Skip to content
KX:1
← All insights

6 min · Paul Burns & Rikki Lear · 17 September 2026

Why diagnosis should come before development

When performance disappoints, development is often the default prescription. Yet training can only build the capability it actually targets.

If equivalent capability already appears elsewhere, the constraint may concern access, demand fit, environmental configuration or conduct. More content will not necessarily release what is already present.

The Seven Moves create a pause between symptom and prescription: define the event, prove what is available, compare conditions, locate the squeeze and test one explanation.

“The equation is the idea. The question is the lens. The Seven Moves are the practice.”

Further reading

  • Chris Argyris, Reasoning, Learning, and Action
  • Donald Schön, The Reflective Practitioner