WEBVTT
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Welcome to Lead with Learning.
00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:14.560
I'm Tess, and here we explore what happens when the science of learning meets the art of leadership.
00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:16.239
Let's get started.
00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:27.039
What if we stopped managing adults based on what we think should work and started managing them based on what we already know about how people learn?
00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:39.359
Because education has spent decades figuring out how people build skills, develop confidence, respond to feedback, practice, and eventually take ownership.
00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.119
And isn't that what we're looking for in the workplace too?
00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:55.679
And yet, when those same people walk into work, we often expect them to learn by being told something once, attending a training, or getting a performance review six months later.
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:03.039
Maybe business doesn't need another leadership framework, maybe it needs to borrow a few things from education.
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:05.599
That's what we're doing in this series.
00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:13.439
Taking proven learning strategies out of education and putting them to work on everyday leadership challenges.
00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:20.000
Onboarding, feedback, accountability, development, change, ownership, team performance.
00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:25.680
Because these aren't just management problems, they're learning problems.
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.480
I'm Tess, and this is Lead with Learning.
00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:32.000
Let's see what business can steal from education.
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Let me ask you a question.
00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.640
When was the last time you discovered that an employee didn't understand something?
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Was it after you had spent months assuming that they knew how?
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Maybe they misunderstood the process or maybe they weren't confident enough to ask questions.
00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:53.359
Maybe they were doing something incorrectly, but nobody really noticed.
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Maybe they went through the training and passed the quiz and clicked every box in the learning management system, but still couldn't actually do the job.
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And then six months later, we sit down for that performance review and we realize we've got a problem.
00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:10.560
And yes, we do.
00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:12.400
But here's the problem.
00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.800
We waited until the final exam to discover it.
00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:20.159
And that's exactly where today's strategy comes in.
00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.319
It's called formative assessment.
00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:26.319
And if you're a leader, you're probably already doing some version of it.
00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:32.319
And don't worry when you hear the word assessment, we're not talking about a quiz or a test or anything like that.
00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:34.719
So what is formative assessment?
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:45.360
In education, formative assessment is about gathering evidence of learning while the learning is happening and using that information to determine what should happen next.
00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:51.439
And that last part matters because formative assessment isn't simply let's see how you're doing.
00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:56.800
It's let's see where you are so we can figure out what you need next.
00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.199
And that's a very different mindset.
00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.479
Teachers don't give students assessment just because they enjoy creating paperwork.
00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:12.159
I mean, I'm sure there's probably some teachers out there that that a case could be made for that, but that's really not the point.
00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.879
The point of formative assessment is that teachers need that information.
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They need to know: does the learner understand it?
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Can they apply it?
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Where are they getting stuck?
00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:24.639
What misconceptions are there?
00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:32.000
Because then we can consider what we should do differently because of what we've just learned.
00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:48.080
Researchers Paul Black and Dylan William helped bring formative assessment into the mainstream of educational research, arguing that classroom assessment can provide information that improves teaching and learning while the learning is still underway.
00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:52.000
And that idea is incredibly transferable to leadership.
00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.919
Because think about what a manager is constantly trying to figure out.
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:57.360
Do they understand?
00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.560
Can they do it?
00:03:58.800 --> 00:03:59.840
Are they ready?
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Or why aren't they performing?
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.439
And those are assessment questions.
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.240
So let's make an important distinction.
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There are two words in education that I think business leaders should know: formative and summative.
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.639
And here's the easiest way I know to remember the difference.
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Formative helps form the learning.
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Summative summarizes the learning.
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:29.439
Formative happens during the process, and summative happens at the end.
00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:39.680
If you think about learning to write an essay, a teacher doesn't necessarily wait until that paper is turned in to discover that a student has misunderstood the assignment.
00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:41.759
There's checkpoints along the way.
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The teacher might look at the thesis or review the draft or give some feedback and have the student revise.
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All of that is formative information and formative assessment.
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Once we get to that final essay, that's summative.
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Now let's switch that and look at it through the lens of leadership.
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If your employee is learning how to give performance feedback and you teach them the model, and then six months later you evaluate if they're giving good feedback, that would be summative.
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:23.920
Or you could teach the model on Monday and have them practice a real conversation on Tuesday or Wednesday and listen to how they approach it.
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That's the formative assessment.
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It's giving you information because then you can give feedback and let them try it again.
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Then let them have the actual conversation.
