Stop, Start, Grow: A Simple Reflection Framework for Better Work and Career Progression
A Black Sherpa 29k Club masterclass with Rachelle Williams, Agile Coach and facilitator, helping teams turn reflection into action through retrospectives and continuous improvement.
The uncomfortable truth about continuous improvement at work is this: most people are too busy to get better.
Most people are not stuck because they lack ambition.
They are stuck because they are too busy dragging the square wheel.
Too busy pushing the square wheel? Rachelle brought the round one
That was the image Rachelle Williams opened with in her 29k Club masterclass on retrospectives, and the room felt it immediately. People raised their hands. Cameras came on. The chat started moving.
Because the question was not abstract.
Do you ever feel too busy to improve the way you work?
For most professionals, the honest answer is yes.
Too busy to reflect.
Too busy to stop.
Too busy to ask what is working.
Too busy to admit what needs to change.
Too busy to check whether the work they are doing is actually taking them closer to the goals they say matter.
And that is exactly why continuous improvement at work is often talked about far more than it is practised.
We love the language of growth.
We admire the idea of learning.
We nod along to “working smarter, not harder.”
But in the everyday churn of meetings, deadlines, deliverables, stakeholder demands, Teams pings, life admin and annual review cycles, improvement becomes something we postpone.
Until the project ends.
Until the quarter closes.
Until the performance review arrives.
Until something breaks.
Rachelle’s session challenged that pattern.
Not with theory.
With a simple, practical invitation:
Stop. Start. Grow.
And for the professionals in the room, that simplicity became the unlock.
Because the truth is this:
Reflection is not complicated. But that does not mean it is easy to do well.
Why Continuous Improvement at Work Matters More Than Most Organisations Admit
Most organisations say they want people to learn.
Most teams say they want to improve.
Most leaders say they value reflection.
But very few create the time, structure or psychological permission to do it properly.
That is the tension at the heart of continuous improvement at work. The desire is there, but the discipline often is not.
People finish projects and move straight to the next one. They survive difficult quarters and immediately enter the next cycle. They navigate messy stakeholder dynamics, poor meetings, unclear priorities, inefficient processes and repeated frustrations without pausing long enough to ask:
What did we learn?
What needs to stop?
What should we do differently next time?
What are we pretending not to know?
What did this work teach us about how we perform?
That is why retrospectives at work matter.
Done well, a retrospective is not a corporate ritual. It is a structured pause. It creates space to examine how work is really happening, not just whether the output was delivered.
And that distinction matters.
Because performance is not just about what gets done. It is about how work gets done, what gets repeated, what gets tolerated, and what quietly drains energy over time.
This is particularly valuable when working through projects, large pieces of work or collaborations involving multiple stakeholders. The bigger the work, the easier it becomes for teams to lose sight of what they are learning along the way.
Retrospectives create a viable process for evaluating lessons, performance and progress while the work is still alive.
They help teams ask better questions before the same problems become baked into the next project.
But the most powerful shift in Rachelle’s session was not just seeing retrospectives as a better project tool.
It was seeing them as a personal growth tool.
Because if this process can help a team improve how it works, why wouldn’t it help an individual improve how they are progressing?
Meet Rachelle Williams: Agile Coach, Facilitator and Trainer Helping People Make Learning Stick
Rachelle Williams is an Agile Coach, Consultant, Facilitator and Training from the Back of the Room trainer.
Her work sits at the intersection of Agile ways of working, facilitation, adult learning and practical behavioural change. She helps teams and organisations move beyond passive presentations and into sessions that engage people, create insight and drive action.
That expertise came through clearly in the masterclass.
This was not a session about retrospectives delivered through death by PowerPoint.
It was a session on reflection that made people reflect.
Rachelle modelled the very thing she was teaching. She used prompts, voting, chat interaction, timed exercises and clear frameworks to keep the room active. Her approach answered one of the most important questions for anyone leading training, workshops or meetings:
You have the slides. Now what? How do you actually make it land?
That is where Rachelle’s work becomes especially relevant.
She is not just teaching tools. She is helping people design moments that change how others think, participate and act.
