For Learning & Development

Give people a decision worth thinking through

Help with today's task is useful. Developing judgment also means giving people room to work out what to do, examine their reasoning, and try again.

Support the work. Develop the person.

Just-in-time guidance can prevent mistakes and help people finish a task. A well-designed learning experience can also help them recognize a problem, compare options, and judge when the guidance does not fit.

Look at who does that thinking. If the answer, explanation, and recommendation all arrive ready-made, completing the task may leave little opportunity to practice judgment. This is a design concern, not proof that all in-flow learning damages thinking.

Build a sequence people can learn from

  1. Give enough context. Include the knowledge and resources needed to make a meaningful attempt.
  2. Ask for a decision. Make the trade-off real. Ask what assumption carries the most weight.
  3. Introduce relevant evidence. Give the person a reason to reconsider, without making revision the only acceptable response.
  4. Discuss the reasoning. Point to a specific action, omission, or explanation. Let the learner add context.
  5. Try again under different conditions. Look for what transfers, and what still needs instruction or support.

A short online activity can use this sequence. So can a coached conversation or a longer simulation. The format does not determine the thinking demand.

Design for two kinds of evidence

The individual needs to know what to work on next. The organization needs to know which responsibility the record supports, with what help and what uncertainty.

Plan both before collecting data. Private reflection should not quietly become an employment assessment. A learning exercise and a consequential readiness decision require different levels of evidence and care.

Build an evidence plan for one responsibility, or read how to turn a course objective into a decision.

Start with the concepts

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Framework

The Thinking Effect

Examine an assumption, make a decision, learn from what happens, and try again.

Framework

What-to-think vs. how-to-think

Knowledge supports judgment. Practice gives people opportunities to use it when the answer is not already supplied.

Working definition

Mental models

The explanation behind a prediction, and a way to examine whether it still fits.

Framework

Core Abilities

Three ways of working through a decision: test the explanation, consider alternatives, and trace consequences.

Working definition

Value Skills

Decision making, problem solving, and collaboration as places to practice and observe thinking.

Framework

The knowing-doing gap

The distance between explaining an approach and using it when the task becomes difficult.

Working definition

Core Thinking Practices

Four patterns of questioning, each with a concrete purpose in a decision.

Framework

Richness and Reach

Map cognitive demand and participation. Classify the actual experience, not its delivery format.

Framework

The Value Worker

How learning and adaptation contribute to useful work as responsibilities change.

Where does your learner have to make a judgment?

Find one place in your program where the answer arrives before the learner has made an attempt. Design a choice, an explanation, and a chance to revise it.

Try a decision

Writing on this

Bring a real problem

What does your learning need to change?

A role people are struggling with. A decision that keeps going wrong. A capability you need to see before giving someone more responsibility. Start there.

Talk with Mike

Find an idea in the writing

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