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Filled with Self Doubt? Try Shouting It Out!

When learning new skills we can be our own worst enemy. In this blog, I'll focus on Source 2, Personal Ability, and share a single message about learning new skills: "Sometimes you have to get crazy!"

A lot of the vital behaviors we ask people to master are difficult if not downright intimidating. And, when you're intimidated, you're not in a good space for learning.

When I was in graduate school, I took an acting class to learn how a really fine acting coach works with people. My advisor, Albert Bandura, told me about a fascinating woman who was an acting coach on Broadway, and was planning to teach an acting class the coming spring. So, I signed up.

I can't recall her name, but she was a force of nature—a warm and wonderful woman in her mid 60's with a strong Viennese accent. After a couple of weeks, I asked her to lunch and shared my goals with her. I told her about my work with managers. At that time, my plan was to have them practice new skills by role-playing them in front of the class while I videotaped them. The idea was to give them tons of feedback from me, the class, and the videotape.

My professor put down her drink and with serious passion exclaimed, "We would never do that, even with professional actors on Broadway!" She went on, "Let me see if I've got this right. You're going to ask them to practice doing their job in front of their boss and their peers, and you think they will feel safe enough to learn from this?"

That semester I learned the power of play. She was a master at putting people at ease, at creating a zone of safety and experimentation. One of her favorite techniques was to make it crazy. She'd have us shout out or whine our lines. Can you imagine Hamlet's soliloquy done in whine? How about in a strong Southern or Viennese accent?

In her class everything was a game, and it worked. Many of us were overly critical, insecure library jockeys. But we all looked forward to our time with her. She enabled us to reach well beyond our comfort zones because we knew it was all for fun.

I recalled these memories this week after reading about Li Yang's Crazy English in a New Yorker article by Evan Osnos. The Chinese are making a huge push to learn to speak and read English. Some expect there will soon be more English speakers in China than in the US. But learning a language is tough. In fact, most speakers never overcome their bad accents, and language specialists put the blame on self censorship. We don't want to look foolish by making those ridiculous new sounds—so we never take the leap into the new language.

Li Yang has started a movement within China based on "going crazy" with English. Watch a bit of one of his rallies on YouTube. He uses mass rallies where everybody shouts at the top of their lungs. He's found the key to making language instruction fun. Of course, he also uses many of the same principles Ethna Reid (see Influencer page 31) and K. Anders Ericsson (see Influencer page 118) taught us about classroom instruction and deliberate practice. But what jumps out of the article is the sheer fun his students are having.

What kinds of skills are you working on right now? Is there a way to inject some extra fun, to shout it out, or to go crazy? Maybe that's the secret ingredient that's been missing.

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Posted by David Maxfield on April 29, 2008 1:44:00 PM MDT #


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Re: Filled with Self Doubt? Try Shouting It Out!

Comment from Anonymous on April 30, 2008 8:25:30 AM MDT #
Your professor nailed the problem with role playing.  If we don't do it, people rarely learn the new communication skills they need to build healthy relationships.  But asking them to practice new skills in front of their boss and their peers does not create the safe environment they need to effectively learn the skills.

How, how, how do we make it safe?  I've been teaching conflict resolution for several years now.  People agree with the concepts, but the missing piece is giving them practice in a safe environment.   I agree we need to make it more like play.  You gave some hints on how to do this.  I'd love to hear from more.
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Re: Filled with Self Doubt? Try Shouting It Out!

Comment from Anonymous on April 30, 2008 10:05:06 AM MDT #
<div>Reading your article entitled "Filled with Self-Doubt? Try Shouting it Out" brought back memories of homeschooling my four children. We were working on a very long, repetitive, tedious unit on Vikings that was a required assignment from our online public elementary school. My 9-yr-old soon hated the assignment and I could feel his frustration mount. </div> <div> </div> <div>He refused to do it if left unsupervised, so I sat at the computer with him and we started reading the unit in heavily accented "Wiking". (e.g. "De Wikings wewr wewwy tewibow; fiewcewy pwundewing and piwidging..) </div> <div> </div> <div>My son (who has overcome a severe speech disorder) thought that seeing me speak this way was hilarious and what could have been a fight, flew by. We kept looking for more things to read in "Wiking". Sometimes I dust off my "Wiking" accent when encouraging my children to do chores or other times when they seem to be getting defensive or stressed. </div>
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Re: Filled with Self Doubt? Try Shouting It Out!

Comment from DLL on April 30, 2008 12:13:05 PM MDT #
Hi,
As an amateur actor, I have read a few acting books.  I think you might have take a class with Ute Hagen- it sure sounds like her  and her work!

Since I live in SF- I am inclined to accept your invitation to the Stanford d.school event. I also teach Influence and am affiliated with the b.school.
Cheers,
DLL
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Re: Filled with Self Doubt? Try Shouting It Out!

Comment from Chris on May 12, 2008 3:31:39 PM MDT #

Interesting post.  You hit on something that I wrote about in a post for the martial arts school that I attend as a student.  I was encouraging other adults to try the XMA class in addition to their traditional karate classes, because it keeps you from taking yourself too seriously.  You are doing cartwheels, front rolls, spinning kicks and things that are FUN.  Many of the adult students stick to the traditional classes and stress out so much over form and technique that they psyche themselves out, thinking that they "can't" do it. 

Your idea worked perfectly for me!  Whenever I feel I am bogging down in training, I get out there and run around with the youngsters in XMA doing crazy stunts that I never thought I'd be doing at 40.  It's amazing how much better my form and attitude are when I return to the next traditional class after that!

 


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