For teams trying to improve ways of working, leaders trying to create better conversations, and organisations trying to build a stronger reflection habit, Rachelle’s expertise is deeply practical.
And right now, that practicality matters.
Because most organisations do not need more theory.
They need better conversations about the work they are already doing.
What Rachelle Really Demonstrated: How to Make Learning Land
There was a second masterclass happening inside the masterclass.
Yes, Rachelle taught retrospectives.
But she also demonstrated how powerful facilitation can transform a session from content delivery into behavioural change.
She could have spoken for an hour about retrospectives. She could have explained the models, shown the frameworks, shared the theory, answered questions and closed.
Instead, she designed the room to behave differently.
Participants were invited to vote with their bodies. They were asked to respond in the chat. They were given time to reflect privately. They used the Stop Start Grow framework in real time. They shared what they noticed. They asked questions from their own lived experience.
That matters.
Because so many workplace sessions fail not because the content is poor, but because the design assumes attention will happen automatically.
It does not.
Engagement has to be designed.
Participation has to be made safe.
Reflection has to be structured.
Application has to be built in.
One member described the session as neurodiverse friendly because the engagement points were spread throughout rather than saved until the end. That is an important insight from their experience.
Inclusion is not only about who is invited into the room.
It is also about how the room is designed once they arrive.
Rachelle’s facilitation created regular intervals for people to tune in, process, respond and reconnect. That is not accidental. That is craft.
And for any leader, trainer, manager or facilitator reading this, that is a lesson worth taking seriously.
If you want people to learn, do not just give them information.
Design the conditions for them to do something with it.
This Session Was Agile Before It Even Started
There was something beautifully fitting about how this masterclass came to life.
Rachelle and I met through a short conversation in another community. Ten minutes. A useful exchange. A shared interest in Agile, retrospectives and how people actually learn. Within a couple of weeks, that conversation had turned into a live masterclass for the 29k Club.
As Rachelle said at the start of the session, that in itself was Agile.
An idea.
A quick connection.
A test.
An execution.
A learning opportunity.
That is often what continuous improvement looks like in real life.
Not always a six-month transformation programme.
Not always a steering committee.
Not always a 40-slide deck and a governance model.
Sometimes it is spotting a useful conversation and moving quickly enough to create value from it.
That is also how good ecosystems work.
Useful conversations become shared value.
For the 29k Club, this is central. The community is not just built around content. It is built around connection, shared learning and the ability to bring valuable voices into the room when members need them.
Rachelle’s session was a perfect example of that.
The Hidden Trap: Being Too Busy to Improve
One of the strongest moments in the masterclass came early.
Rachelle showed an image of people pushing a cart with square wheels while someone nearby offers them a round one. The people pushing the cart are too busy to stop.
It is funny because it is painfully familiar.
That is how many professionals operate.
They know the meeting rhythm is broken, but they keep attending.
They know a process is inefficient, but they keep feeding it.
They know they need better boundaries, but they keep absorbing more.
They know the team is repeating mistakes, but nobody has time to stop and name them.
They know their career goals matter, but they have not checked whether their weekly actions are actually laddering up to them.
The hidden cost is enormous.
When people do not pause to improve, they normalise friction. Inefficiency becomes culture. Overwork becomes professionalism. Reactivity becomes strategy.
And in personal career development, the cost is even more subtle.
People drift.
Annual reviews can be useful, but they are too infrequent to carry the full weight of someone’s development.
People often set goals once a year because the annual review process demands it. They write something down because the system needs a box completed. They agree objectives that sound sensible in the moment.
Then life takes over.
Weeks pass.
Projects expand.
Meetings multiply.
Urgent requests hijack important goals.
And by the time the next formal review comes around, too many people are left trying to reverse-engineer a story of progress from a year they were too busy to properly steer.
If your goals only come alive during annual review season, they are not guiding your behaviour.
They are documenting your hindsight.
That is one of the things we hear repeatedly inside the 29k Club.
People want to grow.
People want to progress.
People want to be intentional.
But it is difficult to protect the space and time to think about what they are learning, how they are learning, and whether they are genuinely moving closer to the goals they have set for themselves.
