How to Reflect on Projects to Develop Skills

You learn life's most impactful lessons from your mistakes and failures. Isn't it? However, when it happens, what goes in the mind? You are usually beating yourself up, "How did I do it?" "Why I couldn't be more mindful?" But did you know how we respond to them, reshapes our path? A few years ago, I was spearheading a project – a new project management software developed for a pro-bono consulting gig. We meticulously crafted each feature, aiming to create a budget-friendly yet powerful tool. The team was charged, and expectations were soaring. Then came the launch, and with it, a reality check. Our vision of a feature-packed tool had unintentionally led us astray from what the end-users actually needed - simplicity and intuitiveness. As the adoption rate dwindled and the discontent amongst the users grew, it dawned on us that we had been so engrossed in the technicality of the product that we overlooked the paramount importance of user experience. This realization was a significant turning point in my professional journey. Two valuable lessons were learned: 1️⃣ First, every aspect of product development must be guided by the user’s needs and experiences. 2️⃣ Second, even the most technologically advanced product will fail if it is not user-friendly. With these insights, we recalibrated our development process. We introduced a user-centric approach, involving potential users early in the design phase, and emphasized the role of user testing and feedback. The results? Products that not only met but frequently exceeded customer expectations, elevating our market share and customer satisfaction scores. This experience has made me a fervent advocate for customer involvement throughout the development process. It reiterated to me that we aren't just creating products; we are shaping experiences. Now, I encourage you to reflect on your professional journey. Is there a setback that taught you invaluable lessons? And more importantly, how have you applied those learnings to foster growth and improvement? Looking forward to hearing your stories in comments!

Navy Seals use a tool called AARs. After Action Reviews. The key is 3 perfect questions: It’s a process for reviewing projects, missions, training exercises or any other event you want to reflect on. There’s a world of difference between an effective AAR and a post-mortem bitch session. The magic is in the phrasing of the questions. I adopted AARs for my portfolio of companies years ago, and they’ve been incredibly helpful. Here’s how we do them: Step 1: What Went Well We begin every AAR by asking this question: “What replicable new learning did we gain from what went well?” In any post-mortem, our brains can naturally focus on what went wrong. However, it is critical to get clear on what went RIGHT so the good can be repeated. — Step 2: What Didn’t Go Well After reviewing what went well and the successes we can repeat in the future, we move on to constructive criticism. We frame the discussion with a similar question: “What replicable new learning did we gain from what did not go well?” Notice - the question isn’t asking what went wrong... specifically what is the new LESSON we can incorporate for the future. — Step 3: New Standards Once we’ve dissected the lessons from what went well and what didn’t, we turn our focus to the future. Combining the insights from the first two steps, we assess the following:: “Drawing upon questions 1 and 2, what changes can we make to our processes to systematically improve our consistent tactical excellence?” This reinforces that the standard is excellence, clear process is how we get there, and asks what improvements to our process move us ahead? — Process note - each participant should complete these questions in writing 24 hours in advance. AAR sessions begin with reading all of the written feedback. Then the meeting owner leads the discussion of each question. – That’s an AAR process at a high level. 1) What went well (to be repeated) 2) What lessons exist from what didn’t go well 3) How we’ll modify our processes going forward (with excellence as the standard) Give it a shot.

How often are you asking your team to listen to their own calls? Early in my career as an SDR leader, call coaching looked like... ▶ I'd listen to the call ▶ I'd highlight the area for improvement ▶ I'd comment with what could have been said Notice a theme? .... It was a lot of "I" When you're the one always calling out the areas for improvement, do you know if they can identify it on the next call and apply it? While I still listen to calls on my own and provide feedback, I also turn it back to the SDR Call coaching now looks like... (we'll say in this example we are working on uncovering pain) ▶ SDR listens to their calls ▶ SDR tags me at the point in the call where they felt there was more pain to uncover but was unsure of what questions they could have asked ▶ Together we break down why they tagged that point in the call and what they could have done differently As a manager, we can give feedback for days but if the team struggles to identify those moments on their own they may have a hard time applying it Working with SDRs to reflect on their calls, calling out times when feel they crushed it and when they feel not as confident will fuel skill development faster than simply leaving behind comments to be read alone #salesdevelopment #sdr #bdr #buisnessdevelopment #coldcalling #feedback #managers

My dad enjoys reminding me of the Five P’s: “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.” I lovingly like to remind him that no matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong. It is when things go wrong that we get the greatest learning opportunities! I started Measurement Made Easy to create a space where learning leaders and professional development providers can find mentorship and practical advice making it easier to measure and evaluate learning and ... feel good knowing the impact of our work. This weekly learning series features the real struggles of leaders working through measurement and evaluation projects. My favorite part of this resource is following up on the measurement plans we create. You know the saying … The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. There aren’t many real conversations on social media where people pull you behind the curtain and share their story of when things don’t go as planned and how they handled it. I’m excited to take you all behind the curtain with Caitlin Ziegler and Anastasia (Stacey) Makshakova from GRIST Consulting where we reveal how our original plan to create a team assessment tool unfolded. Many lessons were learned. Three in particular will help us be better L&D and M&E practitioners. 1. Be careful with the words you choose. We often use words in L&D like skills, competencies, and capabilities. When used in assessments and evaluations, these common words can feel like judgements. Consider using more neutral language like practices and activities. We are evaluating the activity and practice, not the person. When evaluating, focus your language on micro-level practices to avoid people feeling judged. 2. It’s a worthy return on time invested to do a preliminary round of feedback with trusted colleagues to ensure the words and questions used in feedback surveys, assessments, and exams resonate with your target population. You can save a lot of time in revisions by collecting a small amount of feedback on the front end. 3. Less information is usually always more. Clarify the right amount of information or action steps to offer as feedback after participants complete a survey. Give just enough to be useful, and not so much as to overwhelm them. And … get feedback on the feedback you pan to provide - it will also save you time on revisions in the future. Tune into the full micro-learning video here: https://lnkd.in/gkv_aMKj Join our live weekly sessions for answers to your M&E questions and to connect with your fellow learning leaders: https://lnkd.in/gN3R5Fqq Happy M&E skill building! #measurementmadeeasy #learninganddevelopment #changereadiness