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206 Power Up Your Mind

Mike Leibling, director of Trainset, has created a good way of
overcoming this barrier. He calls it feedforward. It is an excellent
technique for reflecting in a group and it has very powerful and
immediate outcomes.
This how it works. Each person first identifies a problem,
something they would like to learn to do more effectively. The per-
son with the problem becomes the client and articulates the brief
for their problem.
Here is an example from my own experience. An experienced
speaker tells the group that he wants to include jokes in his presen-
tations, but can never remember the punchline or the story if it is
a complex joke. He asks for help.
Members of the group take it in turns to offer him advice,
starting with “Maybe…” or “Perhaps…” The individual is only
allowed to say “Thank you” after each suggestion when about two
minutes have gone by. Advice might include:

Maybe you could write it down.
Perhaps you could have a mental rehearsal of the joke.
Maybe you could imagine the joke as a series of images so you were
clearer about its structure.
Perhaps you could slow your delivery down.
Maybe you could use cartoons instead.
Perhaps you could try looking at people in your audience more
directly rather than looking up in the air as you struggle to remem-
ber the joke.

As you may have guessed, the person asking for advice in this case
was me. I was offered many more suggestions than the ones I have
listed here, but the last one on the list has turned out to be just
what I needed.
In this example, I was able to be very specific about my need.
But it might be that you want to be more general in framing the
“brief” you give as the client.

Think of an area of your own life or learning that you would like help with and try this
technique out with a group of colleagues or friends.