Being compared to Goldilocks

During a client meeting recently, one of the people in the room referred to my team as “Goldilocks”. My mind immediately visualized the girl with pigtails sitting in 3 chairs, eating 3 bowls of porridge and sleeping in 3 different beds. I bet you have the same image! I couldn’t let that comment slide without finding out the story behind the remark. So I asked, “What do you mean by that?”

To me, their answer was as simple as the fairytale. During this particular project, they asked our team to help redesign their systems training, and they were pleased that the result was “just right”.

So, here’s our version of the Goldilocks story:

  • In the beginning…Our team looked at the client’s needs, observed current training classes, interviewed people from leadership to programmers to find out what has/hasn’t worked in the past, etc.
  • In the middle…We analyzed this information, verified it where needed and set about designing a new approach that we truly thought would work with this client’s organization and culture
  • In the end…Our strategy wasn’t overelaborate, cumbersome or resource intense. Neither was it too light, high-level and ambiguous. The client said that our strategy was “just right”. It provided just the right amount of structure, the right level of content, and flexibility that our client’s organization needed.

And in fact, that learning strategy is still in place today (3 years after implementation). So, I’ve never been compared to Goldilocks, but I like it!