Rapid Learning Cycles Institute
We help innovators get their best ideas to market — faster!
Drive More Effective Decisions
How to Close Knowledge Gaps
Rapidly, Effectively and Completely
A Four-Week Online Deep Dive into the Practices and Tools
Inside the Learning Cycle
That Lead to Confident, Data-Driven Decisions
The Lifecycle of a Knowledge Gap
Clarify the question and purpose for the Knowledge Gap to ensure that you are building the knowledge needed most.
Design learning activities that are right for the type of Knowledge Gap that you have, and build an efficient plan to close them — maximizing the value of your team's learning time.
Run rapid experiments to build the knowledge you need, starting from the knowledge you have, which will close Knowledge Gaps faster and more effectively.
Report your results using visual models and tools that help your decision maker understand the data and weigh the alternatives, resulting in better decisions that lead to a stronger product.
Empower your Scientists, Engineers, Designers and Product Managers to build the knowledge needed to make better decisions the first time.
This series, consisting of four one-hour online classes will help your teams close their knowledge gaps rapidly, effectively and completely — giving your decision makers the knowledge needed to make data-driven Key Decisions.
We built this online class to give you the skills and tools you need for immediate success.
- How to Clarify the Knowledge Gap Question to Build the Right Knowledge. Knowledge Gap owners struggle to close Knowledge Gaps that are too broad, vague or fuzzy. The first step to close a Knowledge Gap is to write a well-defined question that can be closed neatly and efficiently.
- Why You Need a Good Purpose Statement and How to Write One. In the Rapid Learning Cycles framework, we "de-risk" our Key Decisions by building the knowledge to make these decisions with greater confidence. A good Purpose Statement ensures that every Knowledge Gap focuses on the knowledge needed for its Key Decision.
- How to Build the Foundation for an Effective Learning Plan. The basis for a solid Learning Plan rests upon closing Knowledge Gaps rapidly, effectively and completely. The class will cover the four types of Knowledge Gaps and the tools used to close each one.
- How to Organize Rapid Experiments. Many Knowledge Gaps require experimentation — and not just in the technical realm! We will introduce you to a tool, the "Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Sheet" that will help drive rapid and effective experimentation to build knowledge quickly.
- How to Transform Numerical Data into Visual Models to Support Your Decision Makers. Whether your decision maker is an Executive Leadership Team, your Business Leader, your Program Sponsor or even the team itself, the right visual models lead to better decisions by helping you "tell the story" learned from your data. Maximize the impact of your hard-won knowledge by using data visualization and charting techniques that are easy-to-read and interpret.
Real Time Coaching on Your Active Knowledge Gaps
with Three Options
"Hot Seat"
Coaching in
Public Classes
Public classes feature "Hot Seat" coaching with an experienced coach who can help you improve your approach to your Knowledge Gaps, from defining the question to writing the report for your decision makers. You may choose any Knowledge Gap that you can share with your classmates, and we will provide a case study if you are not able to share anything from your own work.
One or two people from the same company can opt for Private Coaching Sessions for personal and private coaching on active Knowledge Gaps. Your coach will sign an NDA if needed so that you can work together on real Knowledge Gaps from your active program. Your registration includes four 30-minute sessions.
Private Coaching
Sessions
Private Class
for a Team
For even more coaching on real Knowledge Gaps in a confidential setting, register for the Team Option. You will watch the lecture videos on your own time, and then an experienced coach will meet with your team to provide coaching on how to close a set of Knowledge Gaps — taken from your own program — rapidly, effectively and completely. Your Private Workshop includes four one-hour sessions for up to eight people.
Public Live Session Dates and Times
Fridays — February 5, 12, 19, 26
Best for Americas
10 am PST
11 am MST
12 pm CST
1 pm EST
Other Regions
We are compiling a waiting list of people from other regions who would like a public class. Please contact us to let us know you're interested.
