One of my all-time favorite movie quotes comes from the MGM classic, "The Wizard of Oz". Near the very end , Wicked Witch dispensed with, the Great Oz exposed as a mere carnival con man, and Dorothy left almost bereft of hope but with three new friends, Glinda the Good Witch reappears. Assuring Dorothy that she's "always had the power to go back to Kansas" (or, to paraphrase, the power is on her feet), she puts aside the indignant Scarecrow's exclamation, "Why didn't you tell her?" with the words: "She wouldn't have believed me. She had to learn it for herself."
How often I have been reminded of these words. I have learned it for myself after all the lesser and greater Oz journeys I have taken, when I realize that in the end I learned not from being told but from experience, trial and error (assuming a wizard can fix your situation is arguably an error on Dorothy's part), and sharing the road with others.I try to keep it before me (like a Good Witch bubble) when I am trying to lead others to new insights. I am called upon to do this often, as I am by profession an educator.
My target learners, however, are not mere munchkins, easily taken in by smoke and mirrors, but experienced adults. They are professionals and skilled laborers who usually have more experience with their particular work skills than I do, and who should rightly have little patience with someone just there to dazzle them with the latest trick or pronouncement. Whatever I may be charged with telling them, whether the use of a new computer application or a not-so-new but underpracticed method of leading their co-workers, they will have to learn for themselves.
How can I do this? How can I lay out their own yellow brick road, hovering bubble-like in the background, ensuring that they will have the support of others along the way, intervening only when absolutely necessary, while still providing a journey worth remembering? Like Glinda, I can point the way, provide a few simple directions ("Follow the Yellow Brick Road"), and set up reinforcements as needed.
The specifics are as variable as the knowledge and skill required at the end of the journey. Usually I do not have to guide my learners home from a dreamworld to reality, although there have been times and individual learners where that may have been needed.Usually, it just requires creating some scenarios where the basic message can be applied and practiced. Having others on the journey provides a format to test decisionmaking: go left, or go right? pick up apples, or let them come to you? To me, the challenge and the fun is laying out their yellow brick road, knowing they can stray off the path and being as prepared as I can be for that. If I lay out the path right, they will be able to encounter both what works and what doesn't, experience success and sometimes failure, but always be able to find a way out. There are challenges too, but never more than they can collectively handle, and there may also be false hopes that need to be addressed. Every work situation has both its wicked witches to be confronted, and its humbugs to be exposed.
Finally, it is important to debrief a lesson at the end, both for the individual and the others who shared the journey. "So what have you learned, Dorothy?" asks the Scarecrow, fortunately still open to asking questions even after the receipt of a diploma. And this is where, movie fans, you should be surprised, and I hope encouraged by the answer given. Dorothy's answer doesn't reference flying monkeys, talking trees, or even wicked witches, but instead returns to experience she had from the very beginning that is newly appreciated. "It wasn't enough to want to see Uncle Henry and Aunty Em again. And ...that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't go looking any further than my own backyard, because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with." Dorothy, despite the little girl dress of our Judy Garland memories, was here the true adult learner, arriving at her conclusions both from her prior and experience and interpretation of a new experience.
It is only then that my learner can use the new information or technology (ruby slippers) to go where she wants to go. And even take Toto too.