Rachelle’s session met that challenge directly.
Sometimes the improvement is not miles away. It may be just around the corner if you take a few minutes to stop and look.
That is the power of reflective practice at work.
It does not always require a transformation programme.
Sometimes it starts with one better question in one protected moment.
Retrospectives at Work Are Not Just for Agile Teams
A major aha moment came when one participant shared that they had previously worked as a Scrum Master and had run “a million” retrospectives for teams.
But they had never thought to use one personally.
That was one of the most important shifts in the session.
Retrospectives are often associated with Agile, Scrum and technology teams. In those environments, they are familiar tools used to review work, identify improvements and agree actions.
But Rachelle made the case that retrospectives are far more versatile.
They can be used by teams.
They can be used by leaders.
They can be used by individuals.
They can be used in projects, careers, relationships, travel, workshops and personal growth.
The tool is not limited to software development.
The principle is human.
We all need structured moments to ask what is working, what is not, and what we want to change.
That is why the concept resonated so strongly with a room of professionals from across pharma, life sciences, commercial roles, medical roles, learning and development, and early-career professionals.
The context may differ.
The need is the same.
People need a way to make sense of their work before the work makes a mess of them.
And perhaps more importantly, people need a way to make sense of their goals before their goals become performative.
Because a goal that is only revisited once a year is not a goal.
It is a sentence in a review document.
The Stop Start Grow Framework: Simple Enough to Use, Powerful Enough to Change Behaviour
The central framework of the session was beautifully simple:
Stop
What is not working?
What is draining energy?
What are you tolerating that needs to end?
What should have been killed earlier?
Start
What small experiment could you try?
What new habit, conversation, behaviour or process might help?
What have you been meaning to test but keep postponing?
Grow
What is already working?
What needs more attention, consistency or investment?
What is promising but not yet fully developed?
This Stop Start Grow framework works because it avoids overcomplication.
It gives reflection shape.
That matters because, as Rachelle made clear, reflection without structure often leads nowhere.
Many people block time to think. Fewer people know what to do with that time.
One participant shared that they had previously created Friday afternoon calendar blocks for reflection. But without structure, those blocks were easy to ignore. The time existed, but the practice did not.
That is a common problem.
A reflection habit is not built by good intentions alone. It needs prompts. It needs rhythm. It needs a container.
Stop what drains you. Start what moves you. Grow what’s already working.
For individuals, Stop Start Grow can become a weekly or monthly career development tool.
For leaders, it can become a team check-in.
For organisations, it can become a way to build continuous improvement into the operating rhythm rather than treating it as a post-project activity.
The power is not in the complexity.
The power is in returning to it consistently.
And this is where the connection to personal planning becomes so important.
The same questions that help a team evaluate a project can help a professional evaluate their progress.
What do I need to stop doing if I am serious about this goal?
What do I need to start doing before the next month disappears?
What is already working that I need to protect, grow or repeat?
Simple questions.
Difficult answers.
Useful progress.
Why the 29k Club Built A Good Quarter
Rachelle’s masterclass landed at exactly the right moment because it coincided with a programme of work inside the 29k Club called A Good Quarter.
A Good Quarter was built in response to something we hear from members all the time:
It is difficult to protect space to think.
Not because people do not care about their development.
Because their diaries do not naturally make room for it.
And even when they do make room, many people are not always clear on what they are actually working towards in a way that feels meaningful to them.
They have goals, but those goals are often too vague, too disconnected from daily action, or too heavily shaped by annual performance cycles.
A Good Quarter is designed to change that.
At the beginning of the quarter, members set clear intentions around their lives, careers and personal development. Then, each month, we create protected space for them to return to those intentions and reflect.
Not in a fluffy way.
In a practical way.
How am I progressing towards the goals I set?
What have I learned this month?
What is getting in the way?
What do I need to do differently next month?
What progress do I need to celebrate?
Where am I drifting?
Where do I need support?
The structure is deliberately simple.
A little connection.
A check-in.
A short conversation to see where people are.
