What Scuba Diving Can Teach Us About Fear & Learning

Aaron and I recently got back from our honeymoon in Malaysia, where we obtained our PADI Open Water Scuba Diving certification.

It was a fun and rewarding experience (plus, we got to hang out on the gorgeous beach of Tenggol Island), but it also had its challenges.

It was very interesting to observe the PADI teaching techniques, and after each training session, Aaron and I reflected on what was effective...and what was not so effective.

We realised that many of these discussion points would also be relevant to the workplace and in other teaching, speaking or facilitation sessions, so we have brought the conversation to the podcast!

What we discuss:

• Why BREATHING and staying calm is the most important lesson of scuba diving. (Under water, if you don’t stay calm, you DIE.)
• What does this mean for you as a speaker? It’s not life and death when you stand up to speak, but breathing deep will keep you from panicking and forgetting your words.
• Why separating reality from fear is important - Aaron shares his story of how his brain triggered a fear response in the deep water.
• An effective PADI technique: the instructor explained the concept, demonstrated the concept, then had us repeat it.
• Why being flexible and accommodating to your students (or learners) is important.
• Why addressing your learners’ or audience’s MINDSET is critical - something we observed the PADI instructors didn’t do.
• Why you need to help your audience feel comfortable and trust in the process.
• Refer to Zay’s podcast in Episode 208. Think about your audience as being on a ladder - at rung 1. An effective learning experience will take them up the ladder one rung at a time. me. I felt like for us, we went from rung 1 to rung 5.
• Have empathy for your audience. You need to know what level the audience is at and are they connected? Are they following along? Have they just woken up? Have they been running around to meetings all day?

The biggest thing I took away from this experience was how important it is to address your audience’s mindset. This became very clear to me early on with my public speaking and communication skills coaching clients.

As a coach, I can teach you all the skills and techniques - such as how to breath, how to use effective non verbals, what to say, how to say it, and so on - but if your mindset isn’t in the right place, you will be far less likely to remember or implement those skills, resulting in your being less effective as a speaker.

Usually, I am the one doing the training, and I was very grateful for the PADI diving experience where I could experience the learning from a fresh perspective.

Have you done the PADI Open Water diving course? What was your experience? Was it similar to mine or completely different? I would love to hear your thoughts!