Picture two Americans sitting comfortably on the back terrace of a posh British countryside estate. My client contact, Caitlin, and I had been doing leadership retreats for executives at her company for several years. Late May is a lovely time to be in the UK and we had just finished a very long day with a group of the best and brightest future leaders from across the client’s global offices. This 9-month high-potential program brought the client’s future leaders into a series of 3-day sessions with rotating locations (Boston, London, Brussels, Toronto, Dusseldorf, NYC, etc.). As someone who enjoys seeing smart people quickly grasp what we teach and immediately, hungrily, apply it to their own lives, I have always loved these sessions. And, as someone who particularly enjoys working internationally, this was one of my favorite programs of the year.
Caitlin was uncharacteristically muted, staring into her gin & tonic. Since it is especially relevant to this particular story, I’ll share with you that Caitlin sees herself as an ENFP.
Me: Hey, are you jet-lagging?
Caitlin (unusually long pause): No. (slow smile) It’s a different kind of tired.
Me: Like…..?
Caitlin (sigh): It’s hard to explain, but it crops up for me every once in a while. I mean, these 3-day immersions are amazing. Our participants are so eager, so motivated, so smart… it’s like they just instantaneously absorb what we put in front of them before we’ve even finished the whole sentence. They synthesize it into real-world applications SO easily. As an educator, it is literally all you could ask for….
Me: Well, that’s why I’m here! All I really want are eager learners who laugh at my jokes! 🙂 So…?
Caitlin (longer pause, sip of gin and tonic): We sell discount merchandise. At the end of the day, we’re helping people to sell more discount merchandise. It’s not the kind of thing that I expect to look back on when I’m 95 and say “I helped people sell more cheap stuff” and feel a deep sense of satisfaction, you know?
Me (my turn to take a buy-some-time sip from my drink): I totally get that Caitlin.
Me (in my head only…) I’m struck by how different Caitlin and my paths and priorities are. I drift in and out of a multitude of different client environments and industries, excited as an Outside Cat that people want our tools and training to fix their particular challenges. Caitlin, on the other hand, has spent 20 years as an Inside Cat in the same organization, wondering what her impact is. And, as an NF Idealist, she’s right to question whether she is making a long-term positive impact on helping others achieve their fullest potential since that’s a core value for her.
Caitlin: Whoa, that’s like the longest pause I’ve ever seen you take!
Me (smiling): I get it. You’re not working towards world peace here; the best outcome for the business is selling more stuff. And, on top of that, you’re a minimalist focused on reduce/reuse/recycle. So, can I ask YOU why you’re still here after 20 years?
Caitlin: OMG, I’ve come SO close to leaving so many times! But each time it comes back to one thing – I love these people. I talk to all my friends about their jobs and never once have I said “Wow, I have to go work there!” But here, we truly are a people-first culture and I deeply care about the relationships I’ve built over the years.
Me: I can hear the energy in your voice! So, the issue is just that the mission of the business is out of alignment with your values? Like, if you were working to solve a major societal issue with these same people you’d be good.
Caitlin: A million percent.
I’ve thought about this conversation a lot over the years.
In my opinion, Caitlin was asking the right questions. All of us, not just those in the HR/L&D/OD space, should be asking questions about our impact on the world and whether our work is sufficiently meaningful and satisfying. These are not easy questions to answer, but to me they force us to consider whether we’re spending the majority of our time on the planet doing what is enriching and consistent with our values – and which is making the best use of our natural wiring. If we don’t ask these questions, when we reflect back on our careers we will likely realize we could have found something better.
Here’s my own thinking around the impact of what we do. This message is particularly relevant for anyone doing coaching, facilitating, leadership programs, team workshops, etc. both inside an organization as an employee, as well as those external consultants brought in to do the same.
So, what IS the impact of our work?
It’s true, we’re not curing cancer or solving climate change. But, those problems won’t be solved without humans working together more effectively. That’s where our community of educators, facilitators, and coaches come in. We’re the accelerants, the catalysts, the teachers who give people the resources, encouragement, insight, and knowledge to do better in all aspects of their work.
When we teach our communication skills classes at TypeCoach, we’re doing more than helping people sell more widgets or run a better meeting. We’re giving them tools to interact with everyone in their lives more effectively — and through the ripple effect, no changes everything.
Here’s a way to think about it: for each group of people who go through a leadership development course, coaching program, etc., there’s a familiar distribution:
- Top 25%: the eager learners. These are the ones who walk out of a session saying, “I’ll never be the same.”
- Middle 50%: they pick up a few key tools, have some “aha” moments, and apply what they’ve learned — maybe not every day, but when it counts.
- Bottom 25%: some short-term impact. That’s life.
The Ripple Effect in Numbers
Just for fun, let’s play out some numbers to put it in perspective.
I estimate that over the last 20 years I’ve had the chance to work with roughly 70,000 people in live workshops. My audiences range from the relatively small, multi-month programs described in the Caitlin example above to much larger programs like the 1,000 students, faculty and staff I recently trained at Harvard Business School.
If we take the top 25% and middle 50% learners who had some meaningful impact from those sessions, that’s 52,500 humans, give or take, who put our techniques to work in some capacity. Since our focus is around interpersonal communication, we can consider our impact through the interactions these graduates had. If we take a reasonable assumption that these individuals each interact with 10–20 people per day across work, home, and life, that adds up fast.
Even conservatively, let’s say:
- 15 meaningful interactions/day
- 300 active days/year
- That’s 4,500 upgraded human interactions per person per year
Now multiply:
- 52,500 people × 4,500 interactions = 236 million improved interactions annually
And if even 10% of those result in a measurably better outcome – a calmer conversation, a better meeting, a moment of better parenting, a more understanding and patient interaction with a spouse – you’re looking at 23.6 million moments that help shape better organizations, stronger families, and a more humane society.
Not bad for a few workshops, right?
Where the Ripple Effect Leads
The Ripple Effect at Work
- Teams operate with more trust and psychological safety
- Colleagues extend the benefit of the doubt
- Meetings are more intentional and less repetitive
- People show up with more energy and focus
- Managers mentor instead of micromanage
- Employees stay longer because they feel seen
- Feedback is easier to give and receive
- Innovation includes more perspectives
- Cross-functional collaboration actually happens
The Ripple Effect at Home
- Leaders pause and ask questions instead of reacting
- Parents shape environments around their kids, not themselves
- Conflict shifts from right/wrong to differing perspectives
- Couples communicate instead of collapse into patterns
- Co-parenting becomes more collaborative
- Kids grow up with emotional intelligence modeled
The Ripple Effect in Public
- Extraverts smile when Introverts need a moment
- Introverts smile when Extraverts go on a bit long
- More patience at the coffee shop
- More humanity in customer service
- One less emotional grenade in a stressed-out world
- Even online, people pause before reacting
A Quiet, Powerful Legacy
Back to Caitlin and her gin and tonic. She was right to ask those questions. The mission of an organization matters. But so does the culture and the people. For those of us working to make an impact on people, it’s not limited to just how that organization improves, it‘s about how those people become better versions of themselves in all aspects of their lives. How their interactions with others improve which has a lasting impact.
That’s the work. That’s the legacy. And if we do it right, the ripple effect spreads this legacy out in ways we may never see – but can still believe in.
And, as you’ll see in my next piece, I sincerely believe that humanity needs this more than anything else.