Then cameras off, microphones muted, and protected time to review the goals they set for themselves.
After that, people come back into the room.
They share what they are noticing.
They talk about what they are learning.
They hear where others are struggling.
They realise they are not the only one wrestling with the gap between intention and action.
And that is where the community becomes powerful.
Because personal reflection is valuable.
But shared reflection creates something else.
It creates sameness.
It creates accountability.
It creates perspective.
It creates support.
It creates confidence.
That is the promise of the 29k Club in action:
Clarity. Confidence. Community.
A Good Quarter gives members the clarity to know what they are working towards, the confidence to keep going when progress feels messy, and the community to know they are not trying to climb alone.
It is a practice many professionals would benefit from building into their working rhythm.
Private Reflection Gives You Clarity. Shared Reflection Gives You Courage
One of the most powerful parts of Rachelle’s session happened after the teaching ended.
People started sharing.
One participant spoke about finally building a structured reflection habit instead of relying on vague calendar blocks.
Another talked about wanting to stop hating themselves for mistakes.
Someone else reflected on the need to stop focusing on work that does not move the needle.
Another spoke about wanting to finish a book that had been sitting with them for years, and the challenge of becoming more comfortable with being seen.
That is when you know a session has landed.
Not when people nod.
Not when the slides look good.
Not when the chat is polite.
When people start telling the truth about themselves.
That is what shared reflection can do.
Private reflection gives you clarity.
Shared reflection gives you courage.
Because when you hear someone else say the thing you thought was only yours, something shifts.
You stop treating your struggle as evidence that you are behind.
You start seeing it as part of the work.
Think alone to get clear. Reflect together to get brave.
That is why community matters so much in professional growth. People need inspiration, yes. But they also need sameness. They need to know other people are trying, struggling, learning, adjusting and continuing.
That kind of honesty raises aspiration without creating shame.
It says:
You are not the only one finding this hard.
You are not the only one who needs to reset.
You are not the only one who has drifted.
You are not the only one trying to become braver.
In the 29k Club, that kind of conversation is the bedrock.
Because growth is not just about consuming insight.
It is about having somewhere safe enough to admit what the insight reveals.
Small Experiments Beat Big Transformations
Another strong theme from Rachelle’s masterclass was the value of small experiments.
Continuous improvement at work is often presented as a major initiative. New systems. New processes. New frameworks. New terminology. New governance. New decks.
But Rachelle brought it back to something far more accessible:
Try something small.
Learn from it.
Adjust.
Repeat.
That is the logic of experimentation.
Small experiments reduce the fear of failure because they are contained. They do not require the whole organisation to change overnight. They allow people to test ideas quickly and learn from reality.
This matters because many professionals delay action while waiting for certainty.
They want the perfect plan.
The fully approved proposal.
The complete strategy.
The confidence that it will work.
But improvement rarely arrives fully formed.
It is built through feedback.
One person in the session mentioned improving their website after getting support and feedback. Others talked about using AI to draft outlines, improve productivity and speed up tasks. These are examples of small changes creating meaningful gains.
The lesson is clear:
You do not need to overhaul everything to improve something.
For individuals, this could mean testing a new morning routine for one week.
For leaders, it could mean changing the format of one recurring meeting.
For organisations, it could mean running a retrospective at the end of a sprint, quarter, event or campaign and visibly tracking one or two improvements.
For 29k Club members working through A Good Quarter, it might mean choosing one behaviour that better supports the intention they set at the start of the quarter.
One new conversation.
One boundary.
One habit.
One application.
One post.
One piece of feedback.
One brave ask.
Small does not mean insignificant.
Small is often what makes change possible.
Awareness Is Not Enough: Make the Action Visible
One of the most practical questions came during the Q&A:
How do you make sure reflection leads to change rather than just awareness?
That question matters because self-awareness can easily become another form of stuckness.
People know they are overcommitted.
They know they avoid difficult conversations.
They know certain meetings waste time.
They know they are too self-critical.
They know they need to prioritise better.
But knowing is not the same as changing.
Rachelle’s answer was clear: make the action visible.
