Who have been the people you have admired – your positive models? What did you learn from these people? How did you integrate the learning? How did you pass on the knowledge to other people? Let’s explore how you can continue to do this in your life and work.
1) You can learn from positive models.
You may start by asking questions like:
* What do I want to learn?
* Looking around the world, who has delivered success in this field? Where can I learn about such people? What did they do right to achieve success?
* How can I follow these paths in my own way?
During the 60s and 70s, for example, I scoured the libraries, bookshops and magazines for people who had done pioneering work on encouragement. I still vividly remember opening Abraham Maslow’s book Towards A Psychology of Being. His pyramid of human needs provided several breakthroughs. First, it outlined an inspiring approach to human development. Second, it provided pathways to other thinkers. Third, it taught me how I learn, which is by seeing or creating visual models.
Maslow’s work led to studying other pioneers, such as Carl Rogers and Virginia Satir, plus attending workshops with people like Viktor Frankl, Sydney Jourard and William Glasser. Moving on to working in therapeutic communities, I visited places like the Henderson Hospital, Finchden Manor and Peper Harow.
Try tackling the exercise on this theme. Looking to the future, settle on a specific topic you would like to learn about. Who are the people who have done fine work in this field? Where can you learn about such people or projects? How can you clarify what they did right to achieve success? Try completing the following sentences.
2) You can integrate the learning from positive models.
“Before you go to see somebody you admire, write down all the questions you want to ask,” advised one of my teachers. “That sounds obvious: but some ‘students’ say they ‘just want to have a conversation’ with a person. That can be okay: but it is good if you prepare properly.”
So that is what I did when visiting David Wills, a pioneer in child care. The journey was complicated, catching trains and then a slow bus to an isolated village. But it provided time to review my top questions. These were:
“How can we create those moments of a sense of wonder for young people? How can we help them to learn during those moments? How can we help them to use this learning and continue to have a sense of wonder?”
The bus wheeled into the village and I found David’s house. He was kind, made tea and asked what I wanted to discuss. Remembering my notes, I outlined what I wanted to ask. “Interesting questions,” said David. “Shall I explain how I have explored these during my work?” Two hours later I had pages of notes to study as the bus made its way back to the nearest town.
You will learn from models in your own way. Sometimes this may follow the learning process of inspiration, implementation and integration. Great educators, for example, create an inspiring environment, provide implementation tools that work and enable people to integrate the learning in their own way. People take away practical tools they can use in their lives and work.
Looking at the models you want study, try completing the following sentence.
3) You can pass on the learning from the positive models.
Great workers study success. They study what works, simplify what works and share what works. They then pass on this knowledge in a way that people can use in their own lives and work.
“To teach is to learn twice,” wrote the French philosopher, Joseph Joubert. Encouragers follow a similar path. Generous-hearted, they feel enriched by sharing what they have learned. They also simply want to help others to succeed.
“Children need models rather than critics,” wrote Joubert. Certainly we all learn in different ways, such as watching, listening, reading, doing and reflecting. One of the most powerful methods is studying good models. They add more options to our repertoire and, as a result, more freedom to shape our lives. We can then pass on this knowledge to future generations.
Try tackling the exercise on this theme. First, describe the specific things you can do to pass on the knowledge you learn from positive models. Second, describe the benefits of passing on this knowledge. Try completing the following sentences.
Posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 4:29 pm in Sharing knowledge, The Strengths Blog | RSS feed
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