Experience Evaluation

Definition

Experience evaluation is the practice of asking "What did you learn?" after events, projects, or interactions to transform passive experience into active insight. It is grounded in Maxwell's principle: "Experience isn't the best teacher—evaluated experience is."

In the Book

In Chapter 3, Maxwell describes how when his children Elizabeth and Joel were growing up, he asked them two questions after every experience: "What did you love?" and "What did you learn?" He notes, "Sometimes when I'd ask them, they'd groan. But finding out what they loved helped us to connect with them and get to know them better." The evaluation question forced reflection and ensured experiences became learning.

He carries this practice into his professional team. David Hoyt, his speaking agent, recounts the first time he booked Maxwell's international speaking engagement to Malaysia. Everything seemed arranged perfectly. However, the audience was detached and unresponsive. Afterward, Maxwell and David discovered that the host had printed Maxwell's notes and distributed them to the audience beforehand—so the audience knew what he was going to say before he said it.

Instead of blaming David, Maxwell asked: "What did you learn?" David replied, "I learned never to do that again! I also learned not to assume anything and to ask more questions." The question transformed a failure into a lesson and made David accountable for growth.

Maxwell explains the power: asking "What did you learn?" prompts people to evaluate their experience and make an assessment. It also teaches the leader—Maxwell notes, "I often also learn something when I hear people's answers; this question keeps me growing too!" Audrey Moralez, a newer team member, observed that asking this question made her feel valued and included, but it also made her accountable: she started pre-thinking about what she would learn before meetings and evaluating afterward.

Why It Matters

Most organizations move from experience to experience without consolidation. Experience evaluation creates a feedback loop: each iteration includes reflection, which sharpens judgment for the next iteration. This mechanism is particularly valuable in learning-heavy domains (leadership development, product design, teaching, research) where the cost of repeating mistakes is high and the opportunity to compound learning is high. The practice also creates accountability within teams—when people know they'll be asked what they learned, they pay different attention during experiences.