She shared examples of teams creating visible continuous improvement backlogs, including work with GSK where improvement actions were displayed alongside work backlogs. The point was simple:
What you make visible is more likely to get done.
This is where retrospectives often fail.
People have a good conversation.
They generate useful insights.
They write down actions.
Then those actions disappear.
Into someone’s notebook.
Into a digital board nobody opens.
Into the emotional relief of having talked about the problem.
To avoid that, actions need to be prioritised, scheduled and revisited.
For individuals, that might mean putting the action in the diary rather than leaving it on a to-do list.
For teams, it might mean starting the next retrospective by reviewing the actions from the last one.
For leaders, it might mean publicly committing to one behaviour change and inviting feedback.
For A Good Quarter, it means returning to the intentions you set and asking whether your week-to-week decisions are supporting them.
That link matters.
Because goals only become meaningful when they connect to behaviour.
If your goal is to grow your network, where is the time in your diary for meaningful conversations?
If your goal is to build confidence, where are you creating evidence that you can trust yourself?
If your goal is to progress your career, what visible actions are laddering up to that progression?
If your goal is to become more strategic, what are you saying no to?
Reflection creates insight.
Visibility creates accountability.
The Best Retrospectives Do Not Simply Create More Work. They Create Better Focus
One of the most useful tensions in the conversation came from the idea that improvement practices can accidentally create more work.
This is a real risk.
Teams run a retrospective, generate lots of good ideas, and suddenly everyone has more tasks. Individuals reflect on their career, identify ten things to improve, and become overwhelmed before they begin.
That is not continuous improvement.
That is productivity theatre with nicer stationery.
Rachelle’s answer was prioritisation.
Choose one or two actions.
No more.
This is especially important for busy professionals. The point of reflection is not to create a longer list of obligations. It is to focus attention on what matters most.
Sometimes the most valuable output of a retrospective is not what you start.
It is what you stop.
A participant captured this beautifully when they said they wanted to stop focusing on things that do not “move the needle”.
That is a leadership-level insight.
Because as people progress in their careers, the challenge is not simply doing more. It is learning what deserves less.
Less time.
Less energy.
Less emotional investment.
Less automatic yes.
Stopping is not laziness.
Stopping is strategy.
And in personal development, stopping is often the missing discipline.
People add goals without removing commitments.
They add habits without removing distractions.
They add expectations without removing outdated versions of themselves.
A good quarter is not created by adding more and more.
It is created by deciding what matters enough to protect.
If You Only Have 10 Minutes, Start With Your Wins
During the Q&A, Rachelle was asked what people should focus on if they only had 10 minutes a week to reflect.
Her answer was simple:
Start with your wins.
That matters more than it sounds.
Because reflection can quickly become a problem-hunting exercise. What went wrong? What needs fixing? What did I miss? Where am I behind?
Those questions have value, but they can also turn reflection into another form of self-criticism.
Busy professionals often rush past their own progress. They complete something difficult and immediately move to the next demand. They survive a challenging conversation, deliver a piece of work, support someone else, learn something new, recover from a setback, and barely pause long enough to acknowledge it.
But celebrating wins is not indulgent.
It is data.
It shows you what is working.
It helps you recognise patterns.
It builds confidence.
It reminds you that progress is happening, even when it feels slow.
Inside A Good Quarter, this is a key part of the practice.
Members are not only asked what needs to change. They are invited to notice what they have already done. What they have learned. What they have moved forward. What they should protect.
That is important because ambition without celebration can become exhausting.
If you only ever measure the gap, you forget to honour the climb.
Honest Reflection Should Not Become Self-Attack
One of the most human moments of the session came when one participant shared their “stop”:
They wanted to stop hating themselves for mistakes.
That single reflection shifted the conversation.
Another member asked how you can be honest in reflection without becoming overly self-critical or biased.
That question deserves to sit at the heart of any conversation about personal retrospectives.
Because reflection is only useful if it tells the truth without turning the person into the problem.
For many professionals, reflection can easily become self-criticism. The framework helped reframe mistakes as data rather than identity.
Many people do not just need better processes.
They need a kinder, more useful relationship with learning.
