For the Extra Mile Institute

Step back sessions

This is one of two initiatives we are running with EMI. It embeds a small, repeatable reflection directly into how GSCG already meets, rather than adding a separate program on top of everything else people are carrying. That distinction is the whole design. A thing that lives inside an existing meeting has a much better chance of surviving a busy semester than a thing that asks for its own slot.

What it is

A step back session is a bite sized reflection. Students watch a short video about a concept in performance psychology within business, then reflect on it on their own ahead of the meeting. When they arrive, everyone has watched the same video, so the meeting opens with a shared reflection rather than a cold start.

Students share what they are experiencing, build a bond around the concept, and grow through it together. Then the meeting moves into its regular business. The reflection is the opening, not the agenda.

This connects to how I think growth actually happens. Reflecting on a shared concept, and then hearing how other people experienced that same concept, builds new associations between emotions, thoughts, and sensations that a student can reference later. The shared starting point is what turns a private reflection into connectedness. Everyone reflecting alone on different things produces a group of people who each thought something. Everyone reflecting on the same thing produces a group that now has language in common.

About 15 minutes At the start of a meeting that is already happening, so nothing new lands on anyone's calendar.
Imposter syndrome An example of the kind of concept in scope. The library covers performance psychology in a business setting.
Structured, then chosen Concepts are set ahead of time at first. Over time facilitators pick the ones most relevant to their team.

Where it runs

Two touch points inside GSCG, and the plan is to run it in both.

Every project meeting

Opening the meeting where the work actually gets done, with the team that is doing it.

Every director meeting

The same practice at the leadership level, so directors are doing it themselves and not only asking others to.

A load question we are still testing

This could be run by directors rather than project managers, so the facilitation load does not fall on PMs, who already carry the meeting itself. I want to say plainly that this is a design choice we are testing rather than a fixed rule. We will find out during the trial whether the session lands better facilitated by the person running the meeting or by someone slightly outside it, and we will adjust based on what we see.

The rollout below reflects that this is unsettled rather than resolved. Directors get the training first, and both directors and project managers run sessions to start, so we learn from both before deciding. If we land on directors facilitating throughout, the training step already fits. If project managers keep it, they need the same training the directors get, and that is a gap we will close rather than let sit.

How we roll it out

The sequence is deliberate. Each step earns the one after it.

  1. Directors attend a session on what the program is, so they understand what it is and why we are doing it before anyone is asked to run one.
  2. Directors complete a short asynchronous training on how to run a session, about 15 to 30 minutes.
  3. At the GSCG kickoff meeting, someone explains EMI, what we are doing with the step back sessions, and how it works, so the whole group has the overview rather than meeting it cold in their first project meeting.
  4. After kickoff, directors and project managers prepare for and run the sessions at the start of their meetings.

Accounts and access

Students download the app and join as users. Project managers and directors get a different login with access to the full library, since they are the ones facilitating and need to see what is available before they choose a concept.

Why this approach, and that it is a trial

EMI developed the step back sessions and the programming around them in industry, working with mature organizations. What makes this workable for us is that they now offer a more hands off version, one an organization can largely run on its own. This initiative is us testing that ability inside GSCG's environment, with our people, our meetings, and our semester.

This is a trial

We are running it across project meetings and director meetings to find out whether it works for us. We are not committing the organization to it permanently up front, and if it is not working we will say so rather than let it quietly persist.

What we are watching for: whether it actually builds the connectedness and reflection we are after, and what it teaches us about what our students are working through. Both answers are useful. The second one feeds everything else we build with EMI.

What each of us owns

This does not move without both sides doing their part, so here is the split for this direction as we left it.

GSCG owns

  • Coordinate the next meeting EMI can attend.
  • Coordinate the kickoff meeting.
  • Understand the process to implement step back sessions in project meetings.
  • Name an owner for the step back initiative.

EMI owns

  • Develop the material.
  • Handle logistics and operations.
  • Help GSCG execute and plan the rollout.

The other half of this effort is the guest speaker series, four sessions across fall and spring, one per GSCG principle. The series raises awareness across the group. These sessions turn that awareness into a habit. Neither does much alone.

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