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That's formative.
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You're checking the learning before the stakes get too high.
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And that is a completely different approach to leadership.
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Here's one of my favorite classroom strategies that leadership can completely steal: the exit ticket.
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At the end of a lesson, a teacher might ask students to answer one question before they leave.
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Not a pop quiz, not a 40 question test, just one question.
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Maybe it's what's one thing you learned today?
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Or what's one part you're still confused about?
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The teacher gets the information, and that information helps determine tomorrow's lesson.
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Now imagine bringing that into your next team meeting instead of ending with any questions, which, by the way, is probably the least useful question in all of corporate America.
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Instead, you could try, before we wrap up, tell me one thing that's clear and one thing that still feels unclear.
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That's formative assessment.
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It's also creating a safer space for people to admit that they need more clarity or information.
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When we assume there's something that's probably still unclear to people, it allows them to ask for what they need.
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After introducing a new process, you could say, before you leave, explain the first three steps of this process in your own words.
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Now you're activating learning.
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Maybe they get it, maybe they don't.
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But either way, you know because you've collected formative assessment, and knowing is incredibly valuable.
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Let's put this into a real workplace scenario.
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Imagine you're onboarding a new employee and you've spent two hours teaching them a new customer service process.
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And at the end you say, does it make sense?
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And they say, yep, and you say, Great, and everyone goes home.
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But then three weeks later, the employees handling customer situations incorrectly, and you think, well, why didn't they follow the process?
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But here's the thing: you never actually checked whether they understood it.
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You just checked whether they said if they understood it.
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So try this instead.
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Okay, I'm gonna give you a scenario.
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Walk me through exactly what you would do, and then listen.
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Maybe they nail it.
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Great.
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But maybe they say, well, first I would issue the refund.
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And you realize that's definitely not step one.
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Well, perfect.
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You found the gap.
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You used formative assessment to help you find a place where support was needed before it happened with a customer.
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And I want to pause to really clarify something here because I know you might be thinking, this could sound like micromanagement.
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And this distinction matters because micromanagement says, I need to control what you're doing.
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But formative assessment says, I need enough information to know what support you need.
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Those are not the same thing.
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The goal isn't to watch employees forever.
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Actually, the goal is the opposite.
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The better they get, the less intervention they should need.
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Think about a teacher.
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A first grader might need a lot of support learning how to solve a problem, but eventually the student can solve it independently.
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The teacher doesn't continue standing over them saying, What's the first step?
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Tell me what you're gonna do next.
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Are you sure?
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At some point the teacher steps back because that's the gradual release of responsibility.
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And leaders can do the same thing.
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Model, practice, check, coach, release.
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That's development.
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And here's one of my biggest frustrations with workplace learning.
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We often measure what's easiest to measure.
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Did they attend?
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Check, did they finish the course?
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Check, did they pass the quiz?
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Check, did they sign in?
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Check.
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Fantastic.
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Everyone learned.
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Except maybe and probably not, because knowing information is not the same as applying it.
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And transferring learning in the workplace is its own challenge.
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Recent workplace learning research continues to distinguish between acquiring knowledge or skills during training and actually transferring those skills into workplace behavior.
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So here's the question I want leaders to start asking.
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What would I actually see if they had learned this?
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That's a really strong question.
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If you taught feedback, what would you hear?
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More specific behavior-based feedback.
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If you taught a new technology tool, you should see your employees using it correctly and efficiently and effectively.
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If you taught a new sales process, you should hear the process showing up in customer conversations.
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That learning has to become visible.
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And formative assessment can help you look for that.
00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:42.960
And there's another important distinction between formative assessment and feedback because the two are closely connected, but they aren't exactly the same thing.
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Assessment is what gives you the information.
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Feedback is what helps the learner understand what the information means and what to do with it.
00:10:53.360 --> 00:11:01.519
And research on formative assessment increasingly emphasizes that feedback isn't automatically helpful just because we gave it.
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The learner has to understand it, process it, and use it to change future performance.
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Think about how often managers say, I've given them feedback three different times.
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Okay, but the question really is, what did the employee do with the feedback?
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Because feedback isn't the finish line.
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It's supposed to change what happens next.
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So instead of you need to be more strategic, try in the last two meetings, you focus primarily on immediate problems.
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In our next meeting, I want you to bring one recommendation that addresses a longer-term issue.
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Let's look at it together ahead of time.
