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.

For Learning & Development

Support the work and 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. That raises a design question; it does not prove 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, a coached conversation, or a longer simulation can all use this sequence, because the format does not determine the thinking demand.

Thinking tip

Asking Good Questions

The question sets a direction before the answer exists.

A question does more than ask for information. It frames what you notice and which answers seem possible. Try changing “What should we do?” to “What could we do?” When an AI tool or colleague gives you a confident answer, pause and ask what assumption your question left untouched. Are you solving the right problem? What might change your view?

Try this: Before your next prompt or difficult conversation, write down one assumption inside your question. Then reframe it so the answer could challenge that assumption.

Read: The Most Expensive Mistake in the AI Era

Watch: How to Ask Better Questions, Mike's TEDx talk

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Talent Readiness

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

The Thinking Effect

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

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

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

Mental models

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

Working definition

Core Abilities

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

Value Skills

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

Working definition

The knowing-doing gap

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

Core Thinking Practices

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

Working definition

Richness and Reach

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

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

Thinking tip

The Letter You Don’t Send

Write the reply. Give yourself time to decide whether it should leave your hands.

Before sending an angry reply, write the letter you want to send. Put down what happened, what you think it means, and what part you may be contributing. Then let it sit. When you come back, you may see another way to understand the situation, or decide the letter does not need to be sent. The pause will not fix every disagreement. It can help you respond with more perspective and less regret, while leaving room to preserve the relationship.

Try this: Write an uncensored first draft, but do not address or send it. Come back later and mark what you know, what you inferred, and what the other person might say. If a reply is still needed, write a second version focused on what you want to change and what should happen next.

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Writing on this

Working through a decision or a learning design? Talk with Mike.

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