Reflections On Team Learning
When we first introduced Team Learning-essentially self-directed learning teams-we thought we had identified the key benefits.
- reduced costs
- little disruption to productivity since sessions are conducted in the workplace and in short time frames-1 hour per week or 1 hour every 2 weeks
- Just In Time (JIT) learning
Develops High Performance Teams that Achieve Remarkable Results
Clients tell us the most graphic indicator of the power of Team Learning is in the results achieved. Results that go far beyond what the organization would dare ask of the team. This results from the team learning process itself,. See: High Performance Learning Process
Supports Organizational Change
Several of our clients are enlisting Team Learning to support their vision or a change in strategic direction. Each subject or skill area is customized to relate back to the strategic initiative. This provides team members opportunities to have job related discussions on ways to support organizational direction.
In fact, the first two pages of their manuals are devoted to the strategic initiative and the reasons (usually from the CEO) why and how the organization expects to achieve its goals through the efforts of the learning team. For more information see: How Team Learning Supports Organizational Change.
Employee Development
Employees have traditionally not received personal development as an entitlement unlike Managers, salespeople, and professionals. Removing an employee off the line for a 1-2 day workshop or even a 1/2 day workshop meant too much dislocation and reduced productivity. But as more than one CEO has said to us: "I can afford to invest 1 hour every 2 weeks for my employees' development."
Team Bonding
Most Team Learning activities center around meaningful, job-related discussions between team members. They constantly share views and ideas; then come to consensus in a collaborative atmosphere. After 1 or 2 such sessions, mutual respect and bonding takes place. This has been well documented through evaluations of the teams' dynamics which are at the end of each program. The dynamics center around involvement by everyone; shared leadership by all; respect for differing opinions; respect for everyone's time.
Positions The Manager As Coach
Team Learning is an ideal forum for Managers to practise their coaching skills in a safe, non-threatening learning atmosphere. The Team Learning Coach sits apart from the learning team (who are the primary focus). But the Coach is available to add value to the discussion and encourage the group.
Self-Esteem
In traditional workshops of 15-20 persons there is usually a small group which tends to be most active, while the rest sit quietly taking notes or day dreaming. But in Team Learning sessions everyone is participating at all times. This means that everyone will have a chance to express their opinions and get (generally positive) feedback from the group. This attention (new for many) serves to build self-esteem and confidence. Our clients report that business meetings are more productive and that "the quiet ones are starting to speak up."
Egalitarian
We're all familiar with the experience of participating in a business meeting where all sorts of opinions are being expressed, and eventually the most senior person present comes down in favor of one particular course of action. It's always amazing how everyone else in the room aligns themselves to the leader. We all know this type of consensus building doesn't fit our dynamically changing business environment. Meetings need to foster true consensus since it's the followers not the leader who tend to implement actions and need to be truly committed to the group's wishes. Team Learning provides a safe forum for improving skills at building group consensus and real commitment.
Empowerment
Today everyone wants to be involved with the way things are done in their work area. We have found that Team Learning sessions can be a valuable forum to give employees many opportunities to determine their group's work environment and norms of behaviour. For example, in one of our programs, Addressing Conflict, each learning team is empowered to make the following decisions:
- Which "basic" beliefs that could lead to inter-team conflict should be set aside in the team's Neutral Zone.
- What each member of the team needs to "Stop Doing" and "Start Doing" to address conflict more constructively.
- What benefits and potential drawbacks each member brings to the team, with a view to recognize benefits and to try to turn drawbacks into benefits.
- In addition, the team comes up with a "Contract" that identifies a set of groundrules on how to address typical conflict situations if they arise.
Each of the programs in the Team Learning Series has similar job-related decisions that the learning team makes that will foster a healthier work environment. Real empowerment.
Peer / Subordinate Pressure
Educators have always employed techniques to try to maximize the amount of learning that will be applied to the job. Sign offs by the immediate supervisor; "refresher" videos; mystery shoppers; "self" and "other" evaluations of our work are but a few of the techniques used.
Team Learning employs two additional methods:
- Peer pressure by learning team members to apply the skills and decisions they discussed during the Team Learning sessions.
- Pressure by subordinates who, because they tend to take the same subjects as their managers, are now more familiar with what to expect of their managers in the way of behaviours (and their managers are aware of this too).
For example, when managers and employees take Successful Meetings, they learn a set of groundrules on how meetings should take place. This protocol will either be followed or not. If managers do not to "walk the talk" they are immediately seen as such by their own staff. This is an indirect way to pressure managers to be role models of the skills and techniques introduced in each Team Learning program.