WHEN YOU DEMONSTRATE

A great learning tool and especially for adult learning is that of demonstrating what you are talking about. Actually seeing a person skilled in a pattern or model provides a visual example of what the pattern looks and sounds like in real-time. And for the great majority of us, being present when a real life demonstration occurs enriches our learning and gives us a template for what to do when we’re turned loose to go do the exercise.

I remember the very first time I was learning “anchoring” as a tool or technique. I had read about it in Frog into Princes (1978), and as a psychologist, I had read the original works of Pavlov and felt that I really knew about linking some stimulus to a thought or feeling state. When the trainer told us to go practice, I felt pretty confident. And I wanted to go first! But my confidence was not well grounded and very quickly it was deflated.