Skills Sprint: How to Learn in Hard Moments (Without Spiralling)

Summary

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Squiggly Careers Podcast: Skills Sprint — How to Learn in Hard Moments (Without Spiralling)

Date: January 21, 2026
Hosts: Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis
Episode Theme: Practical ways to learn and reflect during tough moments at work—without getting stuck in a spiral of overthinking or avoidance.

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Episode Overview

Helen and Sarah lead listeners through practical strategies for effective learning while enduring hard moments at work, not just after the fact. They highlight the importance of active, in-the-moment reflection, introduce the "what worked well, even better if" (WWW/EBI) tool, and share personal anecdotes and actionable advice for different reflection styles. This episode forms part of their "Skills Sprint" series, designed to help listeners take fast, realistic steps towards building career resilience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Learning in Hard Moments Matters

• Helen and Sarah set the context with a metaphor: "Lobsters grow by shedding their shells. It's energy zapping—looks really hard when you watch the videos of lobsters shedding their shells... but they grow back bigger, better, stronger." (Sarah, 00:13)
• Most people find learning in hard moments is their biggest development gap, more so than leading their own learning (Sarah, 00:32).
• Reflect as you go, not just after, to avoid loss of learning due to recency bias—focusing only on recent or major incidents rather than the whole picture. (Helen & Sarah, 01:12)

2. Reflection Styles: Thinker vs. Doer

• Sarah identifies as a "thinker": overanalyzes, risks spiraling, and struggles to move forward in hard moments (Sarah, 02:20).
• Helen: "Well, I just don't do it, do I?... There is no reflection." (Helen, 03:03)
• Helen uses action as a distraction, skipping reflection to keep moving, which risks missing out on the learning (Helen, 03:10).
• Takeaway: Find a middle ground—a reflection tool that works whether you tend to overthink or avoid thinking altogether.

3. The 'What Worked Well, Even Better If' (WWW/EBI) Tool

• Described as a simple, memorable, flexible way to reflect—works for individuals and teams, and in both remote and in-person contexts (Sarah, 03:45).
• "It's easy to remember, it's easy to have a go at, it's hard to get wrong, which is good news." (Sarah, 03:47)

4. The 5-to-1 Formula: Applying WWW/EBI in Practice

• Introduced with a real scenario: Helen arrives late and frazzled to a key client meeting, technology fails, and she feels the day is a "disaster" (Helen, 05:08, 05:17).
• Helen's instinct: move on, don't dwell.
• Using the 5-to-1 formula (five things that went well, one 'even better if'), Helen acknowledges positives—good delivery, supportive follow-ups—even as she notes what could be improved, bringing balance and calm to what otherwise feels like a catastrophe (Helen & Sarah, 05:21–06:35).

5. WWW/EBI for Teams

• Use a shared digital channel (Teams, Slack, etc.) for collective reflection during projects or tough periods.
• Benefits: Inclusive, pressure-free brainstorming; avoids senior voices dominating; supports fast, written, informal participation (Sarah, 06:35–07:38).
• "There's some really good evidence around things like brainwriting, like giving people space to write things down first and then share. It's more inclusive." (Sarah, 07:04)

6. Applying WWW/EBI for Long-Haul Challenges

• Tackle ongoing tough situations (e.g., a difficult manager or a prolonged restructure) by reflecting on supportive people and progress made, not just frustrations (Helen, 07:52–08:50).
• Encourages identifying what is still in your control and reframing challenges into learning opportunities.

