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)
Constructive dialogue is essential for understanding the team’s shared experience. Constructive dialogue is how teams progress through the experiential learning cycle together. Constructive dialogue is psychologically safe discussion between people of varying opinions and perspectives that seeks to develop understanding about important and complicated issues.
Psychological safety is the feeling or belief that you can share thoughts, opinions, and ideas freely without fear of damaging your reputation or standing. Trust and mutual respect are the foundations of psychological safety.
Psychological safety promotes adaptive thinking. Adaptive thinking is the ability to recognize unexpected situations, quickly consider various possible responses, and make an appropriate decision.
In constructive dialogue, active listening is complemented by advocacy. Advocacy is promoting or defending an idea, plan, or way of doing something. Team members must be willing to take a stand and advocate for their ideas.
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be documented, stored, and easily shared with others. Tacit knowledge is subjective knowledge gained from personal experience that is stored in a person’s memory. Constructive dialogue allows tacit knowledge to surface and transfer from one person to another.
Reading:
Redefining and Reinforcing Psychological Safety
How Psychological Safety Can Transform Your Organization
The Management Value of “Psychological Safety”
How to Lead When You’re Not the Boss
A Fly on the Wall in a Fearless Organization
As teams work together over time, they develop shared mental models built on experience and training. A mental model is a conceptual framework used to relate knowledge, attribute meaning, and shape our understanding and expectations of the work environment. Shared mental models improve team performance by enabling team members to accurately describe, predict, and explain the team’s expected behaviors and actions.
Shared mental models are not identical. Instead, they are compatible and complementary. Shared mental models enable better coordination, cooperation, and communication. Shared mental models enhance the team’s ability to solve problems, improve, and innovate. Teams that share mental models make better collective decisions.
Change sometimes requires people and teams to build new mental models. In a dynamic environment where change is constant, people must routinely adapt to new plans, policies, processes, and procedures. Change is inevitable. When mental models are entrenched (not a bad thing), it makes change much more difficult, and this is why change is usually resisted.
Single-loop learning is problem-solving by changing strategies and techniques to avoid mistakes and improve efficiency in existing systems. In single-loop learning, mental models do not change, and decision-making rules remain the same.
Double-loop learning is about surfacing, challenging, and ultimately building new mental models. In double-loop learning, mental models do change and so the rules for making decisions must also change.
Change is not always about fixing something that is broken. Often, change is about taking something good and making it even better.
Reading:
Amplify Learning In Your Team With More Double-Loop Learning
Assignment 3: Group discussion of the leader tasks and supporting concepts is a key element of the learning experience. Group discussion (with classmates, friends, or colleagues) of the factual (what), conceptual (why), and procedural (how) knowledge relevant to each leader task ensures that you are well-prepared for the RBLP, RBLP-C, or RBLP-T leader certification exam. (1-3 hours)
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“RBLP”, “Resilience-Building Leadership Professional”, “Learn More. Lead Better.”, and the RBLP shield logo are registered trademarks of Resilience-Building Leader Program, Inc.
Our mission at Resilience-Building Leader Program (RBLP®) is to certify leaders on building and leading resilient teams in the workplace. We have issued thousands of leader certifications to supervisors, managers, and senior managers since our founding in 2018.
Why? Because in any organization, getting the work done can be hard. Sometimes, it can be really 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.
RBLP is our core leader certification. Supervisors and above are eligible.
Curriculum modules 1-3
1.5-hour oral exam
RBLP-C is our Coach certification. Managers and above are eligible.
Curriculum modules 1-5
2.5-hour oral exam
RBLP-T is our Trainer certification. Senior managers are eligible.
Curriculum modules 1-7
3.5-hour oral exam
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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.