My son is learning to write and spell. he made a ‘shopping list’ the other day where shoes was ‘shoos’ and in a birthday card for his sister, enjoy was ‘injoy’. The ‘j’ had the bottom hook going the wrong way and he tends to write ‘s’ backwards, but we are super proud of him still and understand what he is writing.

I often forget the way we learn, the mistakes we make along the way to figuring it out. I very rarely think about how often I have done something backwards and my managers were gracious to me as they knew I was learning.

Rarely does learning happen overnight; we don’t go to bed and wake up in the morning with a new skill. It takes time, practice, patience, and grace.

This is important with change as we are asking people, human beings, to learn a new skill, change a behaviour, act differently; so yes, this takes time. And all of us will change at a different rate. I find it very difficult to remember this when I’m having the same conversation for the umpteenth time, but it’s needed; I should expect it.

One day ‘shoos’ will become ‘shoes’ will all the letter the correct way around, but for now we know what he means and we celebrate his initiative and achievement. Having the same conversation with another person about the reason for the needed change should also be celebrated as it’s another opportunity to change the behaviours, the culture, the story we tell ourselves.