Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.
Updated, February 2010
If you copy and paste this saying into Google you’ll get 3520 hits attributing the saying either to Aristotle, Confucius or some native American wizard. Yet it is just as true today as it was hundreds of years ago. Perhaps it’s even more true today. We live in a world where information abounds and where people from diverse backgrounds are more in contact with each other than ever before. This post-modern world is one where traditional views are challenged and authoritive statements are doubted.
Why should I believe you? Who says you are right? My Japanese friend says they’ve been doing it differently for centuries and he believes they are right. But they look wrong to me.
It is in a world like this one where a social constructivist approach becomes critical. An approach where people develop their own meaning from experiences and from interacting with each other. Using experiences. Based on relationships.
This is one of the keys to TomorrowToday’s approach to helping our clients get more out of their people – their leaders, staff and customers. We agree with Ron Heifetz, legendary leadership guru at Harvard, that “leadership can be taught” and that a key to doing so is to help people to become “adaptive” in their approach to the world.
In 2010, we will be launching an exciting new initiative aimed at integrating adaptive intelligence with leadership and strategy development and implementation in organisations. You will be able to find out more about this from March 2010 at http://www.strategicleadershipintelligence.com.
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to developing these capabilities. But the path is certain, and the benefits well worth the effort.
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