When people work together as a team, they create shared experiences that they can learn from. As a leader, you are expected to facilitate this experiential learning process. Learning is how teams solve problems and overcome challenges. You can lead the learning process by ensuring that your team is constantly reflecting on its past and present experiences to assess performance and find ways to improve. As your team develops new ideas for improvement and change, you will need to approve and prioritize those ideas. Most importantly, it’s your responsibility to make sure these ideas get put into action, tested, and validated. Some ideas will work; some will not. Either way, team learning has occurred.
In any organization, getting the work done can be hard. Resilient teams thrive in challenging environments because they can overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together. Leaders build resilient teams by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. Building resilient teams makes team learning possible. Team learning is the foundation of organizational learning and change.
Learning Objectives for Modules 4 and 5: Increase the team’s ability to solve problems and overcome challenges by facilitating team learning (parts 1 and 2).
Assignment 1. Learn the following key terms and ideas. Knowing these key terms and ideas is essential to understanding the concepts that support each leader task in this module. (0.5 hours)
Assignment 2. Reflect on your unique leader/follower experience with each of the leader tasks and concepts below. Consider ALL the reflection questions in detail. The articles are provided to prompt critical thinking about the topics. (5.5 hours)
Team learning is the process of routinely learning from individual and team experience and applying that learning to the accomplishment of team goals. Experiential learning is the cyclical process of experiencing, reflecting, deciding, and acting. Working together, teams learn from experience how to improve, innovate, and solve problems.
The cycle of experiencing, reflecting, deciding, and acting is continuous. Learning from their experience is how resilient teams overcome adversity, and then adapt and grow together because of that adversity.
The Experiential Learning Cycle described in the Building and Leading Resilient Teams curriculum is a modified version of the Experiential Learning Cycle above by David Kolb.
The experiencing stage of the experiential learning cycle is where teams directly observe or participate in events. Everything that a team does together creates experience that can be learned from. Improving, innovating, and solving problems requires teams to move from experiencing to reflecting. Teams that cannot move from experiencing to reflecting are not learning.
The reflecting stage of the experiential learning cycle is where teams carefully and critically consider something. Teams reflect on their experience to find ways to solve problems, improve performance, and innovate new ideas. Teams that cannot move from reflecting to deciding are not learning.
The deciding stage of the experiential learning cycle is where teams use experience and reflection to guide their decision-making. Often, teams will need to make timely decisions without optimal information. Improving, innovating, and solving problems requires teams to move from deciding to acting. Teams that cannot move from deciding to acting are not learning.
The acting stage of the experiential learning cycle is where teams act in furtherance of a decision. Good teams will have a bias for action. Bias for action is favoring action over inaction, especially in the face of uncertainty. Improving, innovating, and solving problems requires teams to complete the learning cycle by moving from acting to a new and improved experience (ideally). Even if the experience is not what the team was expecting, learning has still occurred, and the cycle begins again.
Team goals are objectives or targets that a team is trying to reach or achieve together. Team goals should be well-defined and understood by the team. Establishing stretch goals promotes more learning and better performance and productivity. Stretch goals are purposefully ambitious and challenge a person or team to step outside of their comfort zone. Orienting on team goals helps the team identify problems.
Orienting on team goals requires unity of effort. Unity of effort is the deliberate coordination and cooperation of people toward a common objective. Cohesive teams working in a positive climate are more likely to demonstrate unity of effort.
Orienting on team goals also requires that leaders provide their intent. Leader’s intent is provided to explain “why” something needs to be accomplished so that teams can develop or adapt their plans for “how” to get the work done.
Establishing incremental goals helps teams develop confidence. An incremental goal is a benchmark set between a starting point and end goal that is used to track progress. Meeting incremental goals creates short-term wins and provides motivation.
As teams successfully accomplish goals together, they develop higher levels of collective efficacy. Teams that are higher in collective efficacy are better prepared to overcome adversity together.
Reading:
The Best Way to Set Team Goals
How to Write Effective OKRs – Plus Examples
A Leader’s Role in Setting and Meeting Team Goals
5 Practical Tips How to Set Truly Cooperative Team Goals
Assignment 3: Group Discussion. For students participating in an instructor-led course, the group discussion of leader tasks and supporting concepts is a key element of the learning experience. Group discussion of the factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) relevant to each leader task ensures that students are well-prepared for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T leader certification exams. Students participating in an instructor-led course may also want to make use of the Exam Prep Study Tool described below. (3.0 hours)
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® (RBLP) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose.
RBLP is our core leader certification for supervisors and people seeking a supervisory position. Applicants for RBLP leader certification must have at least two years of work and/or college experience.
During the 1.5-hour oral RBLP exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, and Provide Purpose competency domains (Modules 1-3 only).
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Coach (RBLP-C) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning.
RBLP-C certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies.
RBLP-C is our leader certification for managers and people seeking a management position.
During the 2.5-hour oral RBLP-C exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, and Facilitate Team Learning competency domains (Modules 1-5 only).
People who earn the Resilience-Building Leadership Professional® Trainer (RBLP-T) certification are qualified to build and lead resilient teams in the workplace by creating a positive climate, developing cohesion, and providing purpose. They are also qualified to facilitate team learning and support organizational learning.
RBLP-T certified leaders can coach others on these leadership competencies and provide training that prepares people to sit for the RBLP, RBLP-C, and RBLP-T certification exams.
RBLP-T is our leader certification for senior managers and people seeking a senior management position.
During the 3.5-hour oral RBLP-T exam, the applicant is required to show competence in factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural knowledge (how) in the Create a Positive Climate, Develop Cohesion, Provide Purpose, Facilitate Team Learning, and Support Organizational Learning competency domains (Modules 1-7).
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© 2019-2024 | Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
“RBLP”, “Resilience-Building Leadership Professional”, “Learn More. Lead Better.”, and the RBLP shield logo are registered trademarks of Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc.