share Leah Levac’s video. Leah is a founding member of 21inc., and is also a Trudeau Scholar, another community that provides a group of inspired, young intellectuals with a supportive network that allows them to push their own, and each others, limits. She does an excellent job explaining why a group of young people actually decided to jump out of their comfort zones and create 21inc. It was in large measure because of the support we felt from each other. That support allowed us to take more risks since we knew that if we fell someone would be there to catch us. Here’s Leah:
1 comments:
The video supplement to the post was a great idea.
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