7. Why This Approach Works

• Creates momentum, helps you feel less ‘stuck’, and gives emotional and strategic perspective (Sarah, 08:50–09:35).
• "As soon as you do ‘what worked well, even better if’, it just creates a clarity and a calmness and puts you back in control." (Sarah, 09:32)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the difficulty of learning in the moment:
  "If you reflect after a hard moment, you forget a lot. You lose the learning, don't you? ... You tend to actually be reflecting on the last week, or just the really big things."
  —Sarah & Helen (01:12)

• On reflection styles:
  "I'm reflecting so much, and you're like, there's zero reflection."
  —Sarah to Helen (03:07)

• On application of the 5-to-1 Formula:
  "[The formula] is a forcing function for you to look for what went well first and then you can still do an even better if. But I think when you're just doing one, the inner critic is not in control."
  —Helen (05:22)

• Claudia Harris’ learning advice:
  "Seek out the hard, try hard things and take them on. Learning is a muscle. It takes commitment, willingness to be uncomfortable and willingness to fail hard."
  —Claudia Harris via Sarah (09:45)

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Actionable Takeaways

• 24-Hour Action Challenge:
  Reflect on a recent hard moment. List five things that went well and one 'even better if.' Use the template provided in the daily email (10:04–10:36).
• Team Reflection:
  Try a written WWW/EBI session for inclusive, pressure-free learning.
• Long-Term Hard Moments:
  Use WWW/EBI to map progress and shift your sense of control, even during persistent challenges.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:13 — Lobster metaphor & importance of hard moments
• 01:12 — Why reflecting as you go matters
• 02:20 — Thinker vs. doer reflection styles
• 03:45 — Intro to WWW/EBI reflection tool
• 04:31–06:35 — Helen’s personal example & the 5-to-1 formula
• 06:35–07:38 — WWW/EBI for team projects (written collaboration)
• 07:52–08:50 — Long-haul hard moments (manager, restructure)
• 08:50–09:35 — How the approach creates momentum & clarity
• 09:45–10:04 — Inspiring advice from Claudia Harris
• 10:04–10:36 — 24-hour action and wrap-up

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Tone & Style

The conversation is supportive, practical, and candid, with the hosts sharing both vulnerabilities and straightforward tips. The mood is friendly, non-judgmental, and filled with stories that illustrate the value of reflecting as you go.

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In Summary

Helen and Sarah demystify in-the-moment workplace learning, showing that effective reflection doesn't require intense navel-gazing nor should it be skipped in favor of ‘just keeping busy.’ Their simple tools—the WWW/EBI method and the 5-to-1 formula—let anyone transform hard experiences into positive learning and regain a sense of control.

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Transcript

[A]

Hi, I'm Helen.

[B]

And I'm Sarah.

[A]

And this is day three of the Squiggly Skills Sprint. We are continuing with the theme of learning in hard moments. And so we're going to dive into some new ideas to help you learn more at work.

[B]

There's a quick reminder. The fascinating feature that we're focused on here is lobsters grow the most by shedding their shells. It's energy zapping. I mean, it looks really hard when you watch the videos of lobsters shedding their shells.

[A]

Eat for lobsters.

[B]

When you see this, they look jelly like, and it looks very tough. But they grow back. These new shells, they're bigger, they're better, they're stronger. And what has really stood out from everybody who's done the profile so far, we've had thousands of people now who've completed their lobster profile is that learning in hard moments is definitely the area that people need the most help with. People are pretty good at leading their own learning, but definitely want some extra ideas and inspiration. Getting better at learning as you go. But this is the one where we're like, we need to keep focusing on that. So that's why we've done two days on this. So when we're in a hard moment, we want to think about how can we reflect as we go? Because if we reflect as we go, we learn so much more. If you reflect after a hard moment, what tends to happen is you forget a lot.

[A]

You lose the learning, don't you?

[B]

And you lose lots of the learning. Recency bias. You tend to actually be reflecting on the last week or you're probably reflecting on those really big things that might have happened that you can still remember. But there's probably lots of smaller things that you lose along the way. It's why things like, I'm sure lots of people who are listening will have done these, you know, the big project post implementation reviews, and those things actually aren't that effective unless you have captured learning throughout the process or when something's gone wrong and then you're trying to, like, diagnose, like, what was it? And like, what do we want to do differently? If you've not learned as you go with, like, in through these kind of hard moments, it just feels really hard.

