Why Excellence Is Just A Failed Experiment In Disguise - The Diary of a Professional Coddiwompler
Original from Jenson Goh
I remembered preparing for my keynote speech for the LEGO(R) Six Bricks Facilitators Sondela conference in Feb, organised by Care for Education.
My goal: To demonstrate how LEGO Six Bricks activities can be used to support the development of systems thinking habits for students and leaders.
I ran the activity that I had spent months developing at the conference.
It was a disaster because it wasn't fun.
When I walked down the stage, I remembered feeling that I would never get this right.
Shortly, I did something radical with this feeling.
I stopped managing the discomfort and started flooding myself with it.
I realised my mental model of I cannot was the architect of my limitations.
I was letting the fear of failure dictate my reality.
So I decided to forcibly shift that model.
I leaned into the systems thinking habit of surfacing and testing assumptions and intentionally amplified the pressure of I cannot, feeding the fuel for me to want to overcome it.
I started treating each opportunity to do it again as a high-stakes laboratory.
First teaser with Singapore Police Force and then with Duke-NUS Medical School.
I was using play to flood my system and rewire my thinking.
When I stood before the Vice Principals with Ministry of Education, Singapore for my customised 1-day systems thinking habits programme, my stomach was in knots.
Could the LEGO six bricks activities that I have tried and tested really shift the mindset of Vice Principals?
I learned to calm my nerves; I leaned into that intensity. I let the discomfort flood my system until I was completely present.
That intensity became the catalyst.
The result: The Vice Principals were not just listening. They were experiencing a transformation within.
Now, I am bringing this same fusion to Delft for the LEGO Serious Play facilitators and then for the participants of the International System Dynamics Conference organised by the System Dynamics Society.
My inner critic is screaming that this might fail in a new culture. I am not muting that noise. I am turning up the volume.
Because, like always, I know that the moment I am comfortable is the moment I stop evolving.
I need to be comfortable with the uncomfortable!
If you want to learn deeply, you have to be willing to be overwhelmed.
The results: I delivered my best works!
Receiving gratitude and comments of impact from both participants was my prize. I did it!
Repost this to help a friend break through their plateau.
Save this for the next time you feel like quitting before the breakthrough happens.
Follow me for more insights on how to turn chaos into clarity at https://lnkd.in/g739fzj3
If you knew that the only way to reach your peak was to drown your current fears in a flood of intentional discomfort, what would you challenge yourself to do today?
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