I noticed your recommendation to “make explicit the learnings and actions from the discussions.” Having received various training from Jerry Weinberg, most recently the Experiential Training Workshop he presented Thursday with Esther Derby, I can tell you why these sessions do not do so.

The learning of these sessions is not a transfer of knowledge from one person to another. It’s an elicitation of understanding within the participant. The goal is to create an environment where the participant will learn something–not so much to teach the participant something the session leader knows.

It’s quite frequently the case that the participant may learn something different than the session leader intends. Should the session leader say, “No, you didn’t learn that. This is what you learned,” or allow the participant to own the learning?

It always takes me awhile to digest the sessions at AYE. Sometimes when I go back through my notes, I notice new learnings much later, when I have a different perspective. And I can assure you that I’m still actively processing the lessons from the Problem Solving Leadership workshop I attended a couple years ago.

While this style of learning may lead to less explicit lessons, it seems to lead to more permanent and profound ones.