hands-on  (learning)

\ ˈhan(d)z-ˈȯn


adjective

1

: relating to, being, or providing direct practical experience in the operation or functioning of something

hands-on training

also : involving or allowing use of or touching with the hands

a hands-on museum display

2

: characterized by active personal involvement

a hands-on manager


In addition to doing therapy I conduct and design team building exercises. Say you’’ve asked me or are planning a hands-on event which will be free of talk-based learning because the audience has either been unresponsive to talking things through, or more likely has already done more talking “than you can shake a stick at?” Good leaders know intuitively about talk that sometimes “enough is enough.” Then they yearn to do something else.

I ‘m putting this out to you because groups can become as refractory to “talking things through” as individuals. Thus we plan teaching events now as “hands on” events, by which talk exists, but it’s not meant to take on or solve interpersonal situations, but rather to build a novel framework which leads to increasingly complex skills. This stands in contrast to my early-on misinterpretation of Smith’s  NADA dictum - no persuasion or psychotherapy. Smith didn’t mean no words or no talk, although he might have meant “no chit chat.” He did mean it as a form of the old axiom  - KISS - “Keep it simple - stupid!”. At this point I’ll ask you to  CLICK ON the 3 1/2 minute video of a team on a Ropes Course.

What a hands-on way to introduce hands on. In the video you’re almost there yourself at the Rope Course event, Spider’s Web. I had two of these on my property for Ropes Course team building, which is one of the most “hands on” forms of learning. Ropes Course events were designed to spur “outside the box” planning. Their appeal to me is that more than one person is learning simultaneously and we learn best among other people. In my usage there are three things one can learn here, either - 1.) if you’re naturally quiet - how to put your ideas forward,  or 2.) if you spend your life focused on others - to focus on yourself, or 3.) if you always need to be in control - to enjoys letting others be in control. This may be subtle, but my experience doing team building is that people often come to the debrief with such memories of their experience.


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