Responsibility

Rose and Ben were scheduled to attend a oneday workshop the next day. They discussed not attending given the impending deadline but decided the day out of the office might give them a fresh perspective. Besides, the session they were scheduled to attend just might have some bearing on their assignment. The morning of the workshop, they met early for a quick breakfast.

“I hope attending this workshop is a good decision,” Rose said.

“I think we’ll be fine. Did you read the course description?” Ben asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t remember the details,” Rose admitted. “All I know is this guy is supposed to be one of the best at designing training events.”

“The description sounds good to me.” Ben proceeded to read from his phone: “Learn how to increase learning, retention, and engagement.”

“Intriguing,” Rose said. “Let’s take good notes.”

“We’re going to do better than that,” Ben added.

“What have you got in mind?”

“We’re going to take our instructor to dinner tonight.”

“We are?” Rose said in disbelief.

“Yes, we are,” Ben said.

“How did you arrange that?”

“Haven’t done it yet, but I will as soon as we can get into the room.”

When the two found their seats, it was still thirty minutes until the program was scheduled to begin. Ben said, “Let’s find our dinner guest.”

Approaching the technicians at the back of the room, Ben introduced himself and found out the speaker had not yet checked in for his microphone.

“We’ll wait here,” Ben said to Rose. “He’ll be here soon.” No sooner had Ben finished his sentence than Jerry Bushman approached the table.

“Good morning, Mr. Bushman! My name is Ben, and this is my colleague, Rose. We’re excited about your workshop.”

“Thanks for your enthusiasm, and you can call me Jerry,” he said.

“Thanks, Jerry. I know you have to get ready to speak, but I was wondering if we could buy you dinner tonight.”

“Really? Why would you want to do that?” Jerry asked.

“Honestly, we’re working on a project I think you would be interested in.”

“But we’re not selling anything,” Rose quickly added.

“Right, we’re not selling anything, but we are searching the globe to determine what causes people to really care about their work. We’d love to share what we’ve learned thus far and get any counsel you might have for us,” Ben said.

“It would need to be an early dinner,” Jerry said.

“You name the time and the place,” Ben said.

“Let’s meet in front of the stage at the end of the day,” Jerry said.

“Outstanding,” Rose said. “We’ll see you then.”

The workshop was surprisingly applicable to the topic of engagement. Jerry provided many ideas regarding how to help learners care more about whatever content one was trying to impart. Ben and Rose both learned a lot and were excited to continue the conversation with Jerry over dinner.

“Thanks for agreeing to have dinner with us!” Rose said.

“Thanks for the invitation,” Jerry said. “When you travel as much as I do, eating alone gets old. Besides, I am interested in what you’re learning about how to help people really care. I’ve been trying to do the same thing for decades.”

“Yes, we could tell,” Ben said. “We heard a lot today we believe will be helpful in our efforts.”

“Please tell me more about your work,” Jerry requested.

Rose and Ben began to talk about some of what Blake and Megan had discovered during their travels.

“Fascinating!” Jerry said. “I really do think you guys are onto something. How can I help?”

“We’re at the stage in our process where we are trying to figure out how to apply some of the ideas . . . translate the principles into practice,” Ben said.

“Ben and I have been asked to find real-world examples of how to engender higher levels of Responsibility.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Jerry chuckled. “I hope you saw dozens of examples in the workshop today.”

“I think we did, but could you summarize your point of view for us?” Ben asked.

“Sure, as I stressed throughout the day, one of the problems with the way people approach training is that way too much of the responsibility falls to the instructor. The best way to get learners to engage, or care, is to shift the responsibility to the student. This is the magic behind my method. If I go back to my hotel in the evening and I’m tired, I didn’t do it right. The students should be tired, not me!

“Let’s go back through your notes from today and see how I practiced this principle,” Jerry said.

After a quick review, Ben and Rose realized the entire day was focused on shifting the responsibility to the learner—not just ownership of the outcomes, but the methods, too, were often created by the learners.

“No wonder I’m so tired,” Rose laughed.

“My work here is complete,” Jerry said with a big smile.

“Any final advice for us?” Ben asked.

“I can’t really speak to all the drivers of engagement, or caring, as you describe it, but I have spent decades teaching one big idea around the globe: if you can shift enough responsibility to your students, or employees, so they feel ownership for the work, your outcomes will improve. I think that’s what Blake and Megan have also discovered.”

If you can shift enough responsibility to your students, or employees, so they feel ownership for the work, your outcomes will improve.

“Is it shifting or sharing?” Rose asked.

“Fair question,” Jerry said. “Sharing is probably the better word choice. However, the people I work with usually have such a death grip on responsibility, I have to overstate the transfer to get their attention. What you are suggesting is more accurate. Leaders do not generally shift responsibility as much as they share it . . . the leader is still ultimately accountable.”

“Thanks for the clarification. What you are suggesting appears to be a powerful way to improve engagement,” Ben said. “One final question . . .”

“Sure.”

“How do you know this idea of sharing responsibility really works?” Ben asked.

“The test.”

“What test?” Rose asked.

“There should always be a test,” Jerry said with a faint smile. “When you shift responsibility, you must always go back to see if you were successful. The test may be very literal if you are a classroom teacher. Or in the marketplace, I guess the accountability naturally accompanies any task or assignment. If you got it right, the employees will too . . . you have to verify the results to be sure. Were the desired behaviors observed? Were the desired outcomes achieved? These are the ultimate ‘test’ questions.”