Learning in Small Teams
How might we meet learning needs of our teams when having an L&D department is not an option?
Dear Readers,
Once again, I missed out on sending the letter yesterday. Life has been coming in the way to keep my intent of sending this letter every Sunday. I am trying to figure out a way to bridge the gap between Intention and Action while holding compassion for myself and recognising, somedays I will just not be able to tick all the boxes on my list.
But here I am. Once again, one day late.
When I was drafting this issue, there was a lot going inside my head- what facet of learning should I pick up for this month, what learning nuggets can I offer you all, how can I offer another perspective.
This meant looking back at the issues I had done and my previous issue helped me in this.
So after contemplation and looking back I thought it will be great to explore learning from the point of view of organisations and teams, understand gamified learning experiences and where do they show up and learning from people who are at the forefront of designing and delivering these experiences.
I am excited!
I hope so are you. 💛
Issue#18
In this issue you will find:
Learning in Small Teams
Reflection Box
The Learning Bank
And a way to connect with me!
Let’s begin! 🛣️
Learning in Small Teams
I have been fortunate to be in varied spaces - from Not for Profits to a bootstrapped family owned Start Up to a Tech Start Up.
I also know people who are running their own not for profits or other ventures and one thing I continue to think about is how many a times these small and medium sized or young organisations often lack a dedicated team to think about learning.
Now learning is a full time activity, it can not be equated with one training event, so when you are in or leading a young organisation with either NO FUNDS, NO TEAM or NO INTENT or all of the above, to focus on learning, what do you do?
💰 No Funds: Quite often for young start ups, having a L&D department does not make sense for their bottom line. They view it as a cost centre. And when you have to answer to your investors about revenue and profitability it is easy and convenient to miss out on thinking about Learning altogether. A very similar story emerges in a Not for Profit spaces too where all learning activity and funds is concentrated at the field for “Capacity Building Workshops” to deliver the program. The other teams get maybe a yearly retreat.
🧑🏽🤝🧑🏻 No Team: If there are no funds, safe to say there is no team or even a person taking in charge of learning. When there is no one whose ownership it is to drive learning, learning automatically takes a back seat. After all there are more important things to be done!
Now, lack of funds and team have a fix but lack of Intent, what do you do with that?
📝 No Intent: If you are a part of an organisation where learning is not even on the agenda or an intent for the leadership, be ready to have some difficult conversations. I will share more about how to do this in a future issue.
If you are a leader of an organisation, you can through formal policies and processes or informal discussions and conversations work to make your intent clear.
Let’s now unpack how do we solve for Funds and Teams.
How might we meet learning needs of our teams when having an L&D department is not an option?
Before we get into the steps we can take, we need to understand what happens when learning needs of employees and teams are not met.
Employees become dissatisfied, they feel they are stuck, not growing. There is decrease in morale and motivation and the program and work suffers because we haven’t created space for people to be their best selves.
These are not just empty words. Check out this article by HBR on what does a dream workplace look like and no surprise there, employees want to be in teams and organisations where they can Discover and Magnify their Strengths.
Now that we know the problem and the symptoms, let’s try to solve it. What steps can we take to help meet the learning needs of our teams and employees?
Create a learning environment
Employees feel safe and connected. They have been given a space to voice their opinions and diversity of views is respected and encouraged. There are visual cues for learning in and around the workplace- Work Values, Success Stories, How far we have come and so on.Peer Learning
When there is no L&D head, make sure as leadership and managers you are facilitating peer learning. Someone had a creative solution to a problem at the workplace, ask them to share with their peers. Create opportunities for peers to work together on difficult projects. Ask them to document the learning and share with others. Open all doors of communication!Managers become the Learning Champion
If you manage a team or there is even a single person that reports to you, act as if their learning and growth is your top most priority. Do 1 on 1’s that are focussed on conversations around what they want to do, areas they want to become better at, create network opportunities for them. Have someone who struggle with communication, give them opportunities to make a presentation, help and guide them or align them with someone who is great at it. Share books, newsletter, resources with them.Leadership to be proactive learners
The leadership needs to take their own active steps and if possible visible steps to show they are taking in charge of their own learning. They need to continue to develop themselves as experts and as leaders. They can do this by finding mentors, network circles, reading, having open discussions with the teams or just spending 1 day a month with a different team on the ground doing their work.
The Learning Bank 🏦
Here is this week’s learning bank-5 resources- videos, articles, blogposts to learn more from!
Read Yuval Noah Harari’s take on what 2050 has in store for us
If you haven’t read Atomic Habit by James Clear, watch this video to learn about the steps you can take to change your habits and your life.
Check out this Medium Article that gives you summaries of 6 life changing books
Use this Meta Log to improve your writing or any project that you undertake. Complement it with the Learning Pill issue on Metacognition.
Want a proof of evolution, check out this video.
Connect with me!
If you are a Learning Designer or want to be one and want to have a chat about Anything and Everything about Learning, book a slot here.
You can also follow me on LinkedIn or send me “hey” on avnivij3@gmail.com.
If you liked this newsletter, maybe share it with someone else who’d like it?
Keep learning!
Adios,
Avni