This article is adapted from Ted's podcast episode 351: See It To Believe It! (Process).

Did you ever wonder why you tend to struggle with believing the visions of others? We often sit in rooms and hear people talk about the need to do something, change something, or prepare something. And often we don't really believe there's a problem or need for change.

Even as children, many of us didn't believe in the need to learn certain things because adults couldn't make it relevant. About 70 episodes ago, I talked about the need to take walks and see what was going on. Recently, I keep getting questions from people about why their initiatives aren't sticking. The reason is simple: there's a need to discover these things on their own and through their own experiences.

That's why today I want to do some smart thinking about putting your eyes on the world you have to work, learn, or live in.

Change is difficult. Learning is challenging if not applicable. Very few people understand the interdependent needs of systems or people if they've never seen, heard, smelled, or felt it and understood what it's like to be part of it.

We have to do a better job exposing each other and ourselves to the world in which we're working, living, and leading to ensure we understand exactly the consequences of all the different things we have to do. In the absence of doing that, we'll continue to falter and fall into cycles where everything we start at the beginning of a school year dies at Thanksgiving, or the beginning of a new year dies by the end of the quarter.

We're so quick to try to convince everybody to do something when we should slow down, take some time, and show them.

The Beatles and the Sistine Chapel Moment

A few years ago, my family and I took a trip to Ireland and England. We wanted to see Dublin, Liverpool (birthplace of the Beatles), Manchester (for Manchester United), and London for the history. But it was in Liverpool that I learned about how experience significantly changes your mindset and openness to new ideas.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Good Will Hunting, where Robin Williams tells Will: "So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me every art book ever written, Michelangelo, and you know a lot about him... But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling."

He's right. That quote illustrates the need for us to experience things before we do things.

I've shared my love of the Beatles—my mom introduced me to them at birth, and I've loved them ever since. My family grew up listening to the Beatles everywhere. When we had the chance to go to England, we were all in on seeing everything about the Beatles.

We landed at John Lennon Airport. Immediately, my thinking about the Beatles began to change. We were in their hometown, where it all started.

That night, we went to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles began as the house band. We read the walls with history, saw where they and so many other amazing bands had played. We left and walked the alleys—the same alleys the Beatles had walked after playing at the club. We heard how loud it was, smelled the damp air and beer, saw a room filled with people consumed with joy that we were all where it began.

The next morning, we got picked up by a man named Paul from Fab Four Taxi, and he changed our lives. We saw where John, Paul, George, and Ringo lived, where they grew up, their homes, where they played as children.

At George Harrison's boyhood home, our guide Paul knocked on the neighbor's window. An older gentleman answered, and it turns out he was George's boyhood neighbor. He began telling us about playing with George as children, how his sister used to babysit them. We sat there stunned. He went inside and got a picture of himself with George Harrison as kids.

We went to Ringo's house, Penny Lane, the barber shop, the church where Paul met John, Strawberry Fields—everywhere. I was seeing with my own eyes, touching with my own hands, and hearing with my own ears everything about the band I had read about before, but now I was feeling really into it.

Our driver shared how Liverpool was decimated after World War II, how the economy was difficult when the Beatles were growing up, how food was still in short supply. He tied it all back to the music, and everything about the Beatles began to make sense.

Why? Because we saw it, smelled it, touched it, and heard it. All of it. We had our Sistine Chapel moment together, and now we had a new appreciation of our favorite band.

What changes? Every time I hear "Eleanor Rigby," I see the church, smell the grass, hear the lawnmower cutting grass down the road. Every time I hear "Yellow Submarine," I think of the Yellow Submarine we stood next to in Liverpool. When I hear "Penny Lane," I see my family standing on Penny Lane looking at the barbershop.

The Beatles were impressed on my heart from my mom when I was a child, but going to Liverpool and seeing it all put the impression on my soul.

The "IT" Principle: Stop IT-ing All Over People

What does this have to do with leadership? Everything, because we're failing those we serve by drowning them in the "IT" principle.

What is the IT principle? That's what we sound like when we only tell people what the change is or what we need to do and not show them. We end up IT-ing all over people. (Use your imagination on what that rhymes with.)

"IT's going to be awesome. IT's what we need. IT will make us better."

When supporting people and their growth and learning, no matter what their strengths are, we need to put them in a position to see, hear, smell, and touch whatever we're asking them to do. Why? To impress upon their emotions. Because paper and PowerPoints get emotions going, likely in the wrong direction.

Putting your eyes on the prize and seeing it all in action brings us together faster and allows people to navigate what's happening.

The Real Impact of Change Without Experience

What's the impact of change or new expectations when we ignore putting our eyes on it?

Emotional impacts: All change creates uncertainty and anxiety, resistance and stress. It can create renewed energy and optimism for some, especially when well-supported, but most people get stuck in uncertainty and anxiety because they've never seen it.

Cognitive impact: Learning and adaptation require adults to unlearn old habits and acquire new knowledge, skills, and perspectives. Pretty difficult to do from a book and PowerPoint. Too much change at once can overwhelm our ability to make decisions and problem-solve.