Anyone from any region may choose the Team Class option and we will work with you on your schedule for coaching sessions. There is no self-study option for this class.
Who Should Attend This Online Class?
In a Rapid Learning Cycles program, anyone can be the owner of a Knowledge Gap. This class would be especially valuable for:
- Technical Leaders who own technical Knowledge Gaps, especially those who mentor other technical experts on how to close the Knowledge Gaps within their areas of expertise.
- Scientists and Engineers who will need to design and run experiments in order to build new knowledge to close Knowledge Gaps that expand the boundaries of knowledge.
- Product Managers and Designers who need to close Knowledge Gaps around customer needs and business value creation.
This class will be especially valuable for anyone who mentors other team members around how to close Knowledge Gaps and write Knowledge Gap Reports. The coaching methods used in the class will be leverageable to the situations where you need to coach others.
How to Close Knowledge Gaps Rapidly, Effectively and Completely
The Knowledge Gap Question and Purpose Statement
It's hard to close a Knowledge Gap that's vague, fuzzy or just not the right question. We'll describe how to write a clear, crisp question and define its purpose to guide you the rest of the way.
Four Types of Knowledge Gaps and How to Close Them
The learning activities you need depend upon the type of Knowledge Gap you have. We'll cover the types of Knowledge Gaps that show up in Rapid Learning Cycles programs and the best practices for closing each type.
PDCA Sheets to Drive Rapid, Effective Experimentation
Rapid PDCA cycles make your experimentation more efficient and effective without adding a lot of overhead. We'll show you how to use a PDCA Sheet to spin rapid cycles of experimentation that build knowledge quickly, and apply in technical, customer and business contexts.
Visual Modeling to Support Better Decision Making
Your Knowledge Gap report is the tool you will use to share your new knowledge with your team and decision makers. Good visual models make it easier to tell the story that's found in your data so that others can see the patterns in the data that you see. We'll cover best practices for building and using visual models that support better decisions.
Accelerate a Mission Critical Program by Sending Your Team
When you sign up a team of at least four people for the Team Session, they will receive confidential coaching on the most important Knowledge Gaps to close right now.
Work on real Knowledge Gaps - not class exercises. We'll work with you to get the NDAs in place so that you can get coaching on the knowledge you're building for your current program.
Receive feedback on how to overcome the patterns in your own company culture to drive better decisions. By reviewing a set of Knowledge Gaps across a program, we can identify common patterns and give customized recommendations about how to work with your decision makers to overcome them.
Learn from the feedback given to your entire team. Every team member will have opportunities to receive feedback from an experienced coach, ask questions and troubleshoot issues live in the Team Session, where others can learn from their experiences in a respectful, safe environment.
To take advantage of this, select the "Team Option" below.
What Others Say About Our Experiences
Jason Anderson, Trimble Corporation
RLCI has shown how to pull together a combination of agile software management techniques within a phase gate development, with a process to follow, and made it easier to ask my organization to implement it. We have had two Kickoff events and the response has been very positive. The one thing I would change is having more people from my company attend.
Wouter van Essen, Sonion
I had some doubts about sending all our Project Managers and whether they would learn how to use Rapid Learning Cycles better for their own projects. But I am sticking with the decision to send them all as it is another positive experience with Rapid Learning Cycles when they are applying it together with RLC enthusiasts from other companies and more attention to the thinking behind the framework. The best part of the class was the three baskets that help determine which elements of Rapid Learning Cycles drive success and therefore must be applied rigorously, and which ones can be left for the team to decide.
The class prepared us very well for explaining Rapid Learning Cycles to teams that will work with it and convincing stakeholders of the logic behind it. The workshop will give you the tools and insights that you need to judge and positively influence the quality of the plans of the teams that you guide. With that the learning on how to successfully apply Rapid Learning Cycles in your company will be accelerated.
Vaas Conradie, Gallagher
I was concerned that the R & D executives would not buy into this. But the simplicity and logic of the approach made this an easier sell. Almost everybody we sent to the training is involved in an RLC project or is about to be. I especially appreciated the ongoing support that has been available to my team after the workshop.