Mistakes often trigger shame. Shame creates avoidance. Avoidance blocks reflection. And without reflection, people repeat patterns or retreat from the work that matters.
Rachelle’s framing helped soften that.
Continuous improvement is not about perfection. It is about learning fast and adjusting.
That is a powerful reframe for professional growth.
It means a mistake is not the end of the story. It is data. It is information. It is a signal. It is something to examine without letting it become your identity.
That matters inside a community like the 29k Club because so much growth happens when people can speak honestly about the messy middle.
The failed attempt.
The awkward conversation.
The job application that went nowhere.
The meeting that did not land.
The goal that slipped.
The confidence wobble.
The thing they are still trying to figure out.
When people can share what they are trying, what they are learning, where they are falling short and what they are doing next — at a level that feels safe, useful and proportionate — failure becomes less final.
It becomes part of the path.
And that is often what people need to see before they give themselves permission to keep going.
Building a Culture of Reflection, Not Just a Habit
There is an individual benefit to retrospectives.
But there is also a cultural one.
When teams and communities normalise reflective practice, they create a different kind of environment.
One where people can talk about what is working without arrogance.
One where they can name what is not working without blame.
One where they can discuss setbacks without shame.
One where they can celebrate progress without embarrassment.
One where they can ask for support without feeling behind.
That is how practices become culture.
Not through slogans.
Through repeated behaviours.
Inside organisations, this can shift performance conversations from judgement to learning.
Inside teams, it can prevent small frustrations becoming recurring dysfunctions.
Inside communities, it can create the conditions for people to be honest about their goals, their progress and the gaps they are trying to close.
That is the deeper value of Rachelle’s session.
It was not just a masterclass on retrospectives.
It was a demonstration of how structured reflection can unlock better conversations.
And better conversations are often where better performance begins.
Try This Today: A 10-Minute Personal Retrospective
Set a timer for 10 minutes.
Do not overthink it. Do not turn it into a productivity project. Just answer honestly.
What have I done this week that moved me closer to my goals?
What am I tolerating that is slowing me down?
What is one thing I need to stop?
What is one small experiment I can start next week?
What is already working that I need to protect or grow?
Where do I need support?
Then choose one action.
Not five.
One.
Put it in your diary. Make it visible. Review it next week.
That is how reflection becomes behaviour.
Frameworks and Mental Models from the Masterclass
Rachelle shared several practical retrospective frameworks that can be used across teams, projects and personal reflection.
1. Stop Start Grow
Best for simple personal or team reflection.
Use it when you need clarity fast:
What should we stop?
What should we start?
What should we grow or continue?
2. What Went Well / What Did Not / Actions
Best for project reviews or team delivery.
Use it to move from reflection into practical next steps:
What worked?
What did not?
What will we do differently?
3. The 4Ls Retrospective
Best for deeper reflection over a defined period.
Ask:
What did we like?
What did we learn?
What did we lack?
What did we long for?
This works especially well for quarters, career reviews, events or longer projects.
4. Rose Thorn Bud
Best for visual thinkers and creative teams.
Ask:
Rose: what is working beautifully?
Thorn: what is painful?
Bud: what has potential?
This is a helpful framework when you want to balance appreciation, honesty and possibility.
5. Sailboat Retrospective
Best for teams thinking about momentum and risk.
Ask:
Wind: what is moving us forward?
Anchor: what is holding us back?
Rocks: what risks are ahead?
Island: where are we trying to get to?
This is useful for leadership teams, project teams and cross-functional groups.
6. Journey Line Retrospective
Best for career reflection.
Map highs and lows across a period of time, then look for patterns, turning points and lessons.
This helps people connect the dots looking backwards, especially when planning the next stage of professional growth.
Key Insights to Save
Continuous improvement starts with a pause, not a plan
Reflection without structure often leads nowhere
Retrospectives are not just for projects or Agile teams; they are powerful tools for personal development and career progression
Goals only become meaningful when your daily and weekly actions ladder up to them
The best retrospectives do not simply create more work; they create better focus
If you only have 10 minutes to reflect, start with your wins
Private reflection gives you clarity. Shared reflection gives you courage
Why This Matters for Performance, Progression and Culture
Ignoring reflection has consequences.