[A]

I also think it's a way that you can take control. So in a hard moment, you might feel like something is happening to you, that it is out of your control, a difficult conversation, feedback that you weren't expecting a restructure or a change. And that can feel that can Just feel very hard. Whereas I think if you can start reflecting in the moment, it is not only a way that you learn more, but I feel like it is something that you've got more control over, which is a bit more of a positive experience.

[B]

And so we need a way of doing this which feels fast, realistic because there is a lot going on, something hard is happening and also one that works whether you are more of a thinker or a doer. So I'm a thinker. So when things are hard, I actually go into reflection overdrive. And so what that does is it slows me down. It means that I overanalyze, I really want to understand, you know, like, I really try and get to like root causes but that can mean you end up going around in circles and you keep sort of questioning and you know, like you're looping and your brain is looping and probably spiraling and you're looking in lots of different directions. That's what would happen to me in a hard moment. How about you as a doer?

[A]

Well, I just don't do it, do I?

[B]

She was like, there's no reflection.

[A]

There is no reflection.

[B]

I'm reflecting so much and you're like, there's zero reflection.

[A]

I've got a lot of other things to do and I sort of in my mind I'm like, well I don't want to be distracted by reflection and I sometimes find it hard. But we'll sometimes be in the same hard moment because we're in a business together. So we're often experiencing hard things at the same time. And you'll want to reflect and I'll just want to move on, distract myself. That's probably what I do. I, I use doing as a distraction rather than reflecting to get the learning. So we, we kind of want to be in the middle here. We need an action that means you stop over reflecting. And I have a quick way that I can learn in a hard moment without feeling like it is dist me from the action that I want to move on to.

[B]

And so long time listeners will be familiar with our WWW EBI sort of tool if you want to describe it in that way, which is what worked well even better if and we think this is really useful in hard moments because it is easy to remember, it's easy to have a go at, it's hard to get wrong, which is good news. And I think it's also something that is very flexible. There's lots of different ways that you can use WWW EBI whether you're A remote team, whether you're doing this for yourself, whether you're doing it every day, whether you're doing it once a week. So we thought we would bring to life some just ways that whatever your hard moment might be right now, whether it's just a hard week or you're in something very difficult, like what this would look like if you were going to start using this.

[A]

So the first way we're going to talk about is the five to one formula. And we thought we would bring it to life with a real example, as always, of a hard moment that Helen was in. So the hard moment was I was presenting to a company, which is kind of part of the job that we do. It was a really important moment. And unfortunately, traffic had meant that I didn't get there at the time that I wanted to. And so that I arrived a bit stressed. I felt like I was letting people down. It was a really hard moment for me to be in. And then as a result of that afterwards, it was difficult to look for any learning. Like, I just thought, oh, that was a disaster.

[B]

I didn't move your tech go wrong as well.

[A]

Tech went wrong. And there was just a lot. And I was disappointed. And, like, my immediate thought was not, what can I learn from this hard moment?

[B]

It was, that's a disaster.

[A]

That was a disaster. I've just got to forget about it and move on, like, because that's the.

[B]

Rest of my day.

[A]

That's the doer. That's the doer in me. But what happened was I messaged Sarah, which is. Tends to be what I do when I've had a disaster or something goes wrong, like, oh, this is such a disaster. And we quickly went to the five to one formula. And the five to one formula is you reflect on five things that went well. So what went well that day was I actually delivered a good presentation. Like, the actual learning experience was really good. There were lots of people that messaged me afterwards. I did some fast fixes so that people knew that I cared about the fact that I'd arrived late. There were lots of things that went well. And the five to one formula is a forcing function for you to look for what went well first and then you can still do an even better if. But I think when you're just doing one, it's not that the inner critic is not in control. I think you become much more constructive. So, okay, if you are late because of traffic again in the future, which is probably going to happen, what would make that situation even better if. And there Were loads of ideas that kind of we kind of talked about there. But it felt more constructive. And I was able then to move on with my day, having learned from the situation that I had been in as a result of that. Whereas without it, I think I probably would have felt worse for longer and I definitely wouldn't have learned what to do differently in the future.

