[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Jim Dezieck and David Sweetman. They may be reached at jimdezieck@morassociates.com and david@morassociates.com or via LinkedIn, Jim and David.]
‘Whoa!’
Jackie looked out on the setting campus sun feeling a huge burden had just been lifted, a smile on her face. Weeks of tension had just evaporated in three minutes of honest, heartfelt exchange with Chris. There was no doubt Chris had felt that too. Pitched in battle for months, relief, new-found comradery, and even admiration now exist. Just then they had connected honestly and set the stage for helping Chris to articulate some proposals for navigating some tricky ground ahead.
‘How did that happen?’ Jackie wanted an answer because whatever she might have done to contribute to that breakthrough was something she wanted to remember so she could do it again. She had sat in on a workshop a few months back to help enable such pivotal conversations, but it hadn’t lit a fire. An emotional intelligence workshop too. Interesting but no great ways to apply back then. But just now she had profoundly applied both of those as she opened the meeting with graceful vulnerability and joined Chris in surfacing some very difficult issues.
How did that happen? Had Edward Tolman been nearby he might have helped Jackie find the basis. Alas Tolman’s latent learning research took place in the 1930’s. Contrary to the predominant behaviorist theories of the day, Tolman showed that even in the absence of incentives – reward or punishment – we are constantly learning. No one, not even ourselves, can see this latent learning happening. Moreover, when the time is right, when some incentive appears, we draw from our subconscious cognitive map of that learning to produce skillful behavior. A simple example: for weeks Jason’s father drives him to school. Then one day dad can’t make it and Jason takes his bike and cycles the way to school flawlessly.
This small example belies the treasure trove of learning within Jackie simply awaiting her call when the fitting situation arose. She may not have been lit up by the workshops when they occurred. However, at the workshops and in other big and little moments, her subconscious was mapping what she was learning from her world. Then, despite months of battle with Chris, something on that day prompted latent knowledge to manifest as skilled behavior that bore fruit.
“So what” for you personally? Three things:
“So what” for you as a leader? Three things:
Back to Jackie and Chris. They were able to move beyond previous limits they had imposed on their interactions. The result was game-changing. Pioneering psychologist William James asserted that we humans live too much within our self-imposed limits. Perhaps he had latent learning in mind, but he just didn’t know it was there?
This Week’s Survey
So what? What’s your biggest takeaway on latent learning for both you and your team? |
From Last Week Last week we asked how you generally feel about change:
Generally speaking, this group feels positively about change. Our welcoming excitement and flexibility toward change may often be based on the explicit knowledge of how to successfully navigate change, based on years of experience. However, there are times where change doesn’t come as easy. There are discomforts and fears. There is uncertainty for what the future may mean if a given change is implemented. Relating to today’s reading, might those times be opportunities for uncovering latent learning? Or, when you are leading change, perhaps there are opportunities to plant earlier seeds for fruits of latent learning to reduce uncertainties? |
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