Team Learning Modules

Back in the day
At one stage in the not too distant past, it was possible to get people released for three to four days, even a week of training. It was also possible to get a team away for two days to plan how they could become a better team! However the epidemic of 'busyness' continues to infect every part of our work and life. Even to the extent that my June fathers day treat, a meal with my daughter and son can only take place when all of our diaries are aligned in October!

Our Learning and Development Challenge
As trainers and coaches we need to develop solutions that make full use of the tools of this digital age and we need to motivate and enable learners to shoehorn their learning into their already overloaded diaries. At Release the Magic, through our work with teams (as part of our High Performing Teams programme), we have been evolving a training methodology that we call Team Learning Modules.

But first - does traditional training work?
Traditional training typically has a preparation stage in which joining instructions are sent out with attached pre-reading material / tasks and sometimes a survey is completed. Then in the delivery stage the workshop is run covering all the key learning points and finishing with each person preparing an action list on how they were going to implement what they had learnt. Next the follow up stage when line managers and local HR/L&D teams follow up to ensure that the actions have been implemented. 

The truth is that generally this traditional methodology didn't/doesn't really work and the conversion of theory to changed behaviour and new actions was mostly south of 20%. Add to that our observations of eLearning highlighted that it only seemed to work when it was integrated into traditional training as part of a blended learning solution. So for example in learning presentation skills participants could learn the theory via eLearning and use the classroom for delivery/participation. We also noted that eLearning worked where we installed Learning Champions who could guide learners to targeted resources.

An alternative approach

This is how Team Learning Modules (TLM) works:-

1. Identify the specific learning need and the outcomes required (be specific) and by when.
2. Identify the participants and the compelling reason they need to complete the TLM.
3. Form them into learning groups of six people, initially in a virtual learning space. Note: there is a higher level of participation in smaller groups, plus it is possible in this configuration to break into pairs and triads to optimise peer to peer support.
4. Each learning group to be supported by a coach, who is there to teach, coach and curate supportive learning material into the virtual learning space. Note: each coach will coach multiple sets
5. Use the virtual space to handle the preparation phase, introductions, objectives and theory transfer. Watch  Flipping the Classroom
6. Getting people to physically connect should never be underestimated and running a workshop becomes a very valuable way of applying the theory they have learnt and bonding the group together. Note: the workshop provides the opportunity for multiple sets and their coaches to get together in a highly focused way.
7. The follow up then takes place through the virtual learning space under the guidance and support from the coach.

The benefits

• Learning is more work / business focused and the outcomes easier to manage and achieve.
• A much higher conversion of theory to real life actions (80%+)
• Smaller groups ensure that everyone participates as there is little opportunity to 'hide'.
• The digital quick, simple and engaging approach is more in tune with a modern connected workforce.

The challenges

• Its more complicated to organise, compared to herding people into a conference room and bombarding them with PowerPoint decks!
• Getting overworked time poor people motivated and committed to allocate time to participate in the training.
• Getting the right technology in place and training people in the use of this technology

A new role of Learning Facilitator

This new role has three sub-roles: -

• Trainer - able to teach new skills to participants in workshops and online
• Coach - able to coach new skills into real life either one to one or working with pairs and triads.
• Curator (Champion) - able to identify and/or create compelling learning material posted into the virtual learning space to reinforce / support the learning process

Virtual Learning Space - example : Workplace by Facebook

• Communicate, collaborate and connect across desktop and mobile, using familiar features such as groups, chat and video calls. Because anything is possible when people work together.
• Instant messaging feature lets you chat one-to-one or in groups, reaching anyone in your organisation with text, pictures, voice and video.
• Make HD video calls at the touch of a button from Workplace Chat. Connect and screen-share with up to 50 people wherever they are in the world.
• Groups are spaces for sharing updates, files, feedback and more. They're like email threads, but better organised and easier to follow.
• Like your Facebook News Feed, but about work. View updates from people and projects that you care about in a scrolling stream of posts.