[B]

Another way of using what worked well, even better if that we actually do as our team. That's really helpful. But and means that you definitely do the learning in the kind of hard moments is if you've got a project or a process that isn't working, you create a we do team. So a teams channel. But it can be slack or whatever, but it's something remote like you're not having a conversation, you're actually doing it by writing stuff. And everybody just puts in their what's working well that even better ifs along the way. And I think what's nice about that is it's good to sometimes not put people on the spot. It's sometimes good for more senior people to not go first. So there's some really good evidence around things like brainwriting, like giving people space to write things down first and then share. It's more inclusive. You don't just feel like you've got to follow what's gone before somehow. Disagreeing in a conversation is actually sometimes harder, I think, than maybe disagreeing if you're just going, oh, I didn't spot. I'm not sure I agree with that. Even better if I think I would have a different one. And I also think it. It means people can do it really quickly. It feels quite informal.

[A]

The last idea for what worked well, even better if and how you can add it more into your days and you can use it to drive reflection is more about a long haul, hard moment. So I guess the probably obvious ones are like restructures or like, I had a long haul hard moment with a.

[B]

Manager, I was gonna say, or a manager who you can't get rid of.

[A]

Can't get rid of. You feel a bit stuck in this situation. And I think that's the thing. Like you feel stuck and you don't look for the learning. But one of the ways that you can is by using what worked well. Even better if to reflect on people and progress. So your what worked well? If I take the manager example, what went well might be, well, I have got some other colleagues that I've got a lot of connection with or I've got some communities out of work that I feel really supported by. And my even better if might be, but I've not got a mentor in this company. I'm very dependent on that manager for that kind of input. And so that might help me think about someone else. And that's again, back to. That's in my control. And then the what went well, Even better on the progress. If I take my situation, what worked well, I definitely got more resilient. I kind of, I developed a stronger shell definitely at that moment. So I would acknowledge that. But my even better if might be I should have made my work a bit more visible. So it did more of the talking for me. I was having to do a lot of the talking for myself, but maybe my work could have been more visible to other people.

[B]

And I think what this tool helps you to do is it really drives a kind of continual improvement mindset, but in a way where it doesn't feel unhelpfully relentless. Because I'm like, you're already in a hard moment. So this shouldn't feel like, oh, I'm just adding loads more expectation on myself. It should feel, I think, helpful, you know, to give you momentum so you don't feel stuck. It should help you to move forward. I think that's how you know it's. It's like working for you. And the other thing that I think this does for you is it gives you perspective. So often when things are hard, you're so in it, it may be emotional, hard to see the wood from the trees. It all feels really messy. I think as soon as you do what worked well, even better if it just creates a clarity and a calmness and puts you back in control.

[A]

So we're gonna end day three of the sprint just like we have on our other days. We've got a bit of inspiring advice to help you keep growing and we've got a 24 hour action to help you keep going with your learning.

[B]

So the learning advice that we've picked out from the book for today is from Claudia Harris, who is a CEO at a company called Makers. And she says, seek out the hard, try hard things and take them on. Learning is a muscle. It takes commitment, willingness to be uncomfortable and willingness to fail hard.

[A]

But true. Yeah, but true. And our 24 hour action, which you can do on your own, you can do as a team. If you've got a sprint team, we want you to use the five to one formula and we've created a template to make this really easy for you. So that's in your daily email so make sure you check out that today. But we want you to think about a recent hard moment that you have been in. Reflect on five things that you did well, five things that went well for you, and just pick out the one even better. If, if you want to share that with us, we'd love to see it. You can do it on LinkedIn, you can email it, but most important is that you capture the learning from that moment.

[B]

So that's the end of day three of our sprint. And the good news is we've done our two days of learning in hard moments. So tomorrow, day four, we are moving on to leading your own learning. And we're going to get very fun and playful over the next two days.