{"rowid": 39, "title": "Meet for Learning", "contents": "\u201cI\u2019ve never worked in a place like this,\u201d said one of my direct reports during our daily stand-up meeting.\n\nAnd with that statement, my mind raced to the most important thing about lawyering that I\u2019ve learned from decades of watching lawyers lawyer on TV: don\u2019t ask a question you don\u2019t know the answer to.\n\nBut I couldn\u2019t stop myself. I wanted to learn more. The thought developed in my mind. The words formed in my mouth. And the vocalization occurred: \u201cA place like this?\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve never worked where people are so honest and transparent about things.\u201d\n\nDesigning a learning-centered culture\n\nBefore we started Center Centre, Jared Spool and I discussed both the larger goals and the smaller details of this new UX design school. We talked about things like user experience, curriculum, and structure.\n\nWe discussed the pattern we saw in our research. Hiring managers told us time and again that great designers have excellent technical and interpersonal skills. But, more importantly, the best designers are lifelong learners\u2014they are willing and able to learn how to do new things. Learning this led us to ask a critical question: how would we intentionally design a learning-centered experience?\n\nTo craft the experience we were aiming for, we knew we had to create a learning-centered culture for our students and our employees. We knew that our staff would need to model the behaviors our students needed to learn. We knew the best way to shape the culture was to work with our direct reports\u2014our directs\u2014to develop the behaviors we wanted them to exemplify.\n\nTo craft the experience we were aiming for, we knew we had to create a learning-centered culture for our students and our employees. We knew that our staff would need to model the behaviors our students needed to learn.\n\nBuilding a learning team\n\nOur learning-centered culture starts with our staff. We believe in transparency. Transparency builds trust. Effective organizations have effective teams who trust each other as individuals.\n\nOne huge way we build that trust and provide opportunities for transparency is in our meetings. (I know, I know\u2014meetings! Yuck!) But seriously, running and participating in effective meetings is a great opportunity to build a learning-centered culture.\n\nMeetings\u2014when done well\u2014allow individuals time to come together, to share, and to listen. These behaviors, executed on a consistent and regular basis, build honest and trusting relationships.\n\nAn effective meeting is one that achieves the desired outcomes of that meeting. While different meetings aim for different results, at Center Centre all meetings have a secondary goal: meet for learning.\n\nA framework for learning-centered meetings\n\nWe\u2019ve developed a framework for our meetings. We use it for all our meetings, which means attendees know what to expect. It also saves us from reinventing the wheel in each meeting.\n\nThese basic steps help our meetings focus on the valuable face-to-face interaction we\u2019re having, and help us truly begin to learn from one another.\n\n An agenda for a staff meeting.\n\nUse effective meeting basics\n\n\n\tPrepare for the meeting before the meeting.\n\tIf you\u2019re running the meeting, prepare a typed agenda and share it before the meeting. Agendas have start times for each item.\n\tStart the meeting on time. Don\u2019t wait for stragglers.\n\tDefine ground rules. Get input from attendees. Recurring meetings don\u2019t have to do this every time.\n\tKeep to the meeting agenda. Put off-topic questions and ideas in a parking lot, a visual document that everyone can see, so you can address the questions and ideas later.\n\tFinish on time. And if you\u2019ve reached the meeting\u2019s goals, finish early.\n\n\n Parking lots where ideas on sticky notes can be posted for later consideration.\n\nFocus to learn\n\n\n\tHave tech-free meetings: no laptops, no phones, no things with notifications.\n\tBring a notebook and a pen.\n\tTake notes by hand. You\u2019re not taking minutes, you\u2019re writing to learn.\n\n\nCome with a learning mindset\n\n\n\tAsk: what are our goals for this meeting? (Hopefully answered by the meeting agenda.)\n\tAsk: what can I learn overall?\n\tAsk: what can I learn from each of my colleagues?\n\tAsk: what can I share that will help the team learn overall?\n\tAsk: what can I share that will help each of my colleagues learn?\n\n\nInvesting in regularly scheduled learning-centered meetings\n\nAt Center Centre, we have two types of recurring all-staff meetings: daily stand-ups and weekly staff meetings. (We are a small organization, so it makes sense to meet as an entire group.)\n\nYes, that means we spend thirty minutes each day in stand-up, for a total of two and a half hours of stand-up meeting time each week. And, yes, we also have a weekly ninety-minute sit-down staff meeting on top of that. This investment in time is an investment in learning.\n\nWe use these meetings to build our transparency, and, therefore, our trust. The regularity of these meetings helps us maintain ongoing, open sharing about our responsibilities, our successes, and our learning.\n\nFor instance, we answer five questions in our stand-up:\n\n\n\tWhat did I get done since the last stand-up (I reported at)?\n\tWhat is my goal to accomplish before the next stand-up?\n\tWhat\u2019s preventing me from getting these things done, if anything?\n\tWhat\u2019s the highest risk or most unknown thing right now about what I\u2019m trying to get done?