Many people have been sharing with me that it is hard to maintain a habit of reflection and journaling. (I had previously written about the habit I maintain in the morning. For some, it seems that the spirit is willing but the body is weak. Tragically, some of us may actually be trying too hard and feeling discouraged because we may be going about it the wrong way.
Introducing The Sandbox
Today, I want to introduce a concept that will help one institute change on a regular basis in doable steps. I call this “Creating a Sandbox”.
In any change that you want to see in life, you need to create a sandbox. Whether it is to reflect and journal more regularly or to institute organisation-wide changes, no change can occur without sandboxes.
What is a sandbox? Simply put, It is a well-defined space in which you enjoy, experiment, and endure for a season in order to learn from the experience. 1
Enjoy the Play
Imagine a child at the playground, playing with sand. He is in his sandbox, oblivious to the people around him. If another child joins in, he acknowledges the other person and may even engage in cooperative play. But fundamentally, he is happy playing on his own.
A sandbox is an individual experience. It is not dependent on the performance or presence of someone else. It is a defined space that allows one to try new things. One finds joy in the play. If there is no joy in the play, there is no sandbox, only confinement.
Experiment with the Process
In a sandbox, there are no manuals or instructions on how to play with the sand. Nor is there any requirement to use any special implement or tool. One uses whatever is available, and improvises on anything else.
Endure for a Season
A child having fun in the sandbox can remain in place for hours. For the adult who has lost the art of reverie, we have to remind ourselves to endure for a season in order to allow ourselves the chance of such a rediscovery.
To put a more technical spin to what I am saying, the psychologist Csikszentmihalyi describes a state of flow that people can get into where everything seems to click. But to get there takes practice and persistence. Children seem to get into that state naturally. We adults need some help and kindness. Hence, we need to be kind to ourselves and allow ourselves some time to ease into the flow. We need to endure for a season in the sandbox we establish for ourselves.
A Growth Mindset for Sandboxing
Sandboxing is an expression of a growth mindset. It takes a growth mindset for one to enjoy the play, to experiment with the process, and to endure for a season. A growth mindset converts the experience of being in a sandbox from one of being trapped in a prison to one of participating in one’s passion. The joy is in the learning and the creating. Perhaps that is why children engage in sandboxes more than adults.
As children grow up, those who maintain a growth mindset acquire more complex sandboxes. They may progress to Lego, learn how to code, or build their own computers. Regardless of the price tags on their acquisitions, the spirit of exploration, experimentation and expression is driven by their growth mindset. To the extent one can afford the cost of these toys, one should remain encouraging of these endeavours.
How We Encourage Determines Growth or Fixed Mindsets
The single greatest determinant of whether children maintain their growth mindsets or adopt fixed mindsets is the encouragement of their loved ones. Parents who direct the play of the children towards performance role model for the child what is desired – a nonchalance towards a growth mindset. Parents who direct play in general can curtail a growth mindset, unless they are role modeling very clearly how to remain in growth mindset through their encouragement. Children want to please their parents, so parents bear the greatest responsibility (and blame) in cultivating their children’s growth mindsets.
Growing Your Sandbox
With each successful sandbox, one acquires the confidence, skill and motivation to extend the improvisation to the larger playground. You see this behaviour at the neighbourhood playground. A child will occasionally attempt to transport a segment of the sandcastle to the seesaw, or to the swing. What we may see as infringement of the rules (sand should stay in the sandbox – a fixed mindset) is merely an extension of the boundaries of the sandbox to the child.
How to Sandbox Your Reflection and Journaling
Instead of saying “I want to be more reflective”, create a sandbox for yourself around the practice. For example, start with reflecting regularly each morning for 10 minutes for 7 days. For each of the 10 minutes, you can record your thoughts and observations in point form. As you acquire the habit of waking up early to reflect regularly, you can then revisit the points made to expand them into paragraphs and pages. It is more doable than instantly becoming a lifelong reflective learner.
How to Sandbox Organisational Development?
What if we want to do something more than personal change? What if, for example, we want to create a culture of learning in an organisation? The procedure is still the same. Start with defining what that sandbox would look like. Break it down – ask who are most amenable to playing, experimenting and enduring for a season in the sandbox? Start with them. Create safety – ask who are the fixed mindset supervisor-parents whose influence we need to curtail? Scale from past success – build from your individual sandboxes. Explore how to incorporate the ways each individual experienced success in his/her own respective sandboxes of regular reflection. Then help them transfer their sand to the swings.
Sandboxing National Development: Lessons from Bhutan
I have learnt some of the best lessons for my personal and professional growth from how the kingdom of Bhutan does things. For a landlocked kingdom with no beaches, Bhutan does sandboxing very well. You can refer to the examples here.
Sandbox Your Suffering
A final word for those who in this season of life is undergoing tragedy. When God wants to make us better, He also uses the concept of the sandbox. It’s called “The Desert”.
By His Spirit, He led Jesus into the desert for 40 days to be tested by Satan. When the Israelites became calloused and forgetful of God after being rescued from Egypt, He led them to wander for 40 years in another desert to prune their hearts.
Some of us are in our own deserts right now. Hopefully, we don’t have to endure 40 years and learn to cooperate with God on the 40-day option, just as Jesus did. Thus, when we undergo suffering, we must view the episode as a sandbox created by a loving God for our growth. We may then learn to take joy in suffering, to learn from it and to persist for the period. When we do that, we demonstrate the growth mindset so necessary for breakthrough to take place. Once we do that, the sandbox is lifted. (Or we may be introduced to a bigger set).
If we are going to suffer anyway, let us sandbox the suffering. We may even learn to have fun while we are in it!
FOOTNOTE
- : I create the notion of a sandbox, inspired by but differing from pilot testing, rapid prototyping or regulatory sandboxes.
- Pilot testing. Pilot testing is a specific stage in the research process in which one tests the procedures and content of a particular intervention or measurement scale for validity and reliability. A sandbox is a scaled down replica of the actual phenomenon that retains the same construct validity.
- Rapid Prototyping. Rapid prototyping is a concept borrowed from manufacturing. One produces a 3-D model of a component or a product to test its efficiency or design before manufacturing in large scale quantities. A sandbox can be scaled up for proliferation to other sandboxes once the kinks of thriving in one sandbox is ironed out.
- Regulatory Sandbox. This is an exercise conducted in finance in which one parcels out a safe practice arena in order to test out various aspects of new regulations. Likewise, the sandbox concept I envision also simplifies the complexity of the actual change required into manageable proportions. It recognises comfort zones and spheres of influence. It does not overextend these when defining the boundaries of one’s sandbox.
