A DECORATED GRAND SLAM CAREER AND LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT AT WORK – MORE SIMILAR THAN YOU THINK!

Professional learning, designed to enhance employee performance must be two things – incremental and transformational. Let me explain, using the example of Ash Barty, Australian tennis champion.

During her time as a tennis player, even though Ash was one (clearly talented) woman playing an individual game, she worked with a team of people committed to the outcome of a victorious career. She had coaches (strategy, strength, conditioning, mindset), psychologists, doctors, chefs, physiotherapists, massage therapists, hitting partners… the list goes on. This team of multiple stakeholders shared a collective vision, a common understanding of the goals, and importantly, worked in collaboration.

So, having acknowledged this crucial support structure, back to Ash herself. As she was climbing her way to champion status, in training sessions and during matches, she was experiencing what Fullan (2014) calls ‘quick wins’. In this way, the serve she had been practising was gaining speed and expert placement. Her volleys were improving, she was moving faster to return balls and she was recovering quicker. All these wins can be termed incremental – because they were small things adding up to a bigger overall picture of success. Learning and development in a work context should be incremental in the same way. How are you and your employees experiencing quick wins, buoying you towards and beyond the organisation’s shared goals?

Ash Barty, at the same time, was being completely and permanently transformed. Once she learned a mindset of resilience, there was no going back. Once her habits for eating and hydration and training were embedded, she was forever changed. She has cemented herself as an outstanding role model for millions. If the individual points and even games were incremental wins for Ash, then winning Wimbledon, the French Open and Australian Open were transformational. Once a grand slam champion, she was transformed. But this transformation could not have occurred without the individual, incremental actions. What would transformational change mean for you and your employees?