\n\tWhat is the most important thing I learned since the last time we met and how will what I learned change the way I approach things in the future?\n\n\nEach person writes out their answers to these questions before the meeting. Each person brings their answers printed on paper to the meeting. And each person brings a pen to jot down notes.\n\n Notes compiled for a stand-up meeting.\n\nDuring the stand-up, each person shares their answers to the five questions. To sustain a learning-centered culture, the fifth question is the most important question to answer. It allows individual reflection focused on learning. Sometimes this isn\u2019t an easy question to answer. It makes us stretch. It makes us think.\n\nBy sharing our individual answers to the fifth question, we open ourselves up to the group. When we honestly share what we\u2019ve learned, we openly admit that we didn\u2019t know something. Sharing like this would be scary (and even risky) if we didn\u2019t have a learning-centered culture.\n\nWe often share the actual process of how we learned something. By listening, each of us is invited to learn more about the topic at hand, consider what more there is to learn about that topic, and even gain insights into other methods of learning\u2014which can be applied to other topics.\n\nSharing the answers to the fifth question also allows opportunities for further conversations. We often take what someone has individually learned and find ways to apply it for our entire team in support of our organization. We are, after all, learning together.\n\nBuilding individual learners\n\nWe strive to grow together as a team at Center Centre, but we don\u2019t lose sight of the importance of the individuals who form our team. As individuals, we bring our goals, dreams, abilities, and prior knowledge to the team.\n\nTo build learning teams, we must build individual learners. A team made up of lifelong learners, who share their learning and learn from each other, is a team that will continually produce better results.\n\nAs a manager, I need to meet each direct where they are with their current abilities and knowledge. Then, I can help them take their skills and knowledge base to the next levels. This process requires each individual direct to engage in professional development.\n\nWe believe effective managers help their directs engage in behaviors that support growth and development. Effective managers encourage and support learning.\n\n\n\nOur weekly one-on-ones\n\nOne way we encourage learning is through weekly one-on-ones. Each of my directs meets with me, individually, for thirty minutes each week. The meeting is their meeting. It is not my meeting.\n\nMy direct sets the agenda. They talk about what they want to talk about. They can talk about work. They can talk about things outside of work. They can talk about their health, their kids, and even their cat. Whatever is important to them is important to me. I listen. I take notes.\n\nAlthough the direct sets the specific agenda, the meeting has three main parts. Approximately ten minutes for them (the direct), ten minutes for me (the manager), and ten minutes for us to talk about their future within\u2014and beyond\u2014our organization.\n\nCoaching for future performance\n\nThe final third of our one-on-one is when I coach my directs. Coaching looks to the direct\u2019s future performance. It focuses on developing the direct\u2019s skills.\n\nCoaching isn\u2019t hard. It doesn\u2019t take much time. For me, it usually takes less than five minutes a week during a one-on-one.\n\nThe first time I coach one of my directs, I ask them to brainstorm about the skills they want to improve. They usually already have an idea about this. It\u2019s often something they\u2019ve wanted to work on for some time, but didn\u2019t think they had the time or the knowhow to improve.\n\nIf a direct doesn\u2019t know what they want to improve, we discuss their job responsibilities\u2014specifically the aspects of the job that concern them.\n\nCoaching provides an opportunity for me to ask, \u201cIn your job, what are the required skills that you feel like you don\u2019t have (or know well enough, or perform effectively, or use with ease)?\u201d\n\nSometimes I have to remind a direct that it\u2019s okay not to know how to do something (even if it\u2019s a required part of their job). After all, our organization is a learning organization. In a learning organization, no one knows everything but everyone is willing to learn anything.\n\nAfter we review the job responsibilities together, I ask my direct what skill they\u2019d like to work to improve. Whatever they choose, we focus on that skill for coaching\u2014I\u2019ve found my directs work better when they\u2019re internally motivated.\n\nSometimes the first time I talk with a direct about coaching, they get a bit anxious. If this happens, I share a personal story about my professional learning journey. I say something like:\n\n\n\tI didn\u2019t know how to make a school before we started to make Center Centre.\n\n\tI didn\u2019t know how to manage an entire team of people\u2014day in and day out\u2014until I started managing a team of people every day.\n\n\tWhen I realized that I was the boss\u2014and that the success of the school would hinge, at least in part, on my skills as a manager\u2014I was a bit terrified. I was missing an important skill set that I needed to know (and I needed to know well).\n\n\tWhen I first understood this, I felt bad\u2014like I should have already known how to be a great manager. But then I realized, I\u2019d never faced this situation. I\u2019d never needed to know how to use this skill set in this way.