How to Coach Your Team into the Learning Zone
Last summer when we took a family vacation at a kid-friendly resort, I looked around the lazy river, pool, and slides and noticed that every child was running around while every adult was either sitting or lying down. I told my brother-in-law that was the reason why the kids were in far better shape than the adults. As a result, in some micro way, the kids were growing while the adults were deteriorating. The kids were actively playing in a way that constantly pushed themselves to explore new limits, triggering growth in their bodies and brains. By contrast the adults were looking for their Comfort Zone.
Real growth and improvement happens, not in your Comfort Zone but in your Learning Zone. I have previously written about the Learning Zone here. This is about cultivating skills. The companies which learn and improve more rapidly improve their odds of surviving and thriving. If you want a company that engages in continual improvement, you need a team of continual learners. That means your team needs to enter the Learning Zone. This is an uncomfortable place to be. Going into the Learning Zone exposes you to disappointment, insecurity, pain, failure, and loss. It can contradict the goals you have established for happiness, the easy life, and safety.
After reading Daniel Coyle’s book “The Talent Code”, I started looking at the world in a new way. Where I used to see habits or preferences, I started seeing skills which were either developed or undeveloped. Many problems and challenges can be related back to skills. I used to be skilled at eating ice cream. When I was a vegetarian, I was skilled at avoiding red meat. I used to be unskilled at waking up at 5AM every day, but with practice over time I have grown quite skilled at awakening early.
We cannot un-practice skills we no longer want. We can only practice new skills we do want. This type of practice is called deliberate practice or deep practice. We only truly engage in deliberate practice when we enter our Learning Zone.
I recently completed my fifth New York City marathon. When I started running as an adult, I just pounded my feet on the pavement with no technique. That is like hitting my fists on piano keys and claiming I could play the piano. The proper training puts me in my Learning Zone. Over time my body has made changes I never imagined or expected. Since childhood I struggled with asthma, and once while travelling in southeast Asia, I was afraid to go to sleep because I thought might not wake up. I started running again as an adult, and now I have gone 11 years with no breathing issues. I have more energy. I feel more connected to my body. This concept has made me a healthier person, a better father, and a better manager.
What can you do as a manager to get your team into their Learning Zone? In short, you want to treat the Learning Zone as a skill they will develop. Share the Learning Zone model with them so they understand it, connect the theory to their real-world situations, and motivate them frequently over the long term.
What is the Learning Zone?
People need to know that the discomfort of growth and development is a good thing. Some part of our nature rejects what is uncomfortable and unknown because of the associated danger. We need some guidance on discerning good discomfort from bad discomfort.
The most powerful tool I have found in getting people into their Learning Zone was to show them what the Learning Zone is. What is the Learning Zone? The Learning Zone is, by definition, not the Comfort Zone. It is not easy. It requires your full attention and effort. It is a mental struggle. It can be an emotional struggle. It is sometimes even a physical struggle. Why? That struggle initiates the message in your brain that you need to improve in some way.
The Learning Zone is a sweet spot to hit somewhere after you leave your Comfort Zone and before you hit your Panic Zone. This will depend upon how much skill you have and how great the challenge is. As you develop the skill, you will require greater challenges to hit your Learning Zone.
How many words per minute can you type? That depends in large part upon how many hours of deliberate practice you put into developing the skill. That holds true for any skill. A signal for a task you have never done before might move through your brain at two miles per hour. The signal for a task you have practiced for years could travel through your brain at 200 miles per hour. I share this video with the team, so they understand this.
Now when I run, I focus on my technique and the subtle adjustments necessary to improve my technique. I do not read, watch television, or listen to music while I run because those distract me from improving my technique. I see runners in the park with headphones and at the gym watching television. Are they focusing full attention on improving their technique, or are they distracted?
This mental model is an easy-to-remember visual which helps people understand that being uncomfortable is a good thing because that is where they learn and grow the most. When I show them the model, I like to share some examples of times when I was in my Learning Zone and times when I was in my Panic Zone.
