Resistance

This week I was doing part of an assessment day with a number of professionals. When I say professionals I need you to interpret this in such a way that you picture people at the top of their profession, who have studied and trained and grafted to be experts in a difficult and complex field. These people utterly inspire me with the sheer weight of what they know that I don’t. I can’t be any more specific than that because I have integrity and some of the people we work with don’t need it broadcast that we work with them.

To get back on topic, my part in the assessment day is to role play a challenging situation with these professionals to assess how well they cope with it. They’re given a scenario and essentially after some preparation they play it out with me acting opposite them. This is one of a number of tasks they have to do to see how well they’re suited to the organisation.

The first few hours had progressed smoothly until the final participant of the morning walked through the door. Within the first couple of minutes it was very clear that his intention was to catch me out by asking awkward questions as oppose to assuming the role dictated by the scenario. Despite the inner shock of his almost threatening behaviour I maintained role and he had no alternative but to go along with me, after a while I sensed him relax and contempt was replaced by mild interest and a hint of humour.

I’ve been reflecting on this since the assessment day and one of the main things it highlights is the way people can make their mind up about a task, a challenge or an educational opportunity without taking the time to discover what it offers them. The risk we take when we write such opportunity off can have a serious impact on our development and our prospects. Perhaps what students (using the term in its widest sense) should learn before they learn anything else is to be open to the opportunities afforded to them in any circumstance. To assume that there is always something to be gained from a learning experience – formal or informal. Apart from anything else it’s the only way that education/learning/professional development can be in the least bit enjoyable.

Far too frequently when teaching or facilitating, my first challenge is to counter resistance from groups or individuals before I have any hope of actually delivering the material I’ve been commissioned to deliver. This equates to so much energy taken up in convincing people that there might be something of value in what they’re about to take part in. For some of my participants this attitude is understandable, failed by mainstream education, damaged by life’s experience, struggling with difficult circumstances. However I naively hadn’t expected to meet it with someone so successful, someone who had engaged in so much learning. Unfortunately for them, in the same way as it does for the less fortunate learners of this world, this resistance had a negative impact on the way they were perceived, on their own sense of fulfilment and consequently on their future opportunities.

This makes my next challenge as a facilitator very obvious, to make dealing with resistance a priority. I need to encourage openness so that the most locked up individual can access the riches to be found in embracing learning opportunities. These are all things that I subconsciously aim to do but from now on they become a primary concern, regardless of the individual or group I’m working with.