Eric Kebschull

There's a moment most practitioners know well. The workshop went well, the participants were engaged, and the debrief surfaced real issues. Decision makers left the room talking differently than when they walked in. But at some point, someone asks the tough question "how do we know this is working?" Or another variation might be "how do we know if this training will stick?" Not "did people like it", Nor is it "did it feel meaningful to the participants",... but is the organization actually...

Let's begin today with a story ... one that starts with the review of the company's financial progress: The quarterly review opens the way it always does. Revenue is up, membership is up, and output up. The dashboard reads green across the board, allowing the executive team takes a sigh of relief. Now fast forward a year, that same team is staring at a cliff. Revenue is down, as is membership and output. Their claim: nobody saw this coming! Thus, the post-mortems begin. What went wrong?...

Most of us are trained to be decisive. After all, the market rewards speed, our boards reward action, and our colleagues reward confidence. So when a problem surfaces, the expectation is to do something about it ... and fast! It should be no suprise how many of us got here, as it is what much of our schooling in the United States rewarded: decision making from the indivdual to the bubbleed-in answer on the scantron. No time for collective problem solving (if that's even allowed), and no...