My daughter has stabilisers (aka training wheels) on her bike. While it is debatable if these extra wheels are helping her learn to balance (a balance bike would be more effective for this), they are helping to increase her confidence in riding.

Stabilisers create an interesting challenge on bumpy pavements (aka sidewalks), which most are around our house. On certain bumps the stabilisers lift the back wheel off the ground and so it sits and spins; no amount of pedalling by my daughter solves this problem. Only if she has enough speed prior to hitting the bump will she be propelled forward so her back wheel begins functioning again.

As we seek to bring about change in ourselves, teams, organisations, and culture it may be helpful to consider what type of stabilisers we are using and if we are spinning because we’ve hit a bump. And maybe we need to consider if we need to ditch the stabilisers for a while and use a balance bike instead.

Photo by Markus Spiske