Finding Out How

How do we know it worked?

Most of us can say we've been changed by an experience we had. Maybe it was taking a high school class or playing on a sports team or a spending week at summer camp or simply watching the sunset with friends.

I've been changed by experiences too. But, I'm also struck with the question: how?

How do we know we've been changed? How did it happen?

A sunset shared with friends in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico.

This blog will focus on my quest to answer that question. Finding Out How will explore the ways we know what we know, how we measure impact, and what I'm working on to better answer my lifelong question of How.

Outside Questions

The question of how? is rooted in my experiences working, playing, and learning outside. I grew up in western Michigan, exploring the green forests and sandy beaches. I was able to attend a school focused on environmental education where we made dandelion tea and raised chickens, among other outdoor activities. In my professional life, I've led groups of students on hikes, netted for water insects, and taught about our natural and social systems.

It was while teaching, in particular, that the question of how came up most frequently. After every lesson, I wanted to know:

How is this impacting students?

How is this changing them?

How can we do better?

Hiking with students in the San Bernardino

mountains in Southern California.

I wanted to understand how we know that these outdoor learning experiences impact people. Would this day in the woods would influence how they act? Would it impact their local place? This ultimately led me to develop tools to answer these questions. It also pushed me to study different ways to create even more useful tools for the diversity of ways people interact and impact.

What's Your How?

If you're driven to understand the how in your work or life - whether by my same inner curiosity or the curiosity caused by a manager's mandate, subscribe to explore this question along with me.