The other day we did a BEtreat workshop, originally scheduled to be face-to-face, online and over three days. It was with clients who were preparing to launch an online community of practice.

The workshop generated some of the same feelings of camaraderie and joint enterprise that we get in our face-to-face workshops. The person who organized it had been at a face-to-face BEtreat the previous year, loved it, and was surprised to experience how well they compared.

The overwhelming feeling was how different it felt to a “normal” training or community meeting, where often they felt quite passive. And how bonded participants became and the inspiration and confidence they felt they were taking with them.

The tools we used were Zoom, Mural.co, Google drive, and Google photos. Why do we like these tools and what were the practices that “worked”?

Why we like Zoom

Two things about Zoom that make it the best for us: 

• One is the toggle between Speaker and Gallery view. And that your own picture appears the same size and with the others in Gallery View. 
• The other is the breakout rooms and how easy it is to set up and run with them. It’s also quite wonderful the way you can bring everyone back together at the touch of a button! Zoom sends a 60 second warning (you can adjust this).

Why we like Mural

Mural has lots of features (so many that it can look a bit daunting when you first use it). But these are the ones we appreciated most in our workshop:

• You can put LOTS on a mural (we put the agenda and activities all up in different areas on one mural). A mural size is possibly infinite and you zoom in and out of the areas you want to work on up close.
• You can divide your mural into areas (and areas within areas). 
• You can link directly to these areas (and if you click on the link, that area of the mural fits your screen). This was useful for lots of reasons. For example, in a breakout room conversation on Zoom, the group can click directly onto a link that would take them to the area where they were going to take notes or work on something together. There is no faffing about “Where do we have to go now?”
• There are two ways to navigate around a mural. One is with a small zoom in the bottom right of your screen where you can easily zoom in and out. The other is by using Outline mode (see right on the image above), which gives you the equivalent of a table of contents taking you to any object on the mural you have added to the Outline  
• You can export the whole mural, or one area of a mural to a PDF (or image file).
• It has hundreds (millions?) of icons
• You can use voting on a mural… just like putting sticky dots onto a flip chart paper.
• Mural works great on an iPad.

Why we like Google docs (or Google drive)

We mostly like the combination of google docs and the other tools. 

• We put the agenda in google docs with links to specific parts of the mural (or other places) we are going to work on. The agenda is like “home base”.
• We love (and I mean love) the way that everyone can reflect into the same google doc and see what others are writing at the same time. 
• The google folder with all the documents in it becomes a shared memory of the event created in real time.

Some practices that worked great

• We had a sketch to show what tools we were using and for what purpose. The sketch linked the tools with a physical map that already existed in people’s imagination.
• We took mini-breaks every hour or so to stretch or look out the window.
• We had a shared photo album (google photos) where each day people shared and talked about pics they had put up. We did this in Zoom during the half hour or so before the official start time. 
• We paused at regular intervals to invite people to put their reflections, insights, and ongoing questions into a shared google document. One person’s reflection can trigger another person’s aha. And what people write becomes part of a shared narrative about their learning.

Some final thoughts

Most surprising to us was how fast three hours went by. It occurred to us that a full day online might be less tiring than a full day face-to-face (when everyone is online). Three days seemed about the right length of time.

We also reflected that we should only do online workshops for people who are going to be working with online communities. It is completely different to “do” community online than to talk about how to do it while you are in a face-to-face setting (duh!) It was immensely satisfying to see how people could really feel the difference between developing a social learning space online and some of the more transmission mode activities that had become accustomed to doing in an online community meeting. 

Here is a video where we provide an overview this new version, along with an example of its applicability. Going through each cycle of the framework, we describe how it can be used for developing social learning and its ability to transform practice. We are writing this up, but this video gives you a preview of what’s to come.

Let us know how you think you can use this.

Below is the text of the video…

Transcript

Urgency
We’re living in a time when things are moving fast. The rules of the game are changing. Science is changing. Technology is changing. Geo-politics is changing.

Learning fast is the only mode of survival. But here’s the crazy thing: our models of learning have not kept up.

Old learning models
For many people learning starts with something that’s known. It’s then transmitted to someone who doesn’t know it.

But for the projects we’re involved in this simple view doesn’t work. In the real world things are too dynamic. And complex.

Need for new model
Knowledge doesn’t sit still. You’ve got to be on your toes – you’ve got to improvise, solve problems, strategize, jump on opportunities. And bring others along.

