Progress Through Process

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately in complex work with many moving parts: helping design a longitudinal faculty coach training with the STFM CBME Faculty Coach Training initiative, and collaborating with colleagues through an AMA-funded Precision Medicine education grant with GAFP. In both projects, the challenge is the same: taking large, complex work and making it manageable.

For me, the answer has long been about process. Start with the end in mind. Zoom out to the big picture. Break the work into chunks. Prioritize those chunks. Get granular on the first step. Reassess. Adjust. Continue.

Breaking things down isn’t just helpful for projects. It’s essential for skill building, too.

As we think about empowering faculty to grow their coaching skills, my recent swimming sessions have been a timely reminder of the value of working on one thing at a time. I’ve been putting in the reps. The progress has been slow and uneven, but the learning has been tangible.  I can make it 50 yards without stopping - so there's that. (And I no longer look like I’m gasping for help when trying to take a breath 😂)

In our skills sessions, my coach has us move quickly through a series of drills, each designed to isolate one component of the stroke before deliberately reintegrating it back into freestyle.

We might start with a side kick-switch drill to focus on side balance, glide, and core rotation for a few lengths of the pool, then immediately swim a lap of freestyle while keeping attention on that single element. After that, we return to a normal lap and notice how swimming as a whole feels. (Most of the time, though not always, it feels smoother and more efficient after focused attention.)

Then we move on to the next drill. Walking catch-up drills, intentionally pausing both hands out front to improve breathing efficiency, leg power, and stroke length. Then a focused lap. Then a normal lap to see how it all comes together. Another drill. Another integration with focused attention. Another normal lap and noticing.

Across practices, the drills change and the sequences vary, but the structure stays the same. Each drill, each session builds on the last. The gains are focused and incremental. They may be awkward at first, and imperfect in execution, but over time, coordination improves and the stroke becomes smoother and less effortful. (Which, by the way, really helps your heart rate and your tendency to gasp for air. 😉)

It’s a powerful approach. Whether we’re developing coaching skills, leadership capacity, communication patterns, or educational programs, progress doesn’t come from learning everything at once, even though we must often be doing everything at once. It comes from intentionally focusing on one element, integrating it with focus, noticing, and building from there.

I’ll be honest: I don’t love every drill. The catch-up drill, in particular, I loathe. I don’t yet have the leg power, my breathing still needs work, and keeping my arm out front when breathing to the opposite side makes me feel like I’m sinking (because I kinda am). It’s uncomfortable.

But it’s also part of the process.

As educators, clinicians, and leaders, I think we underestimate how important it is to normalize that discomfort. Learners don’t master ophthalmic exams before moving on to communication skills or interdisciplinary teamwork. They put in the reps, focus on one thing at a time, and build. Faculty developing their coaching skills extend that same process by partnering with residents to reflect, self-direct, and grow. It’s a little meta.

Reflections:

• What projects are you avoiding, or rushing, instead of pausing and breaking them down?
• What’s the equivalent of a drill you could practice, then integrate with focused attention?
• How are you normalizing the discomfort of learning, for yourself and for others?

Progress comes through process. What’s yours?