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The Problem

When I asked my wife recently whether she had become tired of being a midwife after 34 years, she said it was more physically demanding now that she was older, but that she was comfortable doing what she knew well and was good at.

It got me thinking about comfort zones and the difficulty I experienced encouraging my TAFE teaching team to take on 'different' subjects from those they had been teaching year in and year out. ('But, I've always just taught bookkeeping and typing') They had all the resources prepared, knew the topics off by rote and their daily grind was much easier than having to learn new content and prepare new resources.

I guaranteed them a three month lead-in period which they reluctantly agreed to; I'd tell them three months in advance what new subjects they would be teaching in the new semester. They had ample time to prepare without feeling pressured.

Guess what happened? Everyone who took on the new subjects agreed that they had been an enjoyable, refreshing change.

The rest of us are no different from midwives or anyone else when we get into a comfort zone and stay there. Edward De Bono spoke of the lack of progress among medical practitioners that comes from using only tried and tested methods to cure ills ... 'If you try nothing new, you may not find something better', he said. He's right. He's right for doctors and right for all of us (as De Bono usually is).

Somewhere there could be a better way of doing things, but we'll never discover it if we don't design, test, evaluate, and retest occasionally and get out of our comfort zone.

The Solution

Pick something you do every day as a routine. If you are a teacher or trainer, analyse the way you have been presenting sessions and the psychological methods you are using. If you are a manager, think about how you problem solve.

Next, think about other approaches you could use that will get you out of your comfort zone and 'stretch' your imagination and intellect in a different direction or to a higher level.

Think about the different outcomes you might expect from a different way of doing things. Jot the new approaches in a small action plan: 'Next time I ... I'll do it this way, Step One:, Step Two etc'

Give the new approach a test run and evaluate it. Was it better than the old way? How did you feel using a different approach? Was it refreshing? Enlightening? Did it work better?

If the evaluation proves negative, do what we should always do; back to the drawing board to redesign and retest.

Keep trying until you find something that works better. And remember the words of Thomas Alva Edison who, when asked what he thought having failed for the thousandth time to make a light bulb work, said, 'I've discovered another way it won't work.'

The rest is history. You can make history too and rejuvenate your career in the process.

Learn more about this author, Robin Henry.
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