Practise decisions
Learners make decisions in realistic situations and see what each choice leads to.
Based on: scenario-based learning and Cathy Moore's Action Mapping. Start from what people should do differently at work, not from everything they could know. Let them practise those decisions safely and learn from the consequences.
When to use it
- You want to change behaviour: sales conversations, customer service, compliance, leadership, difficult conversations.
- There are typical mistakes that look reasonable in the moment.
- Knowing the rule isn't enough — people need to apply it under pressure.
How the lesson flows
| # | Card | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Card — The situation | Who is involved, where, what is at stake. |
| 2 | Quiz — What do you do? | Three plausible choices. With Comment per option, each comment tells what happens after that choice. |
| 3 | Card — What happened next | The story continues; why it turned out this way. |
| 4 | Quiz — The next decision | The situation develops; another decision with consequences. |
| 5 | Card — The best approach | The principle behind the right decisions. |
| 6 | Quiz — A new situation | Apply the principle in a different case. |
| 7 | Checklist — In a real situation | What to do first, what to avoid, who to ask. |
Example
A customer asks for a discount you can't give: choice A — explain the value and offer an alternative; B — give a small discount "just this once"; C — tell them it's company policy. Each comment shows the consequence: B sets an expectation for next time, C ends the conversation. The next card continues with the customer's reaction.
Tips
- The wrong options must be tempting — what people really do, not obvious nonsense.
- Write consequences, not verdicts: "The customer goes quiet and doesn't reply to your next email" teaches more than "Wrong".
- Want real branching, where each choice leads to a different card? Use a Button card whose buttons go to other cards of the lesson.
Where it comes from
Action Mapping was developed by Cathy Moore, an American training designer, starting around 2008, first on her blog and later in the book Map It (2017). It started as a protest against e-learning that is "an information dump with a quiz at the end". Moore's method starts at the other end:
- What measurable business goal should the training change?
- What do people need to do differently to reach it?
- How can they practise those actions in realistic situations?
- What information do they need for that, and nothing more?
Scenario-based learning is older. In the 1990s Roger Schank at Northwestern University developed goal-based scenarios, in which learners take on a role and learn by making decisions and seeing their consequences. Simulations and case exercises have been used for decades in aviation, medicine and the military.
Did you know?
- Moore recommends a quick test: before you build any training, ask whether a lack of knowledge is really the problem. Often the real cause is a bad process, missing tools or wrong incentives, and no course will fix those.
- In a good scenario, the wrong options are mistakes people really make, with consequences like the ones that happen at work. If the right answer is obvious, the decision isn't practising anything.
- Learning from consequences works well because it resembles real experience, but it's safe. A bad decision in a lesson costs nothing.