2020: Notes 22 & 23 - "Sticky" Training

If you've been working as long as I have, you've probably attended a lot of training sessions and workshops. Do you remember what you learned in them? Do you still apply that learning? Again, if you're like me, the answer when you think back to most of those trainings is no.

There are two programs I attended that I have been thinking about a lot, because what I learned in them still applies and I leverage the information regularly. When learning lasts, it's called "sticky", in a good way.

One was a program based on improv techniques. A key example of this is "yes, and", where you always build on what the person before you said. In that way, you avoid saying "yes, but", which is essentially a polite way of saying "no". This is really important when it comes to creating an inclusive environment at work, because it avoids making people feel that their ideas aren't valued or that diverse opinions don't matter.

The other program was based in psychology and focused on helping people notice and stop leaning into mental distortions that all of us are prone to. An example is all or nothing thinking -- seeing things as black and white extremes such as perfect or awful. The training helped me learn how to spot this and other common distortions in my own thinking, and more importantly how to stop, pause and rethink. I use the techniques from the program for myself and also for others.

I am grateful to the people who made these programs so powerful, and for including me in these classes. Every time I apply something I learned there, I appreciate the value of the sessions.