It’s clear now that I should have let go of the leash. I was walking a friend’s dog. She’s a lovely girl, a Blue Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog) whose greatest pleasures are herding people and chasing squirrels. I have walked her from time to time during recent years and, thanks to her owner’s efforts and, probably, to her advancing age, she and I can walk down a street together at the same pace without the concern that she will suddenly bolt to chase a squirrel. She probably feels confident now that I won’t, either.

So, we had been out for a nice walk and were just returning to the house. As we came through the front door, I was holding the leash in my left hand. As I turned to close the door behind us, my friend emerged from the kitchen at the back of the house and, like she were chasing a squirrel, “Blue” bolted to greet him. I should have let go of the leash.

As she reached the full extension of the leash at a gallop, the result for me was a pain like a knife plunging into my left shoulder.

I had to make a change.

For decades before this injury, I put on a shirt “right arm first” by fully inserting my right arm into the right sleeve, fishing behind me for the left sleeve, and pushing the left arm through into the sleeve. That involves a complex rotation of the shoulder, a “chicken wing”. Since the day of the injury, I have experienced pain in the left shoulder during that motion. Immediately after the injury, that instant of pain was immediate, massive, and slow to diminish.

So, I had to learn how to dress “left arm first”. The “right arm first” habit was so strong that, for weeks after the injury, I would have to pause and think, “left arm first”. In those few instances that I forgot to pause, a stabbing jolt of pain would remind me that I’d started with the wrong arm.

I don’t have to think about “which arm” any more and the most important key to changing my decades-long “right arm first” habit to “left arm first” has been those jolts of painful feedback.

One of my favorite guidelines to designing learning experiences is, “Learners need endless feedback more than they need endless teaching.” (Grant Wiggins) A colleague once told me that the most effective feedback is “immediate, severe, and unavoidable.” [“Severe” as in “dramatic enough or strong enough to deter or encourage behavior”  Pain isn’t a requirement.] My shoulder’s response to the “chicken wing” has demonstrated all of those qualities… and I have learned and changed!

Nick Miller and Clarity train banks and bankers to attract and develop deeper relationships with small businesses. Many more Sales Thoughts like this and a host of other articles and resources at https://clarityadvantage.com/knowledge-center/ .