Learning that matters today is social, in real time, and inventive.

More often than not, what we need to learn is not yet known. And that’s why we need a new learning model.

Importance of learning models
Most people don’t think about the learning models they use. But it matters a lot.

Reward me for being good, punish me for being bad – you’re using a behaviorist model. You think that learning is molding behaviour.

Give your students a long explanation – you’re using a cognitivist model. You want this explanation to become a cognitive structure in their head.

Help your kid work out a question for herself – you’re using a constructivist model. You think it’s best people construct their own knowledge.

These are just a few examples. And most of us use multiple models. But they are important because they guide how you think you learn, how you foster learning, and how you evaluate it.

Framework
Let’s look at our framework which we use to address complex twenty-first century learning. It’s driven by data about what’s creating value for different stakeholders – and it’s responsive to a changing and unpredictable environment.

For us learning starts with a joint activity – conversation, design, problem solving, benchmarking – you name it.

This framework focuses on the value produced by social learning. It distinguishes between different types of value and models learning as the dynamic flow among them.

For us learning starts with a join activity. A conversation, design, problem-solving, benchmarking… you name it.

Immediate value
You meet others who understand you, talk shop, think together, have fun, get to know each other, feel inspired.

You get value from just participating. We call this immediate value.

Potential value
All going well, this activity gives you confidence, new insights, good ideas, new perspectives, unexpected solutions, a new contact …

You might even produce a document – like the people on this photo did.

We say that these things represent potential value, because they may – or may not – end up being helpful to you.

For many people learning ends there. Not for us.

Applied value
Let’s imagine now that you try one of those good ideas when you get back. You change your practice. Collaborate with someone you met.

In a traditional learning model this should be unproblematic since you already have the knowledge.

But putting something into practice is very creative. It involves a lot of learning and generates new knowledge.

We call this applied value.

Realized value
As a result of all this chain of events, you would hope to see some improvement in performance. Your own or your organization’s.

This we call realized value.

Loops
Of course, it doesn’t always work. It might lead to nothing, or it might lead to a disappointment. Whether it’s a success or a failure you need to feed that back because it’s an important piece of information that will lead to further learning.

This feedback creates loops that are a key dimension of the model. Learning has to go all the way into practice and then back. And then into practice again.

It’s these learning loops that make the learning relevant, adaptive and dynamic.

Story
We’ll take a pause here to walk through these cycles with an example from a recent project where this model was used.

This is Honorable Zitto,the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in Tanzania.

The role of a public accounts committee is to hold the government to account for its use of public funds.

The project I was supporting brought together the Chairs of these committees from seventeen countries across Eastern and Southern Africa to learn together in different ways.

Hon Zitto was at one of the project workshops where he had some interesting conversations with other members about good practices in procurement.

We would say that enjoying these conversations with his counterparts from other countries gave him immediate value.

At the workshop he picked up something about the role of the National Audit Office that they didn’t do in Tanzania. It was that the Audit Office needs to scrutinize the procurement process before it’s completed – and not just afterwards.

Picking up an idea like that is a good example of potential value.

Back in Tanzania he heard something that now raised a red flag. The National Electoral Commission had procured election equipment – but the company that had been awarded the tender was the same company who had prepared the tender documentation.

A chance to apply what he learned.

Armed with examples of good practice from other countries in the region, he convinced his Auditor General to carry out a pre-procurement audit.

He also shared the story with the media — another good practice from the network. This added pressure on the Auditor General’s Office to take action.

See how creative this is. It involves combining multiple insights and seizing the opportunity. This is why it makes sense to call it applied value.

Within a month, as a result of the The Auditor General’s action, the tender, which was valued at 126 million US dollars, was cancelled and re-advertised.

OK, so the story reached realized value. Some money was probably saved, but more important, a transparent process was put in place.

Was this fed back into the community?

We collected many stories like this as part of the ongoing project evaluation – and shared them with network members.

A bigger picture
This story brings another important point about social learning: it doesn’t happen in isolation. A story like this is embedded in a broader context — a context that involves many different stakeholders.

This project’s been going on for several years. It includes networks of Public Accounts Committees in Eastern and Southern Africa, their clerks, the World Bank, the German Development Agency and various local organizations.

A key factor in the learning potential of the project was the quality of the conversations among stakeholders to fit their activities in a bigger picture.