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Because now you have evidence and a target and a next step and another opportunity to assess.
00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:55.679
And all of that is a learning loop, which gives us a really simple model that you can steal.
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I call it the formative leadership loop.
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Step one, teach.
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Give the person the information, model it, show the skill.
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Step two, check.
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Don't ask, do you understand?
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Ask them to show you.
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Step three, respond.
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Use the information that you received.
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Maybe they need more clarification or more practice or feedback, and maybe they're ready to move on.
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Step four, give them another opportunity to apply it.
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And then step five is release.
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As confidence increases, independence increases, and that's it.
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Then suddenly leadership development becomes less about delivering information and much more about building capacity.
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So here's your challenge.
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I want you to pick one thing your team is currently learning.
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Maybe it's a new process, a new system, a new stale strategy, anything.
00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:02.799
And instead of waiting until the end to see whether people learned it, check the learning while it's happening.
00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:05.360
Don't just ask, do you understand?
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Tell them to show you.
00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.559
And don't ask, does it make sense?
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Ask, walk me through how you would handle this.
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Don't just collect information.
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Do something with it.
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Because if your assessment doesn't change what happens next, then it's probably not formative.
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:30.639
So here's what I want you to remember: don't wait for the performance review to discover the learning problem.
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Don't wait six months or until the customer complains or the project fails.
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Check sooner.
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Provide practice sooner.
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Give feedback sooner so that you can adjust sooner.
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Because the purpose of formative assessment isn't to catch people doing something wrong.
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It's to catch learning while you can still change it.
00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:58.080
And maybe that's the real thing businesses should steal from education.
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Not more training, not more worksheets, better information at the right moment.
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Because if we can figure out what people know, what they can do, and what they need next, we can stop treating performance problems as mysteries.
00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:17.360
We can start treating them as learning opportunities.
00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:20.320
And that changes the job of the learner.
00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:26.000
You aren't just evaluating performance, you're designing the conditions that create it.
00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:28.240
Don't wait for the final exam.
00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.240
Check the learning while there's still time to change the outcome.
00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:34.720
Thanks for listening to Lead with Learning.
00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:38.240
I hope you're walking away with something you can put into practice.
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Until next time, let learning change the way you lead.
00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:07.679
Welcome to Lead with Learning.
00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:14.560
I'm Tess, and here we explore what happens when the science of learning meets the art of leadership.
00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:16.239
Let's get started.
00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:27.039
What if we stopped managing adults based on what we think should work and started managing them based on what we already know about how people learn?
00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:39.359
Because education has spent decades figuring out how people build skills, develop confidence, respond to feedback, practice, and eventually take ownership.
00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.119
And isn't that what we're looking for in the workplace too?
00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:55.679
And yet, when those same people walk into work, we often expect them to learn by being told something once, attending a training, or getting a performance review six months later.
00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:03.039
Maybe business doesn't need another leadership framework, maybe it needs to borrow a few things from education.
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:05.599
That's what we're doing in this series.
00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:13.439
Taking proven learning strategies out of education and putting them to work on everyday leadership challenges.
00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:20.000
Onboarding, feedback, accountability, development, change, ownership, team performance.
00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:25.680
Because these aren't just management problems, they're learning problems.
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.480
I'm Tess, and this is Lead with Learning.
00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:32.000
Let's see what business can steal from education.
00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:33.680
Let me ask you a question.
00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.640
When was the last time you discovered that an employee didn't understand something?
00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:42.959
Was it after you had spent months assuming that they knew how?
00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:48.879
Maybe they misunderstood the process or maybe they weren't confident enough to ask questions.
00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:53.359
Maybe they were doing something incorrectly, but nobody really noticed.
00:01:53.599 --> 00:02:02.480
Maybe they went through the training and passed the quiz and clicked every box in the learning management system, but still couldn't actually do the job.
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:08.479
And then six months later, we sit down for that performance review and we realize we've got a problem.
00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:10.560
And yes, we do.
00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:12.400
But here's the problem.
00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.800
We waited until the final exam to discover it.
00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:20.159
And that's exactly where today's strategy comes in.
00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.319
It's called formative assessment.
00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:26.319
And if you're a leader, you're probably already doing some version of it.
00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:32.319
And don't worry when you hear the word assessment, we're not talking about a quiz or a test or anything like that.
00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:34.719
So what is formative assessment?