Teams repeat mistakes.
Leaders miss patterns.
Individuals burn energy on the wrong things.
Organisations confuse activity with progress.
Talented people become exhausted, frustrated or quietly disengaged.
Without reflective practice at work, the same problems keep resurfacing under different names.
The meeting problem becomes a capacity problem.
The unclear priority becomes a motivation problem.
The poor process becomes a people problem.
The lack of feedback becomes a performance issue.
Retrospectives interrupt that cycle.
They create a space where teams and individuals can be honest before problems become expensive.
They help people identify what is working, what is blocking progress, and what needs to change.
When applied consistently, they support leadership development, professional growth and better decision-making.
And when used personally, they help professionals take ownership of their progression in a much more tangible way.
Not once a year.
Not when the review form arrives.
Not when someone finally asks what they want next.
But month by month.
Quarter by quarter.
Decision by decision.
That is what becomes possible when reflection is protected.
People stop drifting.
They become clearer about what they want.
More honest about what is getting in the way.
More confident in the progress they are making.
More willing to share what they are learning.
More able to see setbacks as part of growth rather than proof they should stop.
That is not just development.
That is culture.
Why This Conversation Belongs in the 29k Club
This is the kind of career development conversation the 29k Club was built for: practical, honest and deeper than generic advice.
The 29k Club brings together professionals who are serious about career development, leadership development and professional growth, but who also understand that progression is not just about technical capability.
It is about clarity.
Confidence.
Community.
It is about learning the unwritten rules.
Having better conversations.
Building reflective habits.
Understanding yourself more honestly.
Being challenged in a room that wants you to win.
A Good Quarter is one expression of that.
It creates the space for members to set meaningful intentions, protect time to reflect, review their progress, celebrate their wins, name the blockers and learn alongside others who are trying to move forward too.
Rachelle’s session worked because the community met her with openness, curiosity and honesty. People did not just consume the content. They applied it live.
That is the difference.
A masterclass gives you insight.
A community helps you do something with it.
Why You Should Connect With Rachelle Williams
If you lead meetings, design training, run workshops, manage teams or want to create sessions people actually remember, Rachelle Williams is someone worth knowing.
She helps organisations and teams use facilitation, Agile coaching, retrospectives and Training from the Back of the Room principles to make learning more engaging and useful.
Her work is especially valuable for:
Leaders who want better team reflection
L&D professionals designing more engaging sessions
Agile teams wanting stronger retrospectives
Organisations looking to improve ways of working
Facilitators who want their sessions to land
Professionals who want to build a stronger reflection habit
What became clear in the masterclass is that Rachelle has packaged something highly practical, scalable and needed.
There is a huge opportunity for more organisations to use retrospectives beyond the technology world. Leadership teams, project teams, commercial teams, conference organisers and professional communities could all benefit from this kind of structured reflection.
Because most people do not need another meeting.
They need a better way to learn from the work they are already doing.
Final Reflection: What Is Your Round Wheel?
So here are the questions worth sitting with:
Where are you currently too busy to improve?
What would a personal retrospective reveal about your career progression goals right now?
Are your daily and weekly actions genuinely laddering up to the future you say you want?
Do not wait for the perfect moment to reflect.
Put ten minutes in the diary.
Ask better questions.
Start with your wins.
Choose one action.
Make it visible.
Share what you are learning at a level that feels safe and useful.
Progress starts when you stop dragging the square wheel.
Usual close is a reminder to Climb steady… today its to Pause. Reflect. Ascend 🖤
I’m Yam – Founder of The Black Sherpa
Founder | Strategist | Speaker | Host of The Black Sherpa Podcast
I founded The Black Sherpa to create a world where talent rises on merit and no one’s potential is held back by bias or barriers.
Through bold strategy, storytelling, and our flagship community, The 29k Club - I help professionals grow with confidence and support leaders to build cultures that truly live their values.
Let’s connect and build a future where inclusion powers performance, and leadership reflects the world we serve.