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The
authors explain in an extended passage from the opening pages of
"Lessons
from
the Art of Juggling" why juggling works best:
Any
learning experience provides a valuable opportunity to revisit
fundamental principles
of growth and change...
But juggling
offers something special. We chose juggling as the
focus of our book because learning anything involves keeping a number
of things "up in the air" at the same time, because
"dropping the balls" provides an ideal metaphor for
gracefully coping with mistakes, which we consider to be
one of life's most important abilities. Juggling also promotes a
sense of inner quiet
in the
midst
of activity, a special experience of
mind and body in harmony. And juggling's essential light-heartedness
encourages easy access to the fundamental human learning modality of
play.
Juggling
is easy
to learn and offers
equal opportunity to both genders and to people of
all
ages. You can do it on your own or with others, and
all you need to begin with is more balls than hands.
Progress in juggling is easy to measure,
and you can continue improving throughout your life.
Moreover,
juggling echoes a universal
movement; from the dance of electrons around the nucleus of an atom
and the arc of a
leaf lifted by wind, to the swirling patterns of galaxies in an
ever-expanding universe... In a simple, immediate way, the art
of juggling aligns us with this essential universal rhythm, echoing a
pattern that links us with all creation and resonates
with our deepest selves.
Of
course, not every participant learns to juggle three balls during the
course of the seminar. That's
not the point. "What I tell people is that the main point is not
learning how to juggle, but learning how to learn," Gelb said.
Buzan added, "Their responsibility is not to avoid dropping,
but to learn from the drop."
They
insist that participants pretend for
an hour that they're interested in learning to juggle so they can
"learn better how to learn." Their goal for the hour is
"to learn how to drop three with panache." The seminar
reframes attitudes toward mistakes so that participants don't feel
stress from them, but see them as part of the learning process. They
believe that, in business and life in general, success comes from
eliminating the fear of failure, that the greatest block to creativity
and productivity and wealth generation is the fear of failure. They
point to Thomas Watson, who told IBM employees that to double their rate
of success, they would have to quadruple their rate of failure.
To
help overcome the fear of failure, seminar participants pair up, and one
person is assigned simply to pick up the other person's drops. Another
lesson is that quality results demand a quality process, so that it does
no good to try to catch the ball until you work on learning to properly
throw the ball.
They
link the juggling lesson directly to the concerns of the company by
asking clients how they could apply this process in the workplace.
Hopefully, the clients realize that by creating a work atmosphere of
openness, playfulness and trust, employees will be willing to take the
risks that lead to innovation, progress and profit. Gelb and Buzan make
that point in their book in a quote from the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus: "We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the
seriousness of the child at play."
In
1982 Gelb moved back to the States and formed High Performance Learning,
a company under whose auspices he teaches
for about 100 days a year.
His
clients include many Fortune 500 companies, as reflected in this
schedule from a recent typical week: Tuesday in Wilington, Del., to work
with Du Pont, a Wednesday morning interview in New York for a national
cable TV show, Wednesday afternoon work with his publisher, Thursday
working with the CEO of a billion-dollar construction company based in
New York City, and a Friday seminar for Merck in Chicago.
He
also spends a great deal of time writing, and has written
"Thinking for a Change," "Body Learning: An Introduction
to the Alexander Technique" and "Present
Yourself." He
is writing another book, "Thinking for a Change," which will
be published next year to explain the essential skills of creative
thinking. He also created an audio cassette program, "Mind Mapping:
How to Liberate Your Natural Genius," that is produced by
Nightengale-Conant.
He
and Buzan now conduct separate individual business enterprises, but also
still do many joint presentations, such as "The Mind and Body
Seminar." Buzan is also a writer, and author of "Use Both
Sides of Your Brain,"
which sold two million copies worldwide. His work entitled, "The
Mind Map Book: Radiant Thinking," was named book of the year by the
BBC, and he has
just issued "Buzan's Book of Genius."
They
both apply their learning principles personally. For the past
seven years Gelb has studied the martial art of akido, and is working on
his third degree black belt. Other current pursuits include swimming,
history, the game of Go and speaking Spanish. Buzan is an expert rower,
and lives beside the River Thames near Henley, England.
"I
have applied all the principals I teach to running my own
business," Gelb said. "That's why the business has been so
successful. They're not my principles, they're universal. One of those
principles I've tried to live by is to get paid for doing what I love
most. For me work is fun, and the fact that I get paid handsomely to do
what I love most is an incredible blessing."
Though
Gelb attended the 1975 IJA festival in Youngstown, Ohio, he had not been
to another one until he and Buzan came to last summer's festival in
Burlington. They gave a workshop about their seminars, conducted a book
signing in downtown Burlington, and had a ball meeting other jugglers
who were also teachers. "A lot of people told us that our work in
establishment corporate America validated what they were doing in their
own spheres," Gelb said. "We're excited about bringing some
sort of coherence to various people around the world who would like to
collaborate on these opportunities."
One
of the first people to buy a book at their downtown signing was
newly-crowned IJA champion Tony Duncan. "He said he wanted to see
if there was anything in it that could help him get better," Gelb
recalled.
That
illustrates a point that he likes to make about his techniques. They
aren't only beneficial to beginners, but can help even champions
improve. "The Japanese say that when you've achieved 95 percent of
your journey, you're halfway there," Gelb said. "Many of the
people we teach in our seminars are already very good at what they do,
but champions don't rest
on their laurels." |
