On the first day of a workshop, an accomplished client delivered an effective presentation with verve and style.\u00a0 On the second day, I asked him to reorganize his talk to make it more customer-centric<\/a>, a challenge he embraced with enthusiasm.\u00a0 However, when he delivered it, he was tentative and less effective.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

The simple answer is that the new is hard.\u00a0 Learning to play a musical instrument is hard, as is hitting a golf ball, or hitting a golf ball with a new grip, or getting used to being alone when you\u2019ve been accustomed to being with people, or being with people when you\u2019ve been flying solo for a while.<\/p>\n

This is odd when you consider all the recent neuroscience demonstrating the plasticity of the brain.\u00a0 The research suggests that our gray matter can rearrange itself quite readily.\u00a0 Patients with damaged areas of the brain can, in some cases, recover lost abilities because another part of the brain steps in to lend a hand.<\/p>\n

I assume the brain responds to demands placed on it.\u00a0 Maybe not right away.\u00a0 You have to keep knocking on the brain\u2019s door before it will wake up and pay attention.\u00a0 But when it does, it gets busy figuring out how to meet your request, and puts together the infrastructure that will allow you to do what you\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

The same is true of muscles.\u00a0 You put consistent demands on them, and they get stronger, more efficient.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy, but if you push yourself through your own resistance, they respond to the challenge.<\/p>\n

I had to leave my client while he was still in a state of uncertainty, frustration, and diminished capacity.\u00a0\u00a0 He was calling on other parts of his brain, and it wasn\u2019t leaping out of bed and rushing to his rescue.\u00a0 He was in pain.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the $64,000 question:\u00a0 will he continue to try the new approach to his presentation, which I am certain will raise the level of his game?\u00a0\u00a0 Or will he give up, and drop back to his default operating system?<\/p>\n

The new is hard.\u00a0 If he\u2019s like most of us, he will take the path of least resistance and stick with the tried and true.\u00a0 If he\u2019s got an engine in him, he will drive himself into his pain and frustration, and come out on the other side with a sense of self-mastery and a new skill.\u00a0\u00a0 He will have made the new familiar, and with the awareness that he is able to persist, he will continue to grow.<\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s my hope.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to send him this post to light a fire in him.<\/p>\n

\n<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the first day of a workshop, an accomplished client delivered an effective presentation with verve and style.\u00a0 On the second day, I asked him to reorganize his talk to make it more customer-centric, a challenge he embraced with enthusiasm.\u00a0 However, when he delivered it, he was tentative and less effective.\u00a0 Why? The simple answer… Read More »The New is hard<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[603,18,297,291,88,277,337,905,30,58],"yoast_head":"\n