Then I like to talk about moving among the zones. The idea is to develop two skills. The first skill is that transition from Comfort Zone to Learning Zone. The feeling of moving from the Comfort Zone into the Learning Zone can feel quite wrong even though it is quite right. The second skill is the ability to move from the Panic Zone back into the Learning Zone. Again, I share examples of doing this. I was once coaching someone through an important negotiation and could tell they were in their Panic Zone. They took a break and went for a five-minute walk outside to pull back into the Learning Zone. I find vigorous exercise helps pull me back. In both cases, practice helps improve these skills over time.
Bridge the Gap
Once your team understands what the Learning Zone is and why it is important, you must help them build their ability to go into their Learning Zone. To do this you will help them bridge the gap between the concept and their own personal experiences. I start by asking questions: When were you in your Learning Zone? When were you in your Panic Zone? Where are you now? Asking this question on a regular basis helps get them thinking about it more and they get better at assessing their current state.
If they are bored, they are in their Comfort Zone, which means you, as their manager, are not providing enough challenges for them. This is important feedback for you. My daughter’s elementary school, like many now, gives books and reading assignments based upon the child’s reading level. This helps ensure they are reading at the appropriate level, like the way music, martial arts, and many other skills are taught. Unfortunately, math and science are not yet taught this way, but in time they most likely will be.
If your team says they are overwhelmed and stressed out, they are in their Panic Zone. Learning is far less likely to happen with intense levels of fear and other emotional distractions. The quick fix is to reduce the challenge level. The long-term solution is to increase the skill level. As I gained more responsibility in my career and life, the level of pressure, uncertainty, stakes, and disagreement grew. Sometimes an increase would feel like too much at first, but as I learned to deal with it and went on to the next level, what once felt unbearable later felt like a walk in the park.
In general, you want to frame the journey as a small continuation of what is already being done. I took some improvisation classes at The Upright Citizens Brigade where we had to practice “Yes and…” exercises. The idea was to continue the flow and direction that others were going. The idea is to build a joint momentum together. I once had a director who was expert at framing instructions as “Do more of that.” In the movie Stand and Deliver, real-life high-school math teacher Jaime Escalante told his drop-out prone students that math is in their blood because their Mayan ancestors came up with the concept of zero when the Greeks and Romans could not.
Motivate your Team
As much as possible, you want to get people excited about going into the Learning Zone. Motivation is less about giving long speeches or imposing incentives or consequences and more about connecting with other people, making meaningful contributions, and gratification when unexpected accomplishments are achieved.
People connect with other people through the power of story. Filling the mind with stories of examples from history of people who have achieved success is a reliable source of inspiration. When my four-year-old son watched Rocky, he pretty much spent the entire movie working out. As a manager, my tactic is to keep sharing one story after another week after week of people who went into their Learning Zone and built up their skills. I have shared hundreds of stories and dozens of videos with my team, such as this, this, this, this, and this.
People are motivated by the ability to make unique and meaningful contributions. If you had a unique skill that nobody cared about, you would have less motivation than you would if you discovered that skill was a huge benefit to a lot of people. When I am relieved to have somebody on the team who makes a meaningful contribution because they have some skill I do not have, I make sure to acknowledge their contribution, express appreciation, and remind them that I am relieved to have them because they are able to do something I cannot.
Gratification is the sense of accomplishment which is intensified by the difficulty in getting there. When times get challenging, I remind the team about where we are going and how great we will feel when we get there. I love to use the analogy of climbing Everest. The journey is miserable, but the payoff is great, in part because of all the suffering along the way. If the whole process were easy, the end would not bring the same sense of accomplishment.
When I was young, my parents taught me that when we are ready to stop learning, we are ready to move on toward dying. I recently heard that a long life is less dependent upon a low-stress life and more dependent upon how engaged we are. This is easy to believe because when we engage our efforts, our brains and bodies respond with some sort of growth. We used to believe that our capacity to learn diminished as we age, but that belief has been debunked. Our brains are extremely adaptive, and some parts of the brain will expand or contract depending upon what we are learning even as adults.
My parting message to you on this topic is that as a manager, you lead by example so step into your Learning Zone on a regular basis. Do it in new and unexpected ways. Share your genuine challenges with your team. This has the added benefit of expressing your vulnerability, which deepens your connections with others and makes for a stronger team.
