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| Photo credit - pexels-lisa-fotios-1471991 |
This picture nearly perfectly describes me in my comfort zone.
What's discomforting to me? A few things. Top of the list (maybe near the top) would be dancing.
Now, I love music, and can find the rhythm of the song and can tap or sway reasonably well to it. Music, like dancing, is a kinesthetic experience. But for me, Dancing involves asking various parts of my body to do things in a particular sequence and coordination to music, at which it seems to rebel since my childhood. So I have developed some expertise in avoiding dance during parties over the years.
Recently I was asked along with a colleague, Varsha Chitnis, to co-facilitate the morning Plenary session on Day 2 of the IAF Asia Conference of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) at Hyderabad along with a super facilitator from Japan, Mr. Hideyuki Yoshioka. We were allotted 45 minutes and asked to energize the group (of only 190 delegates of different ages) and connect it to the previous day's learnings.
During our initial zoom discussions, we brainstormed as to how this session could be energetic and fun. Among the various ideas we discussed was how to include music into the session. Hideyuki-san proposed that we incorporate Zumba into the session. With further discussion, the design took shape to combine learning and the Zumba dance. It was fortunate for us that Hideyuki-san was a Certified Zumba Instructor. While we became very excited about the design, my fear of dancing came to the fore. I would have gladly taken a back seat rather than be dancing on stage.
As we practiced our moves over Zoom with guidance from Hideyuki-san (he's a certified Zumba Instructor), my discomfort grew stronger. During a practice session, I spoke about my discomfort with dancing and how I was concerned that I might make huge errors and bring down the team. Both of them kindly told me that I have to do this, and not to worry too much. They encouraged me to keep trying and gave me courage to make mistakes and move ahead.
The result:
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| Us showing the way |
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| Delegates practicing their dance steps |
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| Delegates getting into the Zumba groove |
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| After our session. |
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| With Varsha Chitnis and Hideyuki-san |
There was complete enthusiastic participation from the delegates, which we felt enabled us to go beyond our own potential. We felt the energy in the room shift higher as they put on their moves to the music. I know that my co-facilitators danced better than me.
The feedback we got was on the lines of "Best session so far at the conference", "we really enjoyed the session", "we loved it", "Awesome". A personal feedback I got from a couple of people was that it was inspiring to see my courage in dancing on stage, despite my errors.
After the conference, I reflected on what could have made me do something that wasn't really me, yet get accepted and appreciated by the delegates. Here's what I came up with:
- I acknowledged my discomfort with dancing to myself.
- I voiced it with my co-facilitators
- My co-facilitators encouraged me to keep trying and not dwell on mistakes.
- Because of their immense and kind support, I was able to engage my curiosity, use my growth mindset, to focus my learning instead of my fears, and practice the steps.
- Practice is important - regular deliberate practice even more so. Hideyuki-san made a video of us during a practice session which he shared with us.
I'm extremely grateful to IAF for the opportunity to do this session, and my co-facilitators Hideyuki Yoshioka and Varsha Chitnis for believing in me and being with me as I stretched outside of my comfort zone.
Let me also add that the conference was an awesome experience overall. It was three days of fun and learning at Hyderabad for which I am thankful to all the facilitators and the delegates.
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