The Long Runway
- Difficult Conversations
- Feedback
- Influencing
- Insights
- Listening
There’s an idea from Susan Cain that we’ve been talking about at JTL recently called “The Long Runway.”
Cain, author of Quiet, uses the analogy when talking about introverted children and the extra time some of them need to get comfortable with a new situation.
It might be a new classroom, a party, a club or simply being asked to join in with something unfamiliar. While some children will dive straight in, others prefer to watch for a while first. They’re taking things in, working out what’s expected and getting comfortable before they join in.
Cain describes these children as having a longer runway. They still take off, they just need a little more time to get there.
It feels like a particularly useful idea at this time of year.
Back to school
September brings a lot of change. New classrooms, new teachers, new routines and, for some, entirely new schools.
School also tends to involve quite a lot of things that come more naturally to extroverted children. Putting your hand up in class, answering a question on the spot, joining a group, speaking in front of other people or getting stuck into a new activity without too much time to think about it first.
A child who doesn’t do those things immediately can sometimes look reluctant or lacking in confidence.
But perhaps that’s not always what’s going on.
They might simply be taking a bit longer to get down the runway.
For parents and teachers, Cain’s analogy is a useful reminder that we don’t always have to hurry that process. Giving someone a little more time to observe, telling them what to expect or letting them think before asking for an answer can make a big difference.
And actually, the more we thought about it, the more we realised this isn’t only about children.
We have different runways at work too
You can see exactly the same thing happening around a meeting table.
There are people who are comfortable responding to an idea almost before you’ve finished explaining it. There are others who want to listen, think it through and perhaps come back to you later.
If you’re familiar with Insights Discovery®, you’ll probably recognise some of this. People with more introverted preferences often like time to process internally before they contribute, whereas those with more extroverted preferences can be happier processing their thoughts out loud.
Neither is more engaged. They’re simply different ways of getting to an answer.
The problem comes when everything is designed around one of them.
A meeting full of quick fire questions and immediate discussion may work brilliantly for some people, while giving very little space to others. And if we equate speaking quickly or speaking often with being engaged, we can miss some really valuable contributions.
Try it with your team: Think / Pair / Share
We often see the Long Runway idea play out in our workshops.
In a group discussion, someone with a more introverted preference may not contribute immediately. It’s not that they have nothing to say. They may simply want a little time to think things through before they’re ready to share.
One simple way we make space for this is Think / Pair / Share.
Next time you want your team to discuss a question or come up with ideas, rather than opening it straight out to the room, try this:
Think
Give everyone a couple of minutes to consider the question on their own. Encourage them to jot down a few thoughts.
Pair
Ask people to discuss what they’ve come up with in pairs. This gives everyone the chance to test out their thinking without having to compete for airtime.
Share
Then bring everyone back together and open up the wider discussion.
It’s a very small change, but we regularly see people who were quiet at the beginning of an exercise go on to make some of the most thoughtful contributions in the room.
Compare that with going straight into a fast paced brainstorm. The noise, pace and competing voices can make it much harder for someone with an introverted preference to do their best thinking.
Give them a little more runway first and you might hear an idea that would otherwise have been missed.
One to try: At your next team meeting, choose one question you would normally throw straight out to the room and try Think / Pair / Share instead. Notice whether you hear from different people or get different ideas as a result.
Who in your team needs a longer runway?
Susan Cain’s analogy is worth remembering beyond the school gates.
Who in your team tends to take a little longer to get involved? Who likes to think before they speak? And are the way you run meetings and discussions giving those people enough space to contribute?
Sometimes a little more runway is all that’s needed.
Listen to Susan Cain’s The Long Runway episode of the Quiet podcast.
And if you’d like to understand more about the different ways people communicate, process and contribute at work, explore Insights Discovery® with Juicing The Lemon.