Sometimes, Be Less Predictable
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“I’m going to leave the room. When I come back, you will each need to be able to introduce five of your classmates to me.
"You have five minutes, starting now.”
This is frequently how I start a class at its first meeting of the semester. Sometimes, but not always, I stick my head back in the classroom after a minute or so if I don’t hear robust conversation and yell, “Get talking! You have three more minutes!”
The outcome is predictable. It’s a breath of energy and fun that kicks off the semester in a wonderful way.
But the action itself is certainly not predictable. And that’s part of why it works.
Most of the time, most of us like clarity. We seek predictability in those around us; we engineer predictability into our daily routines. Such tendencies are helpful because they can help us be efficient and save our decision-making brain power for matters that truly need it.
But being unpredictable has its place, its time and its value.
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