Conclusion

We have proved that the concept of Team Learning Modules works extremely well through the following examples from our High Performing Team Programme:-

FOR TEAM LEADERS How to inspire and influence others How to be a nurturing coach How to be an engaging facilitator How to be a smart manager How to give tough feedback How to manage people How to manage conflict How to develop a leadership vision How to balance work and life How to build trust How to ask thoughtful questions How to give constructive feedback How to get the best out of a team How to coach people through change

FOR TEAM MEMBERS How to prioritise your time How to run and participate in great meetings How to develop a team vision How to prioritise projects to optimise team contribution How to peer to peer coach How to make sound decisions How to solve problems How to set up an end of day routine Understanding and optimise  your Myers Briggs step ll profile and/or StrengthsFinder profiles

Our TLMs started very much as part of an off site workshop, but then we started to use Skype, Facetime and WhatsApp to follow up and then to teach people new concepts. Then we used Skype to observe a trainee coaches practicing 'live' coaching and that worked extremely well, bringing with it a high sense of intimacy and trust.

We know this blend of methods works well, but it is very important that the learning needs be agreed to by the team, fit into team practices and everyone must commit to complete the learning and providing coaching and support to one another.

TLMs are good for quick one off learning but can also be strung together as part of a programme e.g. 'Introduction to Management'.

If you would like to find out more about TLMs please contact Ian Shaw on ian.shaw@release-the-magic.com.

Mindfulness for Stress

At a time in my life when I was struggling with dealing with grief, sleeping badly and beating myself up for ridiculous reasons, I decided to attend an eight week (MBSR influenced) ‘Mindfulness for Stress’ programme and it was a life saver.

Thinking about the eight weeks I believe I learnt the following: -

1. How to meditate - something I had never done in my life, but which I found very helpful as it provided me with a simple tool that I could use to relax and calm me when I felt stressed. I have an overactive mind and thought I would never be able to 'empty' it in order to meditate. So, I was delighted to learn that thoughts are 'allowed' and there to be enjoyed and played with. I also found that focusing on my body and breathing through the guided meditations stopped my thinking from completely hijacking my meditation sessions.
2. Learning correct breathing - I understood as a trainer the power of breathing, but this course helped me to understanding the science and how to integrate breathing into my mindfulness lifestyle.
3. What we resist persists - I soon realised that pushing away, suppressing, numbing out and reaching for distractions was not working and learnt to adopt a mindful 'attend and befriend' approach, specifically to embrace the loss of my wife.
4. Taking in the good - here my positive approach to life has helped me to fight the human negativity bias and celebrate all the good and amazing things in my life. In particular my loving family and friends who have been truly amazing and helped me to develop new happy neural pathways. I think the most important message is that you have a choice, do you 'feed' your miserable self-pity or do you invest in joy, peace, love and hope.
5. Mindfulness walking - I walk in the countryside every day of my life, the joy of owning a wonderful German Shepherd. This gave me the opportunity to apply mindfulness as I walked, taking in all the wonderful things that I had stopped seeing. Spring in the UK is a marvellous time of the year with all the colours, leaves and flowers all bursting out with their goodness. I learned to recognise when I was doing things on autopilot and break out of its grip.
6. Self-Compassion - possibly one of the most important keys for me was to stop being so hard on myself and to learn to be kind and supportive. Irrational I know, but soon after my wife’s passing, I kept thinking that I could have detected the sepsis and saved her. Even when my doctor explained that she was too sick to have survived, my self-flagellation continued. I'm ok now, I know I did everything possible and that it was out of my control.
7. Compassionate communications - learning to listen and speak in a mindful way, listening deeply to what is being shared rather than an interpretation of it.
8.  Gratitude - we did this one exercise where we texted a buddy the three things we were grateful for each day for a week. When you look back on this list you soon realise that life is still good and that we all have a lot to be thankful for!!!
9. Mindful photography - by chance more than design I had been taking a 10 week 'Improve your D-SLR photography' course at the same time. The two courses proved to be a wonderful combination and helped me to enjoy the present moment and see beauty in ordinary things.

I know I have a long way to go if I want to live a mindfulness life, but I feel that I have made a good start. In the weeks going forward I need to turn these good intentions into good habits and in everything I do to continue to be kind to myself.  The one thing I do know is that mindfulness has helped me at a very difficult time in my life and given me great hope for the future.

Happiness Drivers

I continue to look at ways of simplifying the path to happiness in my coaching practice. What makes us happy is very much an individual thing, but I have found that there tends to be five key headlines that come up time and again.

