| For five years my friend Donna and I volunteered as the co-Directors of the Entrepreneurial Education Program at the Girls Middle School, teaching 7th grade girls how to start and run businesses.
We assigned students into teams, each with an adult mentor from the community. In the year-long class, each team wrote a business plan, pitched their idea for funding, created and sold products, and managed their business.
In class they learned about marketing, sales, and financing. Working together the girls discovered innovation, leadership, teamwork, accountability, navigating conflict, and cultivating confidence.
This was brain-based learning in action: learning through the experiences, emotions, and information obtained when in contact with others.
The brain is naturally social – we crave contact with others. We imitate the behaviors we see in others, and we find meaning in our interactions. Simply by allowing people to discuss and explore ideas, people can learn in new ways.
In a recent Chief Learning Officer article, Deborah Laurel argues that teams and organizations will transform only when we encourage people to learn and think together.
Her 3 strategies for teams and organizations:
1. Help people learn how to learn
2. Cultivate a learn-from-each-other environment
3. Capture knowledge and transform it into an asset
Here’s what we can do to unleash the power of peers in our own teams:
- Organize cross-functional committees and workgroups
- Implement cross-training, job aides, job shadowing
- Incorporate learning partners into trainings and workshops
- Schedule roundtables to exchange insights and experiences
- Launch mentoring programs
- Leverage mastermind groups
- Anchor on-boarding with buddies or champions
- Encourage collaborative conversations
- Employ a knowledge database to capture learnings and even failures
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. ~ African Proverb |