More Comments from Past Participants
David Berg, Greenheck Fan Corporation, Schofield, WI, USA
After attending the workshop four months ago, there is growing exciting over this process and its many opportunities, not only within my team but throughout my company. I’m looking forward to sending more people to the training so that we can build our user community.
Chris Hill, Navico, Auckland, New Zealand
I’m a busy person, but I’m glad I took the time for this workshop. I appreciated that it focuses on the importance of knowledge, it drives home the importance of cadence, and gives us the tools we need to get started with the Rapid Learning Cycles framework. The exercises brought the theory to life.
David Woodward, nLight Photonics, Vancouver, Washington, USA
The Rapid Learning Cycles Training solidified the concepts from The Shortest Distance by working through a case study and by expertly facilitated discussions with the other course participants. I feel confident that I now have the knowledge and tools to implement Rapid Learning Cycles in the real world
Nicolas Bayona-Carrillo, Constellium, Voreppe, France
I found that product development managers, developers and applied research scientists generally feel that RLCs are a ‘natural fit’ to their work, which is key to facilitate adoption of the method. I liked the exchange with people from diverse fields and companies; from start-ups to big corporations and universities.
I recommend this class because it allows exchange on product development approaches and practices with people outside my company, which is not easy to achieve in other venues such as conferences or exhibitions. It’s a good opportunity to make sure that all the key concepts and implementation practices are well-understood. The workshop material has been useful back in my office. I’ve consulted it several times before Rapid Learning Cycles events and the advice has helped me work with my teams.
Craig Adams, Tru-Test Corporation, Auckland, New Zealand
I was concerned that we would not get a return on the investment of time and money for sending our people to the workshop, but it helped us achieve alignment and momentum that we would not have achieved otherwise because we all had the same grounding in the material. We knew about the Rapid Learning Cycles framework and were attempting to use it, but we were getting variable results. We decided to use the training as a catalyst for change, sending a product manager, program manager and project leader from each of our three NPD groups to the sessions. As a result, we achieved alignment across the groups.
Each group was able to run its own trial application of RLC to a current project. This gave momentum to the change initiative which we would not have received otherwise. Not only did we have multiple trials underway, we had more confidence the trials were consistent because we all had the same grounding in the material, and the opportunity to practice the skills in a group built solid understanding of the method. We also found that sharing this learning experience with other companies was valuable and enjoyable.
Your Instructor: Kathy Iberle
You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with Kathy Iberle, the first person certified as a Rapid Learning Cycles Certified® Advisor, who has been an affiliate with Rapid Learning Cycles Institute from the beginning.
Kathy has a strong interest in effective problem-solving methods that drive data-driven decision making, and she played a key role in developing these aspects of the Rapid Learning Cycles framework.
Kathy’s background is in mixed hardware/software engineering with a focus on quality engineering. She has worked with a wide range of products – everything from printers to early web applications to cardiology and scientific instruments. In the course of her adventures in the high-tech world, she’s developed or improved many types of development processes for teams both large and small.
Kathy lives in Vancouver, Washington where she runs her own consulting business and enjoys hiking, camping, and snowshoeing in her spare time.
Class Options
Public Class with Hot Seat Coaching
- Live session "hot-seat" coaching (one hour).
- Core Content videos with unlimited playback.
- Action worksheets with homework assignments
Private Coaching Sessions
- Four 30-minute private coaching sessions for one or two individuals
- Core Content videos with unlimited playback
- Action worksheets with homework assignments
- We will sign NDAs if needed to allow for working on confidential programs.
Private Workshop for a Team
- Four one-hour private group coaching sessions for up to eight people
- Core Content videos with unlimited playback
- Action worksheets with homework assignments
- Confidential Email Coaching for workshop participants
- We will sign NDAs if needed to allow for working on confidential programs.