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:45.360
In education, formative assessment is about gathering evidence of learning while the learning is happening and using that information to determine what should happen next.
00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:51.439
And that last part matters because formative assessment isn't simply let's see how you're doing.
00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:56.800
It's let's see where you are so we can figure out what you need next.
00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.199
And that's a very different mindset.
00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.479
Teachers don't give students assessment just because they enjoy creating paperwork.
00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:12.159
I mean, I'm sure there's probably some teachers out there that that a case could be made for that, but that's really not the point.
00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:16.879
The point of formative assessment is that teachers need that information.
00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:19.759
They need to know: does the learner understand it?
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:21.039
Can they apply it?
00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:22.560
Where are they getting stuck?
00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:24.639
What misconceptions are there?
00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:32.000
Because then we can consider what we should do differently because of what we've just learned.
00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:48.080
Researchers Paul Black and Dylan William helped bring formative assessment into the mainstream of educational research, arguing that classroom assessment can provide information that improves teaching and learning while the learning is still underway.
00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:52.000
And that idea is incredibly transferable to leadership.
00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.919
Because think about what a manager is constantly trying to figure out.
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:57.360
Do they understand?
00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.560
Can they do it?
00:03:58.800 --> 00:03:59.840
Are they ready?
00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.479
Or why aren't they performing?
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.439
And those are assessment questions.
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.240
So let's make an important distinction.
00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:15.039
There are two words in education that I think business leaders should know: formative and summative.
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.639
And here's the easiest way I know to remember the difference.
00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:21.759
Formative helps form the learning.
00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.800
Summative summarizes the learning.
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:29.439
Formative happens during the process, and summative happens at the end.
00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:39.680
If you think about learning to write an essay, a teacher doesn't necessarily wait until that paper is turned in to discover that a student has misunderstood the assignment.
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There's checkpoints along the way.
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The teacher might look at the thesis or review the draft or give some feedback and have the student revise.
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All of that is formative information and formative assessment.
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Once we get to that final essay, that's summative.
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Now let's switch that and look at it through the lens of leadership.
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If your employee is learning how to give performance feedback and you teach them the model, and then six months later you evaluate if they're giving good feedback, that would be summative.
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Or you could teach the model on Monday and have them practice a real conversation on Tuesday or Wednesday and listen to how they approach it.
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That's the formative assessment.
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It's giving you information because then you can give feedback and let them try it again.
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Then let them have the actual conversation.
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That's formative.
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You're checking the learning before the stakes get too high.
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And that is a completely different approach to leadership.
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Here's one of my favorite classroom strategies that leadership can completely steal: the exit ticket.
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At the end of a lesson, a teacher might ask students to answer one question before they leave.
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Not a pop quiz, not a 40 question test, just one question.
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Maybe it's what's one thing you learned today?
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Or what's one part you're still confused about?
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The teacher gets the information, and that information helps determine tomorrow's lesson.
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Now imagine bringing that into your next team meeting instead of ending with any questions, which, by the way, is probably the least useful question in all of corporate America.
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Instead, you could try, before we wrap up, tell me one thing that's clear and one thing that still feels unclear.
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That's formative assessment.
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It's also creating a safer space for people to admit that they need more clarity or information.
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When we assume there's something that's probably still unclear to people, it allows them to ask for what they need.
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After introducing a new process, you could say, before you leave, explain the first three steps of this process in your own words.
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Now you're activating learning.
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Maybe they get it, maybe they don't.
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But either way, you know because you've collected formative assessment, and knowing is incredibly valuable.
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Let's put this into a real workplace scenario.
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Imagine you're onboarding a new employee and you've spent two hours teaching them a new customer service process.
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And at the end you say, does it make sense?
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And they say, yep, and you say, Great, and everyone goes home.
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But then three weeks later, the employees handling customer situations incorrectly, and you think, well, why didn't they follow the process?
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But here's the thing: you never actually checked whether they understood it.
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You just checked whether they said if they understood it.
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So try this instead.
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Okay, I'm gonna give you a scenario.
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Walk me through exactly what you would do, and then listen.
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Maybe they nail it.
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Great.
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But maybe they say, well, first I would issue the refund.
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And you realize that's definitely not step one.
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Well, perfect.
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You found the gap.
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You used formative assessment to help you find a place where support was needed before it happened with a customer.
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And I want to pause to really clarify something here because I know you might be thinking, this could sound like micromanagement.