Strategic value
The quality of these strategic conversations is an integral part of social learning and one that’s often neglected. We call it strategic value.

There’s another one that’s often taken for granted. It’s the learning of the project support team and community leaders.

Enabling value
Yes, it couldn’t happen without a lot of support and leadership – logistical, coaching, facilitation, technology, agenda design…a lot of learning there.

It’s a key aspect of the learning process. We call it enabling value.

Transformative value
Learning is not limited to an improvement in performance. It can also generate new perspectives or new definitions of success.

It can even trigger broader cultural and institutional transformations.

We call this transformative value. It doesn’t always happen. But there is always the potential that it might.

And when it does, it’s often the most dramatic aspect of learning….

and – potentially – the most contentious.

Story
Another story from the same project but from a different member shows this transformative value and its potential to disturb the status quo.

If you had been in Zambia last year and happened to turn on the T.V. you might have seen government ministers being questioned about the use and mis-use of public finances.

What you might not know is that Hon Mwale, the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in Zambia had been inspired by some other countries in the network to have these hearings televised. It became a very popular series.

Here we see learning even transforming the broader political culture.

Yes, BUT they became a political hot potato. Suddenly the broadcasts were stopped and the director who had set it up was in danger of losing his job.

Yes, transformative value often upsets existing power structures.

While there is still controversy about how and whether these broadcasts should be continued, another unexpected outcome has been a sharp increase in the number of whistle-blowers contacting the Public Accounts Committee.

That’s a very interesting story – transformative in many ways and very useful to other network members when it gets fed back.

Multiple pieces and a dynamic flow between them
For us all of these pieces need to be in place and with a dynamic flow among them if learning is to make a difference in today’s world.

Uses of the framework
People are using this framework in many ways.

The value-creation cycles show you where to focus your attention.

And value-creation stories like the one we just told you explain how your project is making a difference.

If you are planning a project you can use the framework to structure conversations with various stakeholders – set aspirations and decide what conditions need to be in place.

If you are running a project, you can use the cycles to design activities and stories to create ongoing feedback loops.

If you are evaluating a project, you can use the framework to structure your data collection and analysis. You can follow indicators at each cycle and use stories to attribute outcomes to project activities.

Closing
We find many people – across sectors – struggling to integrate learning in all phases of their project – from planning to implementation to evaluation.

Unfortunately, learning remains a side-show in many projects – a bit of training, knowledge-sharing, a piece of research, an evaluation report. But today embedding social learning has to be a strategic part of any innovative project.

Our framework does just that. It acts as a shared language for negotiating aspirations, for framing the design, and for driving the learning through ongoing feedback loops and data collection.

Many of our clients are placing it at the centre of their initiative. This gives us hope. It shows we can change the discourse on learning to one that is going to address the challenges of today.

The practice goes like this: everyone at a meeting belongs to a leadership group – and each group stewards one part of the learning process of the whole group. In this way leadership of the community meeting is distributed over the entire event.

Leadership here is seen as an act of service, that is, not leadership in terms of telling others what to do, but helping the group develop itself as a learning partnership. We’ve seen these groups lead to some transformational turn-arounds in group dynamics and the learning potential. (Notwithstanding the times they flopped – which led us to learn a great deal!)

We gave playful names to the groups in the spirit of making it a fun and inventive way of leading the process: agenda activists, community keepers, critical friends, social reporters, external messengers, value detectives.

Over the years we’ve come to see that these groups can work well in lots of different contexts including group meetings, conferences, and long-term community development. Anywhere, that is, where there is an intention for collective learning.

We’re now preparing to study the practice as it is being used on a course for owner-managers at Lancaster University Management School. Our inquiry is to find out if and how they develop the social learning capability of the cohort over this coming academic year. We’ll keep you posted.

Let us know if you use or develop the leadership groups. This chapter for download is going to be one chapter in a handbook we are producing for facilitators, conveners and coordinators of social learning. We’ll publish each chapter as we get it done and integrate feedback in the final version.

Contents

• about leadership groups more broadly
• practices we have developed around leadership groups
• descriptions of each leadership group
• facilitation tips
• sample instructions

Download

You can download the full text in PDF format here:

See also

One of the roles – social reporter – is a branch from some early work (2006) that Bev did with David Wilcox on using social media and the web for capturing the content of meetings and events. At that time we wrote a social reporting toolbox. David also writes about it on his blog here.