Conversations That Count — Joshua Stoner

Conversations That Count Manager Development Workshop + Workbook | People & Culture L&D, 2024

Workshop design Curriculum design Manager enablement Behavior change

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About This Project

A people manager population navigating significant organizational change required practical, behavior-grounded feedback skills. Data and anecdotal signals from performance cycles pointed to a consistent gap: managers were having fewer developmental conversations, and when they did, feedback quality varied widely. Generic praise was common; observable, behavior-grounded feedback was not.

Conversations That Count was designed to close that gap—a live workshop for people managers focused on building practical feedback and communication skills, paired with a workbook artifact for continued reference and application. Josh designed and developed the content; delivery was handled by facilitation colleagues.

This demonstrates: curriculum design grounded in a diagnosed behavioral gap, instructional judgment in framework selection, blended design pairing a live workshop format with a durable self-service artifact, and the ability to design within a broader program architecture while delivering a complete, standalone experience.

Context

Role	Content Designer & Developer, Learning Experience & Enablement
Year	2024–2025
Format	Live workshop (designed by Josh; delivered by facilitation colleagues) + participant workbook
Audience	People managers
Reach	~60–70 managers during an active period of organizational change
Program context	Standalone workshop; component of a broader manager development journey being actively mapped

The Problem

Feedback quality across performance cycles was inconsistent—a pattern confirmed by both cycle data and direct signal from managers and their teams. The existing feedback infrastructure provided a format (the SBID framework) but limited structured practice in applying it.

Two compounding factors made this harder:

Organizational change at pace—rapid structural changes meant many managers were leading teams with new compositions, lower psychological safety, and higher ambiguity
Performance data without application—feedback data from performance cycles was available but managers lacked a structured framework for translating scores into development conversations

Design Approach

1. Reinforce, Don’t Replace Rather than introducing new vocabulary, the session built on SBID—a feedback model already embedded in the organization’s performance culture. The design sharpened an existing muscle rather than asking managers to adopt a competing framework mid-cycle.

2. Live Practice as the Primary Vehicle Behavioral skill development requires practice, not content consumption. The session was structured for active discussion, applied scenarios, and in-the-moment reflection rather than passive instruction or slide-heavy delivery.

3. A Workbook as a Durable Artifact Participants left with a structured workbook containing the SBID framework, worked examples, guided prompts, and space for personal reflection—designed for recall and self-directed application after the session ended.

The SBID Framework

Framework Reference

S — Situation: Establish context—where and when did this occur?
“When we partnered on the Q3 planning process last month…”

B — Behavior: Name the specific, observable action—what did you see?
“You took initiative to pull in the analytics team before I asked, to get ahead of the data gaps…”

I — Impact: State the consequence—what was the outcome or effect?
“…which saved the team roughly 6 hours of rework during the final review week.”

D — Discuss: Invite dialogue—clarify, listen, and align on what’s next.
“I’d like to hear how you experienced that—and talk about where to take it next quarter.”

Session Structure

Part 1 — Grounding the Conversation

Opening with organizational context: why feedback quality matters now, what the data shows, and how this session connects to the manager’s role in development—not just performance evaluation.

Part 2 — Framework Application

Guided practice with the SBID model using real-pattern scenarios drawn from performance cycle data. Managers practiced moving from generic praise to observable, behavior-grounded feedback statements.

Generic → “Alex is a great collaborator.”

SBID → “When Alex joined the cross-functional sprint in Q2 (S), they proactively flagged a dependency the engineering team hadn’t surfaced (B), which prevented a two-week delay in the release timeline (I). I’d like to explore how we build that kind of early-signal thinking into their regular workflow (D).”

Part 3 — Application to Their Own Teams

Managers applied the framework to real team members and real scenarios from their current cycle—leaving with 1–2 draft feedback statements they could use immediately.

Workbook Structure

Section	Purpose
SBID Quick Reference	One-page framework card with labels, prompts, and scale anchors
Worked Examples	Strong vs. weak feedback comparisons across core competency areas
Practice Space	Guided prompts for drafting SBI statements for 2 real team members
Development Conversation Planner	Template for structuring a 1:1 development conversation using cycle results
Reflection Prompts	Post-session questions to support ongoing application

Scale & Outcomes

Reached ~60–70 managers during a period of significant organizational change
Session sat within a larger manager development journey being actively mapped—one component of a planned multi-module curriculum
Workbook designed for continued self-directed use beyond the session

This Demonstrates

Curriculum design grounded in diagnosed need—built from real performance data and organizational signal, not designed in isolation
Instructional judgment in framework selection—chose to reinforce an existing model (SBID) rather than introduce competing vocabulary mid-cycle
Blended design—live workshop format paired with a structured, durable self-service artifact
Organizational context sensitivity—scoped and framed content for a high-change environment where psychological safety was already under pressure
Program architecture thinking—designed as both a complete standalone experience and a component of a longer-term manager development curriculum

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