For the last several years I have been running leadership development programs and a core component of those programs has always been a variation on a “learning group”. A group of learners going through a shared experience and learning from each other while they progress.
Historically about 80% of learning groups that I have looked after have been miserable failures. The leaders do not take the time to meet with each other and when they do, they do not have anything meaningful to say to each other so little value is produced.
In contrast, there is the roughly 20% of groups who are dynamite. Every time they meet, they come out energized and stronger than when they started. They share insights with each other, help each other, and strengthen each other as human beings and not just in the context of work. It is this magic that perpetuates the idea that learning groups is a good vehicle for cohort-based learning.
What is it that makes these special learning groups so outstanding? I have a hypothesis that is heavily influenced by Khoi Tu my friend and brilliant strategist and human. In most cases teams are formed when there is a product of work to be done. There is a challenge, so you form a team to tackle the challenge. Then the team goes through the popular four stages of growth – forming, storming, norming, performing. It is in the forming, storming, and norming phases that trust, and care is built.
My hypothesis runs counter to this idea and goes like this:
Groups of people who build trust and care for each other before trying to do any work together are far more successful than those who first organize to get work done and then build trust and support for each other along the way.
The pattern of trust and care first is what I have observed in our outstanding leaders who belong to these magical learning groups.
I am currently running and experiment at Microsoft to index heavy on the trust building and care early in the program. By doing this I hope to increase the number of groups that are exceptional and valuable.
I invite you when meeting new people to look first for ways to build trust and to care for them. Then, later, think about how you might work together to have an impact.
