Building a Learning Community

TeamOJT Tip of the Month for March, 2007

Creating a learner community where employees share knowledge and willingly train one another requires an environment in which all employees can contribute in a meaningful way and feel valued as human beings-a place where people have a real sense of belonging and high self-esteem. Employees must have not only the ability to do their jobs, but also a willingness to do the work. Both ability and willingness depend on learners having a high level of independence, self-reliance, self-trust, and the capacity to exercise initiative.

Attitude is key. Attitude affects motivation, and motivation reflects the difference between what a person can do and what he or she will do. There must be a conscious intent to address attitude before we can hope to build a sense of community among learners. An attitude that values work is critical to the success of any learning endeavor. Most designers of training programs assume that when people are trained, positive attitudes follow. However, real attitude change is rarely ever the case. In most cases, any noticeable change quickly wanes and it's back to work as usual.

Attitude can be integrated into the learning process by laying a solid foundation that incorporates some fundamental principles of the behavioral and social sciences. The following five basic concepts of human behavior work to achieve an attitude that exudes a spirit of cooperation, teamwork, and a willingness to take ownership of the job: 1) the primary goal of all humans is to belong and feel significant; 2) People are creative decision makers. People who are encouraged to be creative and active participants feel they can make a difference and have an impact on the organization; 3) Human behavior (and all learning) occurs in a social context. (Many companies don't understand that the social environment itself produces errors and low productivity and greatly influences morale.); 4) Use is more important than possession. Skill and knowledge alone are not sufficient for real human performance improvement. People's capacity to work gives meaning and substance to their whole existence. People want and need to use their full range of talents. They want to be totally involved in creating their jobs; and 5) People and organizations function holistically. By working together cooperatively, people get a better appreciation for the significance of the task and how if affects and is affected by the greater work environment. This foundation is critical.

A good way to develop a learning community is to go in the back door. That seems to be the secret. Don't go to the organization and say, "I will help you develop a community of learners." Instead, search out an area where there is a training or performance problem. Make sure you pick an area where there is a certain amount of "hurting" and management support. That will provide the initial motivation for them to try something new. Then form employee teams consisting of people with varying skill and knowledge levels (teams made up of SMEs, less experienced workers, and novices) to work together on a very specific project - a project that they all have a vested interest in. It really doesn't matter what the specific problem is. What is important is that they build something together.

The catalyst for me has been a team-driven structured on-the-job training (OJT) program. The entire system is based upon the five fundamental principles listed above. What immediately starts to happen is that the teams become communities of learners as they learn from one another. Once you have even one team up and going, others in the organization take notice, and they want to start teams in their area. Pretty soon it spreads across the department and eventually the entire organization. By then you have created an interdependent organization in which people know that they can turn to and rely on their peers, managers, and other colleagues for knowledge, training and guidance - formally and informally.

As for the benefits, some of the comments you will start to hear include:

"For the first time ever, people are talking to each other - and they're talking about how to do the job."
"I was going to quit, but decided to stay to be part of the team."
"One of my employees was a real problem - he couldn't seem to master any job. So he kept going from one department to another every two or three years. But now, he's able to learn any job with a little help from his peers."
"I can't believe the change around here! People actually seem to like coming to work."
"We've been able to solve so many problems -across departments, some we didn't even know we had."
"Productivity has gone way up. Nobody comes in late anymore either."
"Now I know how to get the help I need when I need it."
"Everyone around here is so cooperative - makes it a great place to work."
"Our two departments are working so well together. It's a lot more pleasant."

It doesn't matter what type company or what classification of employees you're working with - IT professionals, airline mechanics, pilots, engineers, senior executives, training managers, technicians, machine operators; administrative assistants, lawyers, bio-tech managers, supervisors, financial services employees, utility workers, or government scientists.

In a true community of learners:

Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit (Peter Senge)
On-going team discussions as to the "best" way to perform tasks enables a range of existing or anticipated problems to surface naturally and teams begin to evaluate task performance from a systems perspective
Learners and experienced employees work and learn together - subject matter experts, less experienced, and new employees side-by-side
Every learner is involved and empowered to contribute directly to the analysis, design, development, and implementation of the training
Cross-functional teams address tasks that require the coordination of people in different teams or departments
Procedural steps explicitly promote effective coordination and use of team resources and are embedded directly into the training
A methodology is in place enabling employees to anticipate and prevent future problems. All types of performance and organizational issues are resolved
Mechanisms are in place to identify and address the hidden causes of performance problems
The organizational culture changes

Human Performance Applications
Phone: (206) 447-0860
FAX: (206) 447-3410
E-mail: diane@teamojt.com