The Meeting Canoe brought to you by hundreds of learners, a smart ski instructor, and Fortune 100 companies

Imagine this: you’ve just paid $525 for a private ski lesson and you are standing at the base of the mountain with your instructor, ready to go. It’s ten degrees Fahrenheit, the wind is howling, and the clock is ticking. In front of you stands a big guywith a scraggly beard who looks more like a river raft guide (which he is as well) than a ski instructor.

Dave starts the lesson by welcoming you to the Breckenridge Ski School and asking you how long you’ve been skiing, where you are from, and how long you will be in Breckenridge. Next he seamlessly shifts the conversation to your current abilities, what you do well, and what you’d like to be able to do better. Soon the conversation moves to what you hope to accomplish, not just in today’s lesson. Dave is soon formulating a plan for your development.

Do you feel that your time is being wasted? No, you feel that you are no longer just another skier going through the lesson mill. You are the recipient of a custom-designed ski lesson. Soon you are off, gliding down the slopes, learning gems that take your skiing to a whole new level, and having the time of your life. Three hours later, Dave takes the time to review with you what you have learned and provides you with a plan for applying today’s lesson.

By applying the Meeting Canoe approach, our ski instructor, Dave, went from being a frequently requested ski instructor to being the number-one-ranked ski instructor at Breckenridge. Seeing Dave’s success, his envious buddies asked what his secret was. Dave, being the kind soul that he is, taught them the Meeting Canoe approach, which allowed his buddies to rise in the rankings as well. This is important because ski instructors’ pay increases when people specifically request them. In this case, Dave wins because he gets more pay plus satisfied clients who not only come back but also refer him to their friends. The company wins because it gets more revenue and more satisfied customers. Most importantly, the clients win because they become better skiers.

Prior to using the Meeting Canoe, Dave would have a cursory chat with a student prior to embarking on a lesson. Once he started using the Meeting Canoe system, he would spend time welcoming the student and connecting with the student prior to the start of the lesson. He would help the student discover the way things are by doing a skill assessment and talk with the student about what he or she hoped to accomplish— the student’s dreams. Together they would decide on a plan for the lesson. Following the lesson, instead of saying a quick thank-you, Dave would attend to the end by reviewing the lesson and offering further suggestions for cementing the lesson.

An unintended consequence of our teaching the Meeting Canoe approach for large-scale change was that people picked it up and began to use it to frame ordinary meetings. The most surprising learning came from the guy you just met, our son Dave. At the time, Dave was a professional ski instructor in Breckenridge, Colorado. One day Emily was talking with him and he said, “You know that Meeting Canoe that you and Dad developed? Well, I’ve been using it as a system for conducting my ski lessons.” And now you know the rest of the story.