1 of 3 — A lesson in learning how to teach
For me, learning new things on a regular basis is fun, fulfilling and deeply rewarding. I often find myself doing things that help scratch the itches of curiosity, discovery and being in a state of wonder.
I work as a designer in a large bank, so I’m not a teacher by trade.
One day, I was at my office desk staring at a blank Powerpoint presentation, when I realised that I was preparing something that most employees in a large business aren’t normally asked to do.
I was creating a one hour lesson plan in Powerpoint.
My topic? I had been asked to teach a classroom of business improvement peers practical techniques on how to tell stories visually.
In a nutshell, it meant teaching colleagues in my wider function the ability to craft convincing stories of their business and customer problems using visuals. The question I posed: “How might you use pictures and words to flesh out narratives that would help influence key business decisions?”
Delivering a lesson in that time and making sure that my audience walked away with some immediate skills initially felt like a challenging proposition.
I wasn’t sure how I would get an immediate feedback loop that showed them implementing these new skills in their individual contexts.
2 of 3 —The secret’s in the telling
An observation working in a corporate environment is that sometimes people gloss over theory or why certain things work the way they do.
It’s certainly a generalisation, but there’s something about being time-poor and a focus on execution and delivery cascading from above that drives certain types of regular conversations. Put your hand up if you experience business discussion revolving around he mechanical how/what/when and who does things rather than the why?
For my lesson on visual storytelling to work, I wanted everybody to understand the why.
And the reason for this is that I wanted to persuade people to understand why I was teaching a skills that seemingly ‘belonged’ to creative industries (film-making, graphic novels) rather than having a home in a banking context.
I wanted to show people that inspiration, ideas and better ways to do things aren’t always stamped with a label that says “for use in xxx industry only.”
So I was pleasantly surprised when my metaphors and similes drawn from photography and film-studies resonated on a very practical level with the attendees.
I presented theory for 25 minutes, and then I assigned an activity for everybody to put that theory into practice by framing a storyboard. It was encouraging to see everyone put pen to paper individually rather than talk among themselves.
The time spent deliberating and constructing the lesson was paying off. After the session, I was even fortunate to receive some kind feedback on the content and value of the hour spent listening to me talk and impart new forms of thinking.
3 of 3 — Giving others the fishing rod
Fisherman metaphors aside, this was one example of being called on to pass knowledge to others in a useful and sustainable way. Various other requests to teach others how to do run certain design-thinking activities or frame a problem, have started to accumulate as my reputation grows.
I look forward to these sessions, as they are something I find quite exciting and get a lot of enjoyment out of. Teaching requires a high degree of patience (and preparation) but it’s an empowering and validating experience to be able to up-skill others.
My partner is studying to become a high school teacher and her work experience with kids is one I sometimes envy because she can see her students progress through stages of beginner, intermediary and master over a period of time.
You don’t necessarily have that luxury of seeing participants in a corporate setting progress through that same learning curve. Personal learning and development in business tends to be much more amorphous and demanding of its application to justify cost. Regardless of these added pressures, the joy in giving others a more solid tool to fish with remains.
There’s a magic about learning and teaching which I think is a very important duality to harness. Knowing that my passion for new subjects and skills extends to wanting to share this passion with others is something I will continue to work on.
The avenue I am doing this (in addition to my regular work) is by being a part-time teacher.
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