How can you run great peer learning and coaching sessions?

I lead peer learning and coaching, focusing on clear objectives. I establish session goals upfront—enhancing skills, sharing knowledge, or collaborative problem-solving. Participant selection is crucial; I pick engaged individuals to bring diverse viewpoints. Open communication is crucial for a secure learning environment. I steer conversations, fostering active engagement and respect. Each session concludes with participants reflecting on takeaways and actionable points, reinforcing their learning. Constant enhancement is key; I value participant input to fine-tune upcoming sessions. By blending structured planning with participant-centred facilitation, my comprehensive approach strives for impactful peer learning and coaching sessions.

I found so helpful to my peers by giving them example how the job can get done easily throigh expertise and persevetance. Most helpful is attending training and seminars and inspire them how you can get professional development. I am disagree only on micrommanagement. Its a big impact to a colleuges to experinece that thier superior micromanaging them.

I think having a balance between group peer sessions and 1-2-1 sessions is optimal. 1-2-1 you can go deep emotionally and be more challenging than you can be in a group. Working in a group facilitates lots of great ideas without you as the coach having to come up with all the answers if you bring in audience participation. The other thing I find owning a coaching business is that clients are more excited to pass you referrals when in a group environment. Presenting to a group also helps you understand your material much deeper too the more you go through it and quite often I pick up learnings myself when facilitating group sessions that I can then add to my 1-2-1 coaching repertoire so a good balance of both is optimal.

I made as much detailed as possible research on the needs of the peers. Then I'm ready to define the goals. Once I've cleared them and the learning outcomes I share with the audience and take their opinion into account. That make me sure that we're all on the same page and have shared meaning for what we're going to do together.

Keeping the sessions short and frequent will help to make the content more digestible. Relating each session to a real, work-specific challenge or situation will make the content more “sticky”. The sooner your audience can apply what they learn, the more likely they are to attempt new approaches and give you and the team valuable feedback.

I'm a big fan of role plays for peer learning for several reasons: - The feedback flows naturally and in real-time. - Everyone has a chance to teach and learn in the same session. - It's an opportunity to prepare for real-world scenarios in advance...and learn from and improve upon past experiences. - Role-plays with peers are typically more challenging than working with actual customers and prospects. Practicing in a stressful situation leads to confidence and comfort when it really counts.

When choosing the format, I get back to the principles for adult learning and match it with the tools. I also make sure that all the time all the participants will be engaged in the process and the tasks.

Engaging in peer coaching has been a pivotal experience in my professional journey. One remarkable instance comes to mind when I collaborated with a colleague to navigate a challenging project. During a critical project presentation, I was grappling with structuring my content for maximum impact. Recognizing my dilemma, she offered her expertise in storytelling. Through active listening and constructive feedback, she guided me in weaving a compelling narrative that captivated our audience. Through open communication and shared support, we both not only achieved project success but also cultivated a relationship built on trust and empowerment.

The content and the materials should be easy to use. They should support the learning process and I keep in mind that materials and peer learning though experience are properly combined.

Facilitator is the role model as well. So, It's needed to be vulnerable to some extend so that the group can consider the environment safe enough to be vulnerable and learn. As vulnerability is huge part of learning process the facilitator needs to get back to his own soft skills, courage and resilience.

Ans I'd add that we need to keep in mind the information we need to collect. Is it connected to the goals or we need some added information that'd help us use it for specific purpose? The timing is another aspect of the feedback. We need to know that right after the learning process the feedback is more emotional and with time distance we collect more rational information. So, it's our choice according to the purpose what kind of feedback we need.