a silent movement

On April 30, 2022, I had the privilege of sharing what I've learned about Social Learning at the 2022 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's Annual Conference in the "High Impact Strategies for Spreading Culture" Symposium. In the spirit of collective learning and growth, below is a copy of the paper I submitted for the symposium with added notes from the presentation. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the topic. If you attended the symposium at SIOP's conference -- what thoughts, reactions, and take away's did you gleaned from the session? Additionally, I want to share my gratitude to all the mavericks, learners, and connectors - thank you for all you do to improve and enhance your organizational cultures!

We tend to understand the role of Learning and Development in shifting corporate culture using top-down mechanisms; but what does this change look like within the sub-cultures that form through grassroots efforts inside organizations and teams? How might individuals translate what they’ve learned from the programs offered by L&D and then apply key behaviors to influence group dynamics that then coalesce into the aspired corporate culture that formal leaders often dream about? Erika Yuag will share her learning journey over the last four years and how she helped spark a grassroots movement designed to address these questions.?

Generating practice-based evidence

The power of influencing behavioral adoption does not lie solely within the formal programs and structures created within the corporate environment; it is through the combination of programs and structures along with the social structures, shared emotion-evoking experiences, and the collaborative nature of working with and through groups of communities that enable sustained behavioral change (CDC, 1997; Scharmer, 2007). Employees (referenced as learners for the remainder of this paper) adopt new behaviors or refine their approaches of effectively engaging others through the observations made of their peers, teams, and management chain (Bandura, 1977). This empowers learners to share their insights in organic ways according to their own style and preferences of engaging. When practiced in mass through multiple sources, there is broader reach of behaviors that are seeded deeper within the organization where shared context, meaning-making, and deep involvement in problem solving occur. Behaviors are modeled in live situations where problem solving, trouble shooting, and ideating are experienced – with peers and teams that learners work with daily (Centola & Macy, 2007).

Often, senior leaders look to key influencers and connectors (the selected few) to drive momentum on cultural transformations while at the same time, communicating the need to empower all and emphasizing the message that everyone is a leader. This disconnected view and/or approach to engaging learners inadvertently generates in- and out-groups and leaves the potential for greater impact on the table. Instead of focusing on identifying those attributes in others through personas or personality types, what if individuals opted-in to help? This question led to the exploration of the effectiveness of mobilizing a network of learners who will experiment with evidence-based practices introduced through formal learning and development programs. With this in mind, we experimented with generating our own practice-based evidence (Chorzempa, Smith, & Sileo, 2019) by applying change intervention tactics and approaches derived from the formal programs, directly into the flow of work and within the teams we sit.

operation:maverick

The operation, titled “maverick”, began with the premise that meaningful change must come from within and involve those willing to have a direct role in influencing that change. Those in the network form communities, and believe every person has limitless potential, and that, together, more can be achieved. The aim of the operation was to unite individuals who are passionate about innovation, learning, enabling a diverse and inclusive environment, and helping others and Microsoft succeed – in short, to accelerate a cultural transformation. These learners self-identify as “mavericks”, and they amplify this vision of the operation across the organization by actively invite their peers to join the network. The group started with 12 individuals in Redmond, Washington stemming from teams in Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Support, and more. After two years from its inception, the network spanned more than 2500 people in over 40 countries.

Mavericks come together in cohorts and go through an ‘experiment cycle’ consisting of small behavioral and social experiments over four weeks. The experiments are designed to test specific “micro-behaviors” in a practical setting (e.g., a small way to demonstrate inclusion in meetings or practicing self-awareness when triggered). The purpose of this practice is to generate individual and collective insight about the broader theme of the experiment cycle. As learners, mavericks are positively rewarded through social cues and triggers in a cohort-based environment which embeds their learning in behavioral memory. They deepen their understanding of how and where to apply the practices, and how this might vary depending on the situation. In weekly sessions, the complexity of behaviors and situations are deconstructed and everyone in the cohort makes a commitment to practice the micro-behavior before coming to the following week’s session.

This practice of learning out-loud together supports the following dynamics:

1. It reduces the barrier to trying something new
2. Because everyone is practicing together, the stakes are not very high compared with practicing alone
3. Weekly sessions allow enough time for processing and practicing micro-behaviors between sessions
4. Trying something new and sharing experiences with cohort members enables shared learning and growth
5. Knowledge is not just gained; behaviors are learned then applied to support the sustainment of behavioral change

The act of shared learning allows learners to reflect on how their practice went, how the system responded to them, and what they might do differently the next time a new practice is added. As an unintended consequence, mavericks build trust with each other in a manner of weeks as they share intimate experiences of their trial-and-error practices of new behaviors.

After the four weeks conclude, learners are offered a chance to co-host their own cohorts. It is one way they can deepen their learning while also putting what they’ve learned into practice by hosting a cohort and managing group dynamics. What happens in parallel is that newly formed mavericks have the autonomy to choose their own path and are empowered to invite and share the opportunity with others to join. This increases their sense of social capital and reward because they are reaching out to people whom they believe would like to be a part of this new community they just joined. The shared experience provides a type of rite-of-passage and there is a common understanding of the challenges that community members have gone through to get to the other side. This level of meaningful engagement nurtures relatedness and a sense of belonging to a community because of the shared experience. Having an open platform for communication enables members to influence, invite, and lead efforts with other community members. This act of empowerment lends broad ownership and accountability for the success of the community and generates individual and collective purpose. It also provides a mechanism to unlock the potential of the organization through an alternative, powerful, and networked method of change. It leverages the formal and informal power of employees who are at “nodal” points across the organization to accelerate communication, energy, and behavior change. Within a global and matrixed