In-house training for one company
The Step-Back
Capture a key task, reasoning included, in a system your team can run.
Train your employees together on your company's work, in your approved tools and accounts. Dates, delivery, and support are agreed with your company.
What you leave with
Work your team can use again.
A documented task system with the reasoning and decision rules, plus a seven-day handover test.
This describes the complete course. Team Focus and Team Practice cover the narrower parts selected in your plan. A course certificate is awarded only after the employee meets the full course requirements.
Private training for your team
Capture a key task, reasoning included, in a system your team can run.
- Participants
- Your company's employees, in a private group.
- Delivery
- Complete course: twelve live teaching hours, online in four three-hour sessions or in person over two days. Applied work and assessment requirements may continue afterward. Focused and applied virtual options cover narrower scopes.
- Complete course price
- $12,500 plus GST covers up to eight enrolled employees. Each additional employee is $2,500 plus GST. Virtual options start at $4,500 plus GST. Materials are included; company software and travel outside Calgary are separate.
Instructor qualifications and delivery arrangements are provided with your training plan. About Cornerstone.
How it runs
Learn it. Apply it. Prove it.
It isn't a seven-day course. The seven days is the test at the end.
- Two teaching daysLearn: twelve live hours
The full curriculum is taught online in four three-hour sessions or in person over two days. Your employee learns alongside coworkers from your company, then completes the course application and assessment requirements.
- Application and practiceApply: on the job or in the office
During guided practice and the agreed application period, your employee applies the learning at work, on the task your company chose, with your expert. A Cornerstone facilitator supervises online.
- After the handoverProve: seven days
Once the task has been handed over, the test starts. A teammate runs it for seven days using the system, with your expert stepping back. When the system holds, your employee receives a Cornerstone course certificate.A Cornerstone certificate shows your employee met our course requirements. It is not a government accreditation or a professional licence.
Who it's for
Three employees, one task.
You pick one task your company can't afford to have stop. Then three roles. The enrolled employee and the teammate are always employees:
- The expert
- The employee who does the task today and carries the know-how in their head. An estimator, a lead hand, a bookkeeper, a dispatcher. Their know-how is what makes them valuable; the course makes sure it's shared, not lost.
- The enrolled employee
- The employee you enrol in the course. They learn to capture the expert's know-how in a system and hand the task over. Often it's the expert themselves.
- The teammate
- Whoever runs the task during the test: a coworker, a new hire, even a temp.
Built for companies in:
- Construction and trades
- Oilfield services
- Trucking and logistics
- Professional offices: bookkeeping, insurance, accounting
Before training begins
What your employee needs to succeed.
- Comfortable with technology. Uses email, video calls, and shared online documents without help.
- Reads and writes well. Reads carefully, understands what they read, and writes clearly in English.
- Organized and trusted. Someone you already rely on, who can ask good questions and follow through.
- Has the time. Twelve live teaching hours, online in sessions or in person over two days, plus applied work and assessment requirements.
- Has access to the expert, or is the expert.
Readiness call. Before we send the invoice, we hold a short readiness call with your employee. The course only pays off if your employee can do the work, so we check first. If it isn't the right fit yet, we'll tell you, and nothing is owed.
An example of the work
More than a list of steps.
For a dispatch handover, the system could explain what to check before assigning a crew, how to handle an urgent change, who can approve it, and when to ask for help. A teammate then uses it on the agreed task during the seven-day test.
This is an illustration. The task, scope, and assessment requirements are agreed for your company.
Your information
Your work stays in your own accounts.
You do not send company files to Cornerstone. Work remains in your company's accounts; your approved software providers process data under your own settings and agreements. Your employee works in your own in-house documents, software, and systems, on the work device your company already gives them, whether they're in the office or working remotely. The facilitator reviews the work on a live call, where your employee chooses what to show. Nothing is recorded or copied, and no files come to us. We only ask for the enrolment details the invoice and the grant need.
We teach your employee to use what your company already has in house. Everything they build stays in your company's accounts from the first day.
Why this course
Training that happens on the job, not beside it.
- It uses real work. Your employee applies every step to a task during and after the teaching days.
- It ends with a test, not a binder. A teammate runs the task for seven days using the system.
- It stays with you. Your employee can repeat it on any other task without outside help.
- It stays private. Everything is built in your company's own in-house tools. You never send us your files.
- It fits Alberta funding. Eligible employers can apply toward eligible training costs.
What your employee will learn
By the end, your employee will be able to:
- Find the tasks in the company that stop when one key employee is away, and rank them by what that costs the team.
- Sit down with your expert and capture how the task is really done: the steps, the decisions and the reasoning behind them, what to do in an emergency, and why things are done the way they are.
- Turn that into a living system your team can work from, one that explains the why, not just the what.
- Hand the task to a teammate for a week and check that the system holds.
- Do the same for any other task in the company, without outside help.
Course format
What happens in each class.
- Module 1. Where the company depends on one key employee, and what that costs the whole team when they're away.
- Module 2. How to download a human brain: getting the know-how out of the expert's head, the steps, the reasoning, and the judgment calls.
- Module 3. Building the system from what was downloaded: a living system that carries the reasoning behind every decision, not just the steps.
- Module 4. Handing it over and checking that it holds: a new team member or teammate runs the task for a week using the system.
Application and practice. Your employee applies that week's step at work, on the chosen task, with your expert, so the real work happens alongside the class, not after it. Support times are agreed with your company.
Supervised online. From week two, a Cornerstone facilitator supervises the handover on a live call, where your employee chooses what to show. Private delivery, supervision, and any on-site travel are agreed in your written quote.
Your information. Everything is built in your company's own in-house tools. How we keep client data and company information in your company.
Certificate. Your employee receives a Cornerstone course certificate after completing the twelve-hour teaching program, finishing the system to standard, and passing the seven-day test.A Cornerstone certificate shows your employee met our course requirements. It is not a government accreditation or a professional licence.
Watch the story
More than a list of tasks
See why sharing the decisions and exceptions matters when someone else has to carry the work.
Read the video transcript
Let me tell you about an experience behind The Step-Back.
Before these courses existed, an oilfield services company needed to prepare for the maternity leave of the employee who kept its office running.
Writing down her tasks was only part of the problem. Someone else also needed to understand her decisions. What did she check? When did she change the plan? What happened when the usual answer did not fit?
That is the part I want you to think about in your own company. Could a coworker follow the instructions, or would they still need to call the person who is away?
The Step-Back teaches employees to capture one agreed task, including the decisions and exceptions, in a system someone else can use.
The complete course has twelve live teaching hours. Applied work continues as needed, followed by a seven-day workplace handover test. The certificate depends on meeting the course requirements, not just attending the teaching days.
Try the task-handover check on our website. Then build and download a course plan and price for your team.
Before booking
Agree the work and the scope.
We confirm learning goals, participants, manager support, tools, training hours, applied work, assessment arrangements, support, and payment and cancellation terms in your written quote. Training is for your company and its employees.
Employees receive a Cornerstone course certificate after meeting the attendance, applied work, and assessment requirements.
A Cornerstone certificate shows your employee met our course requirements. It is not a government accreditation or a professional licence.
For your company
Discuss training for your employees.
Calculate your package price first. Then send your selected course, team size and preferred timing. We confirm scope, group arrangements, delivery dates, and any travel or software costs before booking.