• Inspiring sense of purpose - having something to work towards that you find, exciting, inspiring - something that fills you with passion. Having a reason to get up in the morning which can be as simple as organising a wonderful gathering of good friends for a weekend away.

• Meaningful relationships - here we are not talking about the 100's of Facebook 'friends'. What works is having a loving family, caring friends, a loving partner and colleagues that you enjoy working with. Having key people in your life that you can trust. Also very important is the relationship you have with yourself in which you are able to practice self-compassion.

• Health and wellness - although this tends to be dictated to by the genes we are born with. However there is substantial scientific evidence that through regular exercise, eating and drinking sensibly, managing our stress levels and just having fun and enjoying life, all count towards improving your health and wellness.

• Approach to life - having an upbeat approach to life does make such a difference. Being able to bounce back from hard times, always looking for the positives in every situation. Taking a mindfulness approach to living, willingness to learn new things and to do things for others - they all help you to feel happy.

• Feeling of security - they say money can't buy you happiness, but lack of it can lead to misery. Feeling financially and personally safe and secure in your life, having the support of others and the confidence to deal with life's challenges are definitely big contributors to happiness.

The challenge I believe is to balance the five happiness drivers and by doing this you will find and be able to maintain happiness. 

Ubuntu

My Calm app recently dealt with 'ubuntu' in the 'daily calm' meditation. 

What is ubuntu?

According to Michael Onyebuchi Eze, the core of ubuntu can best be summarised as follows:

'A person is a person through other people' strikes an affirmation of one’s humanity through recognition of an ‘other’ in his or her uniqueness and difference. It is a demand for a creative inter-subjective formation in which the ‘other’ becomes a mirror (but only a mirror) for my subjectivity. This idealism suggests to us that humanity is not embedded in my person solely as an individual; my humanity is co-substantively bestowed upon the other and me. Humanity is a quality we owe to each other. We create each other and need to sustain this otherness creation. And if we belong to each other, we participate in our creations: we are because you are, and since you are, definitely I am. The ‘I am’ is not a rigid subject, but a dynamic self-constitution dependent on this otherness creation of relation and distance."

I found that explanation a bit complicated, so looked for another explanation. When former president of the United States, Barack Obama, made a speech  at the 2018 Nelson Mandela annual lecture — he said that Mandela “understood the ties that bind the human spirit.” 

“There is a word in South Africa — Ubuntu — that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us,” Obama said. 

“Umntu Ngumntu Ngabantu” or “I am, because you are” is how we describe the meaning of Ubuntu. It speaks to the fact that we are all connected and that one can only grow and progress through the growth and progression of others.


Ubuntu has since been used as a reminder for society on how we should be treating others. 

For me it was best described by the Calm narrator, Tamara Levitt, who told the story of a group of African children who were invited to race towards a tree, with the winner being given sweets. What they did was join hands and run together as one, because to win was for them all to win.

This made me think back to a recent holiday to the Scottish Highland Railways, where in the coach trip to the railway station our guide (from Glasgow) explained the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh people. He said if you turn up unexpectedly to a Glasgow home, they immediately invite you in and offer you drinks and food, however he said Edinburgh people will assume that the unexpected guest has already 'had their tea'. 

I realise when I work with teams, that a lot of what I do is to (unintentionally) draw on the ubuntu philosophy to get team members to respect and to care for one another. Working effectively together as a whole team, making use of the individual skills of team members in a complimentary way, can achieve amazing things!!!

Developing Engaging Facilitation Skills

This programme has been designed to give internal facilitators the required skills and confidence to be able to deliver highly effective workshops.

Objectives of this programme: Participants will learn the following:-

• The basics of good training and facilitation
• How to use the nurturing coaching methodology effectively
• The techniques of accelerated learning and how to apply them to learning challenges
• How to power up energy and maximise personal impact
• How to use graphic facilitation techniques to enhance the learning experience

Preparation: All participants will complete the following:-

• My Facebook personal introduction
• 360 degree feedback survey for a Engaging Facilitator
• Prepare 3 icebreakers / energisers

Organisation:

·         The room layout will be just chairs set up in a half circle

·         A flip charts stand in each corner of the room

·         Plenty of flipchart paper and good colour markers

Overview of training:

·         Day 1 – Learn the basics of good training and facilitating

·         Day 2 – Practice delivering training

·         Day 3 – Raise the bar! How to become an amazing trainer!

