“Serendipity” Strikes
Imagine my dismay when I sat down to write this blog post and realized I read the wrong book for the week’s assignment. I was prepared to write about Tempered Resilience by Tod Boslinger only to discover I actually needed to read Leadersmithing by Eve Poole. After a few choice words and a very late night, I sat in wonder as I realized that BOTH of these books were pivotal resources for my doctoral portfolio project about developing resilience in early adolescent girls alongside their primary female influencers. It wasn’t an accident that I read Tempered Resilience first. In fact, had I not been reflecting on the importance of learning through experience–the primary focus of Tempered Resilience, I would not have been quite as attuned to the problem that Leadersmithing ended up answering for me. [1]
In Leadersmithing, Poole shares the research she conducted in 2003 by asking board level leaders two questions: 1) What do you know now as a leader that you had known ten years ago and 2) How did you learn this valuable lesson? [2] The answers to these questions were developed into 17 critical incidents that a leader must master in order to feel confident their position. In addition to describing each of these incidents, Poole explains the unique method the Ashridge team uses to teach leaders these very skills. It is this incredible learning technique that has begun to answer the following question I uncovered in my NPO research about teaching resilience skills to early adolescent girls.
How does one actually teach resilience?
Reslience, or the ability to “bounce back” from stressful situations is a learned skill that must be experientially developed. In essence, it is the ability to experience the stress response (fight, flight, freeze or fawn) and consciously choose another, more helpful path. But how do you proactively teach a skill that must be experienced rather than acquired through intellect? This is the dilemma I’ve been weighing in my mind. You can imagine my surprise (and delight) when Poole describes how she and her team came up with the idea of using simulation to teach leaders. She writes, “The core learning objective of the simulation is about templating. It is designed to give leaders ‘muscle memory’ about these archetypal leadership activities, such that their bodies instinctively know how to do them. This means that when they have to perform any of these activities in their real work they feel resourced to do so.” [3]
Poole was already doing for leaders exactly what I hope to do for early-adolescent girls and their primary female caregivers!
Prior to reading Leadersmithing, I had tacit knowledge that experiential learning was going to be a key part of equipping early adolescent girls to thrive, but Poole explained it in a way that has given me explicit knowledge. In chapter 2, she answers the question “how do leaders learn?”And guess what? It’s the very same way early adolescent girls (and all people) learn. She explains that when we are in a situation that is stressful, our amygdala (the reptilian, survival instinct) part of our brain takes over the rational, deep thinking part of the brain. Kahneman would describe it as System 1 defaulting over System 2. [4] System 1 relies on related experiences from the past to generate a seemingly automatic response. And if System 1 doesn’t have positive, helpful experiences to draw upon, it will stay stuck in one of the default stress responses –exactly what we want to avoid.
What does this mean in practical terms when it comes to learning?
It simply means we need to provide system 1 with positive experiences of dealing with this stress, so it knows how to respond when the stress is experienced. Poole implements this as part of training leaders by simulating experiences, having leaders react to them in real time and then debriefing their response. A bonus to this method of instruction is that when people are placed in a stress-filled situation (as measured by an increase in heart rate), the learning that they experience in that state actually makes a bigger impact on retention and recall than when there is no stress experienced.
Unfortunately for me, Poole and the Ashridge team require the participants in their leadership simulations to be sworn to secrecy about their experiences. In visiting the site to learn more (and hopefully see an example of a simulation), there were plenty of positive reviews, but little to no insight into how the simulations are created or conducted. [5] From the testimonies and website copy, I deduced that actors present a scenario on video and the learner has to respond to the situation, but I would love to learn more about the specifics of the simulation training.
To dig deeper and explore how this approach could influence the solution to my NPO, I plan to do the following:
- Conduct a survey with 20-something females and ask a variation of the questions that Poole asked: 1) What do you know now as an adult female that you wish had known ten years ago and 2) How did you learn this valuable lesson. [6]
- Reach out to the Ashridge team and see if they are willing to share any information about how they developed their simulations and training program.
Serendipity may be my favorite word, but I know the true credit belongs to God for the intersection of Leadersmithing and my doctoral research project. Even happy little mistakes can be redeemed in the right Hands. This one was, indeed!
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[1] Tod Boslinger, Tempered Resilence, How Leaders Are Formed In The Crucible of Change. Intervarsity Press, 2020.
[2] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London Oxford New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business 2017, 10.
[3] Ibid, 12.
[4] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc, 2013), 20.
[5] https://www.hultef.com/en/programs/executive-education/formats/open/leadership-in-action/
[6] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London Oxford New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business 2017, 10.
About the Author
Laura Fleetwood
Laura Fleetwood is a Christian creative, certified Enneagram Coach, doctoral student at Portland Seminary and Creative Director at her home church, Messiah St. Charles. As a published author, national faith speaker, podcaster and self-described anxiety warrior, Laura uses storytelling to teach you how to seek the S T I L L in the midst of your chaotic life. Find Laura at www.seekingthestill.com5 responses to ““Serendipity” Strikes”
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Awesome post, as always? Sorry about the mishap. God is good and I’m glad it all worked out.
Going back to Poole’s questions, are there things (or a single principle) you have learned in your leadership journey that you didn’t know in the past that serve you now or that you would recommend to new leaders?
Thank you!
Thanks, Michael. The most important lesson I’ve learned (the hard way) is to let go of outcomes. I used to try to control every little detail – as though that would ensure “success.” That only led me to extreme burnout and I lost focus of trusting in God to take care of the outcome. I’m still not perfect, but doing my best and then handing the outcome over to God has been a game changer for me!
Laura,
Thank you for this reminder… We don’t need to control the outcomes. This is so key, I think when we try so hard to control the outcomes it is then we find ourself in the bigger messes. Letting go and learning along the way and growing together as leaders might land us in different places and different outcomes than we hoped for but it might mean that we end up going surfing and learn a great deal about ourselves. Thanks for your thoughts and your honesty.
Laura,
Dr. Clark encourages us often to: “show the working out.” You did that so well in your opening paragraph! I love how you tied everything together! I am challenged in doing this while writing the Syntopical essay.
It sounds like you had a late night! Great job putting this together! I hope your research continues to come together for teens. Tempered Resilience-how perfect for your NPO!
Thank you for the encouragement, Kristy! Yes, these last few books have been so great for my NPO. Very exciting!