Action Research
Simply, people learn best by doing something. So rather than spend months and thousands of dollars creating a traditional strategic plan or conducting traditional, classroom style training, we set people to work so they can experience something real and truly valuable.
But the real power of learning comes when it happens within a community context. We first bring diverse stakeholders together to build the trust necessary for an honest assessment of the organization's assets and needs. Then rather than building a massive (and expensive) solution to the problem, we ask people to "fail fast and fail cheap"! Credit goes to Doug Hall at Eureka Ranch for that term, which means to try something without worrying if it is right--because when it fails, it won't cost much, yet the experiential learning will be invaluable to organization's success.
A Culture of Experimentation
In other words, ongoing organizational evolution depends not only on a culture of collaboration, but on its willingness to experiment--to embrace uncertainty as a core value. When stakeholders are allowed to conduct experiments in small groups of their own choosing, change happens exponentially, especially when the next round of experiments builds on co-learning from real-time data. In the end, when leaders let go of the need to create a traditional, top-down plan or solution, they will find that allowing stakeholders' passions to become priorities is the most powerful way to fuel and sustain change.
Academics call this "action research". We use it to build strategic plans, find solutions, and train leaders because all of those processes are ultimately more effective when they happen "on the job".
But the real power of learning comes when it happens within a community context. We first bring diverse stakeholders together to build the trust necessary for an honest assessment of the organization's assets and needs. Then rather than building a massive (and expensive) solution to the problem, we ask people to "fail fast and fail cheap"! Credit goes to Doug Hall at Eureka Ranch for that term, which means to try something without worrying if it is right--because when it fails, it won't cost much, yet the experiential learning will be invaluable to organization's success.
A Culture of Experimentation
In other words, ongoing organizational evolution depends not only on a culture of collaboration, but on its willingness to experiment--to embrace uncertainty as a core value. When stakeholders are allowed to conduct experiments in small groups of their own choosing, change happens exponentially, especially when the next round of experiments builds on co-learning from real-time data. In the end, when leaders let go of the need to create a traditional, top-down plan or solution, they will find that allowing stakeholders' passions to become priorities is the most powerful way to fuel and sustain change.
Academics call this "action research". We use it to build strategic plans, find solutions, and train leaders because all of those processes are ultimately more effective when they happen "on the job".