The Return on Experience (ROX) model combines cutting-edge discoveries from the fields of neuroscience, positive psychology, mindfulness meditation, and performance coaching into a potent self-leadership tool that helps people discover how to be their best.

It is based on the deceptively simple idea that experience contains the clues to success.
Every success you have ever achieved is stored in your central nervous system. Embedded in one or more of those experiences is a “success process” that can be adapted and applied again. ROX connects the dots between past performance and future results, allowing people to self-model their own success.

The ROX model evolved from hundreds of coaching conversations with individuals, teams, and leaders around the world on a wide range of performance issues. From those conversations, five success principles have emerged:

1. All experience is present experience.
Old memories never die. They not only are present in our memory banks; they can be tapped and re-experienced in the present moment.

2. Experience contains the clues to success.
Studying a past success reveals the steps, strengths, and best practices that made the experience possible. Those clues constitute a “success process” that we know from direct experience works.

3. Success is versatile.
A process that worked in one context can be adapted and applied to another. This self-modeling process produces a viable success strategy.

4. Success is a practice.
If at first we don’t succeed, try, try something else. The ROX model’s non-linear nature allows us to revisit prior experiences, find additional clues, and adjust our approach until we achieve the desired result.

5. Success inspires success.
The fastest way to help others excel is to help them unleash the power of their own experience.

The ROX model is based on five principles and five steps, each leading to a higher Return on Experience.

ROX 1
Principle: All experience is present experience.

Process: Tap into a prior experience.

Question: “What have I experienced that?”

Return on Experience: Self-Empowerment

ROX 2
Principle: Experience contains the clues to success.

Process: Translate past experience into know-how.

Question: “How did I do that?”

Return on Experience: Self-Knowledge

ROX 3
Principle: Success is versatile.

Process: Transfer knowledge to the current context.

Question: “How can I apply that now?”

Return on Experience: Mindful Action

ROX 4
Principle: Success is a practice.

Process: Transform results through action.

Question: “Am I getting what I really want?”

Return on Experience: Desired Results


ROX 5
Principle: Success inspires success.

Process: Transmit the ROX model to others.

Question: “How can I help?”

Return on Experience: Leadership