Behavioral impact: New routines and practices are difficult for all of us. Collaboration and communication can only happen if we have shared purpose. Performance fluctuates because many people take a dip during transition.

Long-term effects: People lose resiliency and the ability to adapt if they cannot see or feel what's going to happen. When our identity gets messed with—what we can do, what we're proud of in our skill sets—and we no longer have that because we can't see what the change is or what our role is, that becomes a real problem.

The Power of Experiential Learning

Research shows that experiential learning—like seeing it and visitation—increases long-term knowledge retention, strengthens personal connections to content, and supports development both academically and in life skills.

When you go for a walk and experience it, it enhances engagement and motivation. It improves retention and understanding because hands-on and sensory-rich activities strengthen memory and comprehension of concepts.

It allows people to develop critical thinking and problem-solving because if they can see it, they know how to answer questions and analyze information. Most importantly, they have knowledge they can apply.

It builds social and emotional skills because if we experience it as a group, we have shared experiences we can talk about and fill in the gaps of each other's stories. Finally, it connects everything to the real world.

The Field Trip Solution

Here's what has to happen: Stop talking, stop worrying, and start taking field trips. Start walking your expectations.

This is especially powerful if we get people involved at all levels of whatever problem we're facing. I'm saddened that we don't take as many field trips with children as we used to. So many opportunities lost to expose kids to the world around them to make their lives relevant.

You can dissect a fish in a book by seeing what it looks like when it's opened. Or you can catch your fish, fillet that fish, investigate that fish, feel, smell, and taste it. It changes everything when you expose kids to the world around them.

I was once part of an initiative with a 4K school at a nature center. Every day was outside. These kids had cute little zip-up suits that were waterproof, windproof, snowproof—everything proof.

I happened to be there during "bee day"—the day you learn about the letter B. The teacher was introducing the letter B and words that began with B. A beekeeper walked by with a smoker, going to harvest honey. The kids saw him and thought he was an alien in his big beekeeping suit and screened hood.

He stopped and asked what they were doing. Just as they were about to learn about the letter B, he shared that he was a beekeeper going to visit his bees and asked, "Do you want to come along?" They all hopped up and followed him.

He sat them down at a safe distance, smoked out the bees, then brought every child a taste of fresh honey and honeycomb. Do you think those kids learned about the letter B that day? I bet they still remember it.

Walking Your Expectations: The Process

When we're facing a decision, we need to get out of windowless, oxygen-deprived rooms and go see it all for ourselves together, then debrief. We'll agree on the problem and see the solutions together. We'll experience how it works in other places together.

Children need to see what's expected of them. They need to see the next level. Little ones need to see the grade above them, middle school, then eventually high school. Middle schoolers need to see high school, college opportunities, technical school opportunities, workplace opportunities. High schoolers need the same thing.

Adults in the workplace need to go talk to people and see how the new software will work or how this new process or bell schedule will work out. They need to see it and experience it. They can't just sit there and be convinced.

Decision makers being asked to adopt policies need to go see it as well and experience it together, not in isolation or, worse, not even try to see it at all.

The Unforeseen Consequences of Experience

Here's something beautiful about tours and experiences: there are unforeseen consequences that come only because you're experiencing something and stepping into places you've never been before.

When we went to London, we toured Abbey Road Studios. After the tour, someone encouraged us to visit a Beatles shop down the road. We needed a bathroom, so we walked to a park the shop owner recommended.

We walked into this cool little park past a sign that read "Violet Hill." As my family came out of the bathroom, my daughter Grace said, "Hey dad, isn't Violet Hill a Coldplay song?"—another favorite band of ours.

Turns out we had happened upon another of our favorite bands' influences. Someone explained that this park was famous because Paul McCartney's home was right there. Many people used to sit in the park hoping to glimpse Paul McCartney. Then he said Chris Martin, Coldplay's lead singer, used to sit in the park with his girlfriend hoping to see Paul McCartney.

What a weird confluence of two things we love flowing together. But you know what I remember? The park, the smell, and the new discovery.

The Leader's Job: Create Discovery Opportunities

That's our job. Our job as leaders is to create opportunities for others to discover their own truths through experiences we provide with and for them. After all, we're leaders, and our job is to influence.

You want to transform a process, system, people, or culture? Everybody's got to walk the process step by step—not while looking at a screen in a conference room, but actually physically moving with the process, seeing it.

You want to improve a system-wide initiative? Everyone needs to go walk that system, see how a raw product enters and leaves as a finished product, and experience every step along the way.

You can describe fire to people, or you can set a fire (controlled, of course).

This subtle shift is your opportunity to support the world around you by seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling. By experiencing.

I could talk to you all day about charging into the storm, but if you never leave your house, why would it even matter?

Your Experience Challenge

Get out there. Create experiences, grow others, and find success faster.

Describe an experience you need to have to better understand expectations. List experiences that have changed your perceptions. Describe who needs to walk the world to support their own growth.

Experience is critical to supporting change. When you get life experiences and engage, it creates the ability to do more quicker with and for others.

If you're stuck in an "I don't understand" loop, get up, go put your eyes on it, and take others with you. Maybe you'll find yourself navigating a storm before it even has the chance to form.

Stop IT-ing all over people. Start showing them instead.