Start from the end (reading a book with this title)
I was reading an article on why so many leadership development programs fail to deliver business results MIT Sloan
It came down to 3 simple things:
-
They don’t start with the end goal.
What are we actually trying to achieve?
Learning for the sake of learning? Or are we trying to improve innovation? Boost engagement? Break down silos?
If we don’t know the outcome we’re designing for, how do we even begin to measure success? -
They don’t design training to get better at the thing that matters most (which isn't even known often).
Even if there is a goal, the training isn’t built to hit it.
There’s no well-designed practice, no integration into real work, no tracking.
It’s like reading a business book but never scheduling and designing for its application. Hoping insight alone will somehow shift you. -
They don’t measure impact.
There’s no system in place to check whether all that time and money actually moved the needle.
It’s like trying to lose weight, eating “healthy,” but the scale never budges. Nice effort, but no meaningful result.
Because this isn’t just about leadership programs.
This is about life.
We say we want something: more growth, better health, stronger relationships, a thriving business, inspiring career.
But we don’t design our lefforts to achieve that.
We just do things. Randomly. Repeatedly. Hopefully.
We read books, but the wrong ones, or with no application follow-up.
We exercise, but in a way that makes us hungrier.
We work more, but not on the things that bring in revenue.
The problem isn’t your effort. It’s the design.
Start with the end in mind.
Then reverse engineer the experience to match.
And measure your effort against that end goal.
Are you doing that?
Or are you just doing things?
You can work all your life and never actually get what you want, wouldn't that be a waste and frustration?
