Dateline Mendenhall PA: It was death-by-powerpoint… Heads cranked back over the tops of chairs, mouths open, eyes rolled back… We were listening to John Ryan from the Center for Creative Leadership lecture about transferring knowledge from conceptual learning to effective application in achieving results.
And then something miraculous happened: he paused suddenly, as if at a loss for words. A few snorts and coughs as all of us detected that maybe the talk was over and it was time to clap. (Okay – you get that I am exaggerating, right? Ryan's actually a very good speaker.)
Then he started:
“When I was a kid learning how to fly jets in the Navy, to earn your wings you had to be able to land on an aircraft carrier… Now, we started learning how to fly, conceptually, in a classroom – physics, equations - but almost daily we were up in those jets applying what we learned with an instructor in the back.”
He told us a story of getting the call to scramble his squadron for their first-ever aircraft carrier landing… it was riveting – we were all sitting up, alert, leaning forward. We heard about the postage stamp they called a 'ship' at 10,000 feet. He told about the fear he felt -- and about one of the pilots who, unable to muster the courage, bugged back to base and eventually became a very successful commander… of a submarine.
Ryan finished his story with, “You know, I don’t know why I even told that story...” which is a testimony to Polanyi’s Personal Knowledge. Then he drifted back to the slide clicker and more blah-blah-blah. I don’t recall what he said before the story, or after – but I’ll never forget that story.
Later that evening in the Delaware countryside some friends and I were talking over dinner about the experience. Roy said, “there’s only one speech I have ever really remembered – and it was because the guy told a story…”
It was at Harvey Mudd College and Douglas Adams was scheduled to speak at the commencement – but he died suddenly and they’d recruited at the last minute an alum who was a successful entrepreneur in the aircraft safety industry. If I recall Roy’s retelling, the guy said something like this:
“Most of the time when a small plane crashes, it turns out that the pilot had available a large, safe landing area. This used to drive us crazy – why all the crashes when there was usually a safe landing area nearby? After years of research and investigation, we now think we know...’”
“When a pilot runs into trouble, he immediate looks for a safe landing spot, and he almost always finds one – typically a nice open field. Now... somewhere in that field there’s usually a tree. As the pilot approaches the field he starts telling himself, ‘don’t hit the tree… don’t hit the tree… don’t hit the’ – and BAM! – he hits the tree.”
“This is so common we have a term in the industry for it – we call it ‘Negative Target Fixation.’ And I want to leave you with this metaphor: as you get ready to go out there and find your way in the world, you’re going to find lots and lots of opportunities – big open fields of opportunities. And yes, there will be some scary risks that stick up like trees in those fields. Don’t think about the trees. Focus your attention on hitting the open field.”
What a memorable lesson – mainly because it’s told in the form of a story. To emphasize the point, a friend from South Africa – Lesedi – saw us lively bantering and came over to visit. He sat down with a big smile and said, “what are you talking about that is so interesting?”
Roy said, “It’s this really neat idea – Negative Target Fixation… you know, where you…”
Lesedi’s body language immediately morphed into, “oh no! – how can I extract myself gracefully and find an interesting table?”
The rest of us laughed and cut Roy off with, “No Roy! Tell the story!!”
So he did.
And Lesedi loved it.
the end.
Posted by: david | 22 October 2008 at 08:26 AM