\n\n\tI worked through my anxiety about feeling inadequate. I decided I\u2019d better learn how to be an effective manager because the school needed me to be one. You needed me to be one.\n\n\tEvery day, I work to improve my management skills. You\u2019ve probably noticed that some days I\u2019m better at it than others. I try not to beat myself up about this, although it\u2019s hard\u2014I\u2019d like to be perfect at it. But I\u2019m not.\n\n\tI know that if I make a conscious, daily effort to learn how to be a better manager, I\u2019ll continue to improve. So that\u2019s what I do.\n\n\tEvery day I learn. I learn by doing. I learn how to be better than I was the day before. That\u2019s what I ask of you.\n\n\nOnce we determine the skill the direct wants to learn, we figure out how they can go about learning it. I ask: \u201cHow could you learn this skill?\u201d\n\nWe brainstorm for two or three minutes about this. We write down every idea that comes to mind, and we write it so both of us can easily see the options (both whiteboards and sticky notes on the wall work well for this exercise).\n\n\n\tRead a book. Research online. Watch a virtual seminar. Listen to a podcast. Talk to a mentor. Reach out to an expert. Attend a conference. Shadow someone else while they do the skill. Join a professional organization.\n\n\nThe goal is to get the direct on a path of self-development. I\u2019m coaching their development, but I\u2019m not the main way my direct will learn this new skill.\n\nI ask my direct which path seems like the best place to start. I let them choose whatever option they want (as long as it works with our budget). They are more likely to follow through if they are in control of this process.\n\nNext, we work to break down the selected path into tasks. We only plan one week\u2019s worth of tasks. The tasks are small, and the deadlines are short. My direct reports when each task is completed.\n\nAt our next one-on-one, I ask my direct about their experience learning this new skill.\n\nRinse. Repeat.\n\nThat\u2019s it. I spend five minutes a week talking with each direct about their individual learning. They develop their professional skills, and together we\u2019re creating a learning-centered culture.\n\nAsking questions I don\u2019t know the answer to\n\nWhen my direct said, \u201cI\u2019ve never worked where people are so honest and transparent about things,\u201d it led me to believe that all this is working. We are building a learning-centered culture.\n\nThis week I was reminded that creating a learning-centered culture starts not just with the staff, but with me. When I challenge myself to learn and then share what I\u2019m currently learning, my directs want to learn more about what I\u2019m learning about.\n\nFor example, I decided I needed to improve my writing skills. A few weeks ago, I realized that I was sorely out of practice and I felt like I had lost my voice. So I started to write. I put words on paper. I felt overwhelmed. I felt like I didn\u2019t know how to write anymore (at least not well or effectively).\n\nI bought some books on writing (mostly Peter Elbow\u2019s books like Writing with Power, Writing Without Teachers, and Vernacular Eloquence), and I read them. I read them all. Reading these books was part of my personal coaching. I used the same steps to coach myself as I use with my directs when I coach them.\n\nIn stand-ups, I started sharing what I accomplished (like I completed one of the books) and what I learned by doing\u2014specific things, like engaging in freewriting and an open-ended writing process.\n\nThis week, I went to lunch with one of my directs. She said, \u201cYou\u2019ve been talking about freewriting a lot. You\u2019re really excited about it. Freewriting seems like it\u2019s helping your writing process. Would you tell me more about it?\u201d\n\nSo I shared the details with her. I shared the reasons why I think freewriting is helping. I\u2019m not focused on perfection. Instead, each day I\u2019m focused on spending ten, uninterrupted minutes writing down whatever comes to my mind. It\u2019s opening my writing mind. It\u2019s allowing my words to flow more freely. And it\u2019s helping me feel less self-conscious about my writing.\n\nShe said, \u201cLeslie, when you say you\u2019re self-conscious about your writing, I laugh. Not because it\u2019s funny. But because when I read what you write, I think, \u2018What is there to improve?\u2019 I think you\u2019re a great writer. It\u2019s interesting to know that you think you can be a better writer. I like learning about your learning process. I think I could do freewriting. I\u2019m going to give it a try.\u201d\n\nThere\u2019s something magical about all of this. I\u2019m not even sure I can eloquently put it into words. I just know that our working environment is something very different. I\u2019ve never experienced anything quite like it. Somehow, by sharing that I don\u2019t know everything and that I\u2019m always working to learn more, I invite my directs to be really open about what they don\u2019t know. And they see it\u2019s possible always to learn and grow.\n\nI\u2019m glad I ignore all the lawyering I\u2019ve learned from watching TV. I\u2019m glad I ask the questions I don\u2019t know the answers to. And I\u2019m glad my directs do the same. When we meet for learning, we accelerate and amplify the learning process\u2014building individual learners and learning teams. Embracing the unknown and working toward understanding is what makes our culture a learning-centered culture.\n\nPhotos by Summer Kohlhorst.", "year": "2014", "author": "Leslie Jensen-Inman", "author_slug": "lesliejenseninman", "published": "2014-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/meet-for-learning/", "topic": "process"}