What would change
your mind?
A good answer gets the work done, and learning should also change how you think. Practice a decision, explain the trade-off, then use the evidence to guide growth and readiness. It takes a few minutes, with no sign-up, and your thinking stays with you.
Developing higher cognitive skills
[Thinking]
How do you build capability?
Learning & Development teams build higher cognitive skills through practice, through feedback specific enough to change the next attempt, and through reflection, more than through content.
Just-in-time help can solve today’s problem. But if it supplies the interpretation, the options, and the choice, the person never practices those moves. Leave a real decision for them to make.
Give the learner a decision to makeEvidence of readiness
[Effect]
How do you know someone has it?
HR & Talent teams rarely see judgment on a multiple-choice test; it has to be observed in performance, under conditions complex enough to require the skill.
That evidence should tell the person what to practice next. It should help the organization judge readiness for a specific role, task, or initiative, while making clear what has not yet been demonstrated.
Explore evidence for HR & TalentEvery organization says it wants critical thinkers, problem solvers, and people who use AI effectively
The skills that matter most are the ones the standard assessment stack cannot see. This is an instrumentation problem, and it is solvable.
Read The AI-Ready LeaderWhat you can observe instead
- Whether someone separates what they know from what they assume
- Whether they consider who carries the cost of a choice
- Whether they name the condition that would change their mind
Each turn changes what the next turn can reach
Thinking develops through repeated practice. We notice a situation, interpret it, decide, act, and see what follows. Each round of feedback can change how we approach the next one.
Mental models shape what we notice and how we respond. Practice and feedback can refine those models, giving future decisions more to draw on.
Choose a stage to see what it contributes to the next decision.
It's time for a shift in what is measured.
What organizations commonly track
Easy to count and report.
- Completionmeasured
- Knowledgemeasured
- Attendancemeasured
- Confidencemeasured
- Test scoresmeasured
What complex work calls for
Rarely captured in routine learning data.
- Judgmenthard to observe
- Decision qualityhard to observe
- Reasoninghard to observe
- Problem solvinghard to observe
- Adaptabilityhard to observe
- Collaborationhard to observe
Completion, attendance, confidence, and quiz scores can answer useful questions. They cannot show how someone weighs conflicting evidence, adapts when conditions change, or makes a sound decision. To understand those skills, observe people doing work that calls for them.
Bar lengths are illustrative, not survey data.
Ideas to put to work
Use these to decide what to teach, what people need to practice, and how widely that practice can reach.
What-to-think vs. how-to-think
Separate the knowledge people need from the decisions they need to practice making.
Read the frameworkCore Abilities
Test an explanation, consider alternatives, and trace the consequences of a decision.
Read the frameworkRichness and Reach
Map the thinking a learning experience demands against how many people can take part.
Read the framework
What does your learning need to change?
Start with a role people are struggling with, a decision that keeps going wrong, or a capability you need to see before giving someone more responsibility.