How often do you covertly dismiss new information that challenges your existing understanding of the world? That is exactly what most of us habitually do. Avoiding the dreaded state of “confusion”!
I did just that, this morning. In a Yoga class, as my Guru explained the depths and details of the anatomy of doing a particular pose in which I was comfortably engaged, my initial thought was “well I can do it anyways. I don’t need to get into the finer details of anatomy”. In reality, I was trying to be in the pose, while at the same time trying to hear aspects of biological mechanics. And it was a sensory overload. And to avoid the “confusion” I shut my listening, and focused on the “doing”. I was in a no loss but also no gain zone of learning.
But it was only later when the wiser of my senses – my body – willingly opened itself to the confusion. It paused the doing, and it listened. That’s when I leaned into not knowing, and started learning.
Exactly how real learning happens in leadership coaching…
Only outward focus on performance can stall our learning, especially if we think of ourselves as experts in our field. Being hard-wired to avoid confusion we avoid listening to new competing information. And avoid learning altogether.
On the other hand, commitment to growth requires an openness to being okay with the discomfort of confusion. And that is why leadership coaching is intentionally designed to not make learning easy either.
–> It requires you to take that pause
–> It requires you to get off the performance treadmill
–> It requires you to listen – to your constructed beliefs, your unconsciously practiced behaviors, to observe the habits you have become blind to.
–> It requires you to then calibrate new inner learning with your own new and old doing
–> It requires you to try “doing” again and risk failure
–> It requires you to learn from your own experience
Learning happens only when we say OK to the states of CONFUSION.
#leadership #coaching #somaticlearning #discomfort #confusion
Discomfort – a Necessity for Learning
