ABCs for Managers Who Lead – J is for Juggle

J is for Juggle
Photo credit: MSH Staff
     Photo credit: Warren Zelman

Juggling is a wonderful metaphor for learning. When you see an accomplished juggler, keeping three, four or more balls in the air, it is hard to believe that at one point this person could not even keep two balls in the air. But they could not.

Many years ago MSH regularly delivered multi-week training for health program managers. During these trainings we sometimes used juggling to demonstrate something about learning and taking on new challenges that the participants might not have discovered on their own. Every participant received three balls on day one. They were given the task of learning how to juggle these three balls expertly by the end of the training. Being doctors and nurses, and serious about their learning, many didn’t think they could learn how to juggle. Some even dismissed the entire exercise as silly and child’s play. Three weeks later, everyone was able to juggle at least two if not three balls for five minutes or more.

In the process health program managers practiced some important lessons about teaching and learning a new skill:

  1. Introduce a new challenge in a safe environment (a place away from work, with others new to the skill(s) to be learned)
  2. Instill motivation and subtle or not so subtle rewards (imagine the things you could do when you can juggle well!). Motivation also came from the sheer curiosity to see if one could do this, especially if you considered yourself clumsy in whatever was being taught.
  3. Provide time for practice, tolerance for mistakes and a coach with tips and feedback to reinforce continuous improvement.
  4. Encourage time for rest and recuperation. What we now know is that the practice sessions produced new neural pathways in the brain. The time in between practices allowed for these patterns to solidify. People could see that they got better: practice and persistence produced success.
  5. And finally, with success will come the confidence to take on more challenges.

It was not hard to see the relevance for their work: for many professionals in the medical sector, managing and leading is not something they learned in school. They had to learn the required skills by doing, often without much guidance. The juggling experience taught them to seek out the challenge, be open to feedback and support, persevere in practicing (dropping the ball contributed to learning), until one achieved success, and then reaching further as there is always something more to learn.

Juggling well

  • Expect failure. We know this in our heads but for those of us accomplished professionals, failing is not that easy to accept. In many cultures senior professionals are supposed to know everything already.
  • Humility and awareness are keys to learning, be it learning new things or getting better at what we already know.
  • Get a coach – someone you trust to give you tips, feedback and support. This is the only way to take on new challenges.
  • Help your teammates, and have them help you, to pick up the balls that they or you drop.
  • Acknowledge that there is always something new to learn: if you can juggle with two balls, try three, or four, or five.

See for yourself

Video: The neuroscience of juggling

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