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And this distinction matters because micromanagement says, I need to control what you're doing.
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But formative assessment says, I need enough information to know what support you need.
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Those are not the same thing.
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The goal isn't to watch employees forever.
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Actually, the goal is the opposite.
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The better they get, the less intervention they should need.
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Think about a teacher.
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A first grader might need a lot of support learning how to solve a problem, but eventually the student can solve it independently.
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The teacher doesn't continue standing over them saying, What's the first step?
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Tell me what you're gonna do next.
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Are you sure?
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At some point the teacher steps back because that's the gradual release of responsibility.
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And leaders can do the same thing.
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Model, practice, check, coach, release.
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That's development.
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And here's one of my biggest frustrations with workplace learning.
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We often measure what's easiest to measure.
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Did they attend?
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Check, did they finish the course?
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Check, did they pass the quiz?
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Check, did they sign in?
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Check.
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Fantastic.
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Everyone learned.
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Except maybe and probably not, because knowing information is not the same as applying it.
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And transferring learning in the workplace is its own challenge.
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Recent workplace learning research continues to distinguish between acquiring knowledge or skills during training and actually transferring those skills into workplace behavior.
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So here's the question I want leaders to start asking.
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What would I actually see if they had learned this?
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That's a really strong question.
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If you taught feedback, what would you hear?
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More specific behavior-based feedback.
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If you taught a new technology tool, you should see your employees using it correctly and efficiently and effectively.
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If you taught a new sales process, you should hear the process showing up in customer conversations.
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That learning has to become visible.
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And formative assessment can help you look for that.
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And there's another important distinction between formative assessment and feedback because the two are closely connected, but they aren't exactly the same thing.
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Assessment is what gives you the information.
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Feedback is what helps the learner understand what the information means and what to do with it.
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And research on formative assessment increasingly emphasizes that feedback isn't automatically helpful just because we gave it.
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The learner has to understand it, process it, and use it to change future performance.
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Think about how often managers say, I've given them feedback three different times.
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Okay, but the question really is, what did the employee do with the feedback?
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Because feedback isn't the finish line.
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It's supposed to change what happens next.
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So instead of you need to be more strategic, try in the last two meetings, you focus primarily on immediate problems.
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In our next meeting, I want you to bring one recommendation that addresses a longer-term issue.
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Let's look at it together ahead of time.
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Because now you have evidence and a target and a next step and another opportunity to assess.
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And all of that is a learning loop, which gives us a really simple model that you can steal.
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I call it the formative leadership loop.
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Step one, teach.
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Give the person the information, model it, show the skill.
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Step two, check.
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Don't ask, do you understand?
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Ask them to show you.
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Step three, respond.
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Use the information that you received.
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Maybe they need more clarification or more practice or feedback, and maybe they're ready to move on.
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Step four, give them another opportunity to apply it.
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And then step five is release.
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As confidence increases, independence increases, and that's it.
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Then suddenly leadership development becomes less about delivering information and much more about building capacity.
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So here's your challenge.
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I want you to pick one thing your team is currently learning.
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Maybe it's a new process, a new system, a new stale strategy, anything.
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And instead of waiting until the end to see whether people learned it, check the learning while it's happening.
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Don't just ask, do you understand?
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Tell them to show you.
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And don't ask, does it make sense?
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Ask, walk me through how you would handle this.
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Don't just collect information.
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Do something with it.
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Because if your assessment doesn't change what happens next, then it's probably not formative.
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So here's what I want you to remember: don't wait for the performance review to discover the learning problem.
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Don't wait six months or until the customer complains or the project fails.
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Check sooner.
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Provide practice sooner.
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Give feedback sooner so that you can adjust sooner.
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Because the purpose of formative assessment isn't to catch people doing something wrong.
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It's to catch learning while you can still change it.
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And maybe that's the real thing businesses should steal from education.
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Not more training, not more worksheets, better information at the right moment.
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Because if we can figure out what people know, what they can do, and what they need next, we can stop treating performance problems as mysteries.
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We can start treating them as learning opportunities.
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And that changes the job of the learner.
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You aren't just evaluating performance, you're designing the conditions that create it.
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Don't wait for the final exam.
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Check the learning while there's still time to change the outcome.
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Thanks for listening to Lead with Learning.
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I hope you're walking away with something you can put into practice.
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Until next time, let learning change the way you lead.
