Learning in Teams: With, From, and For

Beyond having extra brains, hands, and eyeballs, a good team can be more than the sum of the parts. When things go poorly, it can be easy to get stuck in a mindset of either/or vs. a one of both/and. This issue of Learning-to-Learn is an ode to teams.

When did you first experience the power of teams?

For me, it was law school. I was president of the Business Law Society as a 2L (second-year student). The outgoing president's parting advice was to build rapport with the other incoming officers so we could achieve more. He was right, during our tenure we:

• Doubled dues-paying membership from 30-60
• Hosted 8 events over the school year vs. 4 the previous year
• Left the incoming board with $350 in the bank vs. $50 the previous year and a new revenue stream (we got permission to sell branded law school interview portfolios)
• Organized a movie outing for 15 to see Wall Street 2 (tickets courtesy of the org for dues-paying members)
• Recommended to and supported the law school in adding a Small Business Practicum to course offerings

Learning With

Trust-building is an effective use of time

An event I had the privilege of attending was an in-it-to-win-it competition. Teams were assigned evenly across functional lines: frontline analysts, quality control, quality assurance, and business support. Who knew people who sat in a cube a few aisles over were so talented at eating Oreos that start on their noses?

Another event I remember fondly was dancing at a department Christmas lunch party. It was a time of turmoil in that department and the laughter from uncoordinated dancing that day was a sorely needed break.

Differences are worth exploring

Have you ever thought of a teammate:

• How did they pick that up so quickly?
• How are they still not getting this? or
• How do they function the way they do?

I attribute the successes of my last team to our manager's use of the Quarterly On-site (we also came into the office at other times but this was an intentional team gathering for one or two days). We hashed out important work-related issues. We also took time to get to know each other more deeply.

We took and compared results from the Insights test and the Strengthsfinders test. We had much in common and many differences. Lightbulbs went off around the table when we learned that my weakness could be your strength (and my strength, your weakness).

Learning From

Developed Strengths

Opportunities may look like natural strengths when you come into someone else' life after the awkward learning period.

Two examples below are developed strengths for me

• Organization: Between 2019 and 2021, I shadowed or had targeted conversations about how to keep organized with a dozen teammates because my new role required a higher level or organization than I'd ever needed before.
• PowerPoint: Technical tricks I learned from a college project teammate and conversations with a tenured instructional designer in an adjacent team at work. Storytelling tricks were collected from 1:1 tutorials from teammates with previous presentation-heavy roles and requests for a second pair of eyes.

Learning Bite

A meeting device I picked up from a Harvard Business Review article years ago was to start team meetings with a rotating teaching agenda item. The presenter decides both the topic and the teaching format.

I've implemented it as a manager for 30-minute team meetings. I've also experienced it as a team member for 60-minute team meetings. It was fun both learning and preparing to teach.

Learning For

Rage Learning

I define "rage learning" as

Cram learning to fill a specific knowledge gap (typically driven by outrage).

A blocker for one teammate can lead to helplessness. It could also lead to rage learning. Figuring out solutions for others who are stuck is satisfying. Coming to a teammate and having them research on your behalf after banging your head trying to figure something out and getting nowhere is relieving.

All for One and One for All

I'm not particularly competitive. As a child, I got complacent regularly finishing second. As an adult, in addition to being happy when I win, I feel guilty because it means someone else lost. Someone to whom winning may have meant more.

Vegas, Baby

My impetus to learn pool quickly and play better at league night is so I can help my team qualify for playoffs where we have a shot at playing in the semi-annual American Pool Association Vegas international competition.

I could also qualify as an individual. While I want to grow at the sport as an individual, I practice harder because of my teammates.

Also

Learning bite from my BU MBA program's student success seminar:

• "Interleaving" is a concept that describes rotating what you study. Unlike the instructions for deep work and everything about "don't multi-task" for the learning, rotating what you learn is good! Link to details.

As always, if you have ideas about improving this newsletter, please don't hesitate to let me know! Are there sections that are more or less effective? Suggested additions, subtractions, changes? Topics not yet covered or worth revisiting?

Happy September learning!

Audrey