Conquering Fear
My team last year was known for jumping in to new situations, technologies, pedagogical approaches and management strategies regarding time and productivity. While we jumped, we did not always leap without fear.
Fear was there, lurking in the corner, or not uncommonly, in the middle of the table we shared. Each individual was attended by his or her own unique amalgam of fears, preying on insecurities and anxieties as only a foe who knows its opponent’s weaknesses can do.
Looking back at the strides we made individually — and as a team — developing innovative approaches to hybrid curriculum, online courses, inter-departmental collaboration, and student-centered pedagogy, what was the secret to overcoming fear and pushing through to act and create? In reflection, I see four principles that guided us:
Build respect for the diversity of perspective and confidence in teammates by creating “same page” opportunities regularly.
We routinely ended the day with the FIND debrief protocol, which allowed the team to hear each other share facts and details, even mundane “facts,” that they observed during the day.
Name your emotions.
Letting your teammates know how you feel, not just in a meltdown or crisis, prepared and tuned the team to sense when additional time or emotional support was needed for one of the team members. Knowing each other at a deep level, allowed us to push each other further, faster, while supporting each other sufficiently.
Give space for — and expect — learning every day.
Ask each other “what did you learn today?” and enjoy learning about breakthroughs across the team.
Step into and commit to action.
The FIND debrief protocol ends with the invitation to finish the sentence frame “Because of our time together today, I will….” By naming our next actions, we hold each other accountable for action.
These four steps helped us conquer fear and move into innovative spaces with efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness.
One way to summarize this approach to move past fear is to state that effective teams need these four experiences:
- Regular practice observing and describing the world around us.
- The invitation to talk about emotions.
- A reflective space to discuss new learning.
- A call to identify next actions.
Try these steps (use the FIND debrief protocol as a jump start — I use it every chance I get with people) and help your team play through fear!