NOTE: Participants will be asked to run energisers and icebreakers throughout the three days at the beginning of sessions.

  

The detailed storyboard of how we will do this:-

Timing	Story
DAY 1	Learn the basics of good training and facilitating
09:00	Setting the scene: Workshop leader to introduce himself and explain the workshop covering objectives and how it will be run. Set out the rules for the day and cover off the admin side. Explain how to get the most from the next three days, including how to take notes and that they will become great facilitators by continuing to Reflect & Learn and hand out the A6 notebooks and get them going right away.
09:30	Personal introductions: Each participant will have 5 minutes to introduce themselves on their tables using the ‘My Facebook’ that they prepared as part of the pre-work. Then get them, on each table, to pick a coaching buddy and let them go off in pairs to have coffee together.
11:00	COFFEE BREAK
11:30	Nurturing Coaching – 1 This session will start with a 30 minute theory session on Coaching and an explanation on how the group will practice. This is a buddy coaching session Each person will be given their buddy’s 360 report  They will be given time to prepare the coaching session following the guidance from the theory session  Then they coach one another by feeding back the results of the survey and using GROW in the process
13:00	LUNCH
14:00	Nurturing Coaching – 2 Complete the practice sessions and run a summary session to capture the learning.
14:40	The basics of training & facilitating Check out the know-how of the group – Break into groups and brainstorm all the aspects of your training ability.
15:30	COFFEE BREAK
16:00	The basics of good training & facilitating This session will cover all aspects of training and facilitating, from the start, during the session and after. If possible it would be good to include Video Arts ‘You’ll Soon Get the Hang of It’ as part of this session.
17:00	Preparation for day 2 The group will be broken into pairs or threes (ideally not in coaching pairs) and they will be handed their assignments for the next day. It will be explained that the whole of the next day will be run by the participants to give them real experience of training and facilitating.
17:30	END
DAY 2	Practice delivering training
08:30	Learning review Carry out a review to ensure that participants have understood what was covered on the previous day.
09:00	Advice on how to prepare This will be a recap of the basics of good training and facilitating, but in the context of their assignments.
09:30	Preparation for delivery They will have 90 minutes to prepare their learning session, which will include getting the material, room layout, props, timings etc …the whole story.
11:00	COFFEE BREAK
11:30	Optimise your personal IMPACT – Explain that they will be judged by what they do in the 1st minute of their contact with their participants. Explain how messages are communicated through words, tonality and body language and which parts impact the most. Give them 5 minutes to prepare a 1 minute introduction to their training session, and then get each person to present for ONLY 1 MINUTE. Have a short wrap up at the end to summarise the key messages.
12:00	Practice session 1 Each practice session will follow the following structure:- ·         Provide a short overview of how the session will be run ·         Run the session ·         Get feedback from the participants ·         Capture the learning.
13:00	LUNCH
14:00	Practice session 2
15:00	Practice session 3
16:00	COFFEE BREAK
16:30	Practice session 4
17:30	Practice session 5
18:30	END
Day 3	Raise the bar! How to become an amazing facilitator!
09:00	Learning review
09:30	How your brain works This session will explain in layman’s term how the brain works building on the recent research that has come out of the study of the human brain.
10:30	COFFEE BREAK
11:00	VAK This covers how to use the senses in order to maximise the learning experience.
12:00	Graphic Facilitation This session builds on the previous two sessions and provides a means of applying the learning. Graphic facilitation covers giant mind maps, learning maps, pictures to seed ideas, and turning a simple flipchart into learning art.
13:00	LUNCH
14:00	100 day learning This session explains the post workshop action learning that will take place, together with the remote coaching and how that will be delivered. If possible it will also include a session on how to use the Release the Magic Virtual Learning Environment which if used will provide the community meeting point for the participants.
15:00	Action planning This is possibly the most important part of the workshop – the detailed action planning. Each participant will take 20 minute to complete their action planner, then the remaining hour will be devoted to buddy coaching sessions in which they will challenge their buddy’s plans and make sure there is a very high commitment for whatever they finally agree to do. Final wrap up session.
16:30	END