The most straightforward way to an understanding of this learning pathway is enshrined in the NIKE strap line:
Learning by doing is a disarmingly simple and innocent notion.
Yet so many of us are fearful of stretching, risking, experimenting and doing in the hope of learning by experience.
So much of what passes for professional training and development in organisations is chararcterised by orthodox classroom-based tick boxing, handbook lists, overloaded Powerpoint presentations and lists of bullet points that cry out for learning by repetition.
When I was a young teenager I was powerfully drawn to learning French more quickly than I was doing in class at school. Somehow, my working class parents found the money to send me on my own for my week-long adventure in Paris. I will never forget the excitement, the privilege and the joy of speaking French every day in Paris. My confidence in speaking French rocketed. It worked.
That is what learning by experience can do.
Does this have any relevance for Leadership Training?
Have a look at the highlights shown below of this Harvard Business Review article:
Get Adventurous with Your Leadership Training.
by Christopher G. Myers and Mike Doyle
Harvard Business Review, February 13, 2020
Organizations spend billions…….. each year on leadership development. Yet research has shown that many of these programs don’t seem to work — they fail to help individuals develop the sorts of dynamic, collaborative leadership skills needed for today’s work.
https://hbr.org/2020/02/get-adventurous-with-your-leadership-training
Over the last 30 years Danny McGuigan has learned to be bold and adventurous in creating experiential leadership learning opportunities out with the coaching consulting room.
For example, some years ago Danny developed and designed an experiential leadership learning module that involves a half day visit to the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in London, specifically the Criminal Court of Appeal.
The Criminal Court of Appeal is presided over by three Lord/Lady chief justices.
Criminal Appeal cases are brought to the court in an attempt to either, quash a sentence or in some way, amend the sentence tariff.
The experience of sitting in the public gallery in the criminal court appeal is very powerful for the following reasons:
- The prisoner in each case has the option of attending the appeal hearing and when they opt to do so they are brought into a small cage area in one corner of the court quite near to the benches on which the Lord / Lady Chief Justice sit. The physical presence of the prisoner brings a completely different felt experience to the courtroom and proceedings
- Appeal court proceedings include the reading out of a summary of the charges and the previous court proceedings at which the prisoner had been found guilty. These can often be quite graphic and often harrowing to listen to.
- The interaction between the QC’s for the defence and QC’s for the prosecution can very often become fascinating and completely absorbing.
- The final rulings which are summarily delivered at the end of each case are often quite unpredictable and even at times surprising.
Once the appeal hearing is concluded and the judgement delivered the module concludes over lunch with an extensive debrief on the proceedings of the morning whilst focusing powerfully on the leadership learning and the key takeaways.
Get in touch with Danny if you would like to create an experiential learning plan.
Tel: 07850 143 209
Email: email@dannymcguigan.com
