Tuesday 16th March 11:25

"Allowing the Learning Out"

MTL Newsletter w/c March 3rd 2010

Hi everyone,

Last week, we started our new dance classes at our local Community Centre. They're called "Two Left Feet". Along with 11 other couples, we'd signed up to ballroom dancing lessons in the hope of becoming the next Fred and Ginger (Astaire and Rogers to anyone under 50!)

We were under the instruction of Graham and Lorraine, but, being first-timers, and true to the name of the class, we were stumbling our way through much of the salsa, waltz, and Caribbean calypso, when Graham suddenly turned off the tape, and announced, "Come on, everyone. You all know how to do this. You've just forgotten!"

Those words immediately hit home with me and I knew how right he was.

Not many days before, my daughter had been home from uni, and, being the inquisitive father, I'd asked her how things were going.

"Everything's fine," she said, "except my French. I just don't get it. I work hard. Take loads of notes. Revise carefully. My speaking's fine but when I come to write..." And then two big tears of frustration rolled down her cheeks.

After a hug, and not sure if my words would help, I said, "Don't worry, it's just a block. You know it, you're just not allowing it to come through. Take the blocks away and it will all come together."

On our Training Skills courses at ManageTrainLearn, we get our trainers to think about how they see the learning process. If they believe that learning requires struggle, effort, and hard work, then that's how their trainees will see it. But, if they see learning as something that people already know and have simply forgotten, then it becomes a process of ease, flow, and self-discovery.

As Galileo said, "You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it in himself."

The other night we went to our second "Two Left Feet" class. The steps didn't come any easier but that doesn't matter because we know we already know how to dance.

All we've got to do is allow it out and re-discover it.

Eric

PS For more on discovering how to learn, visit our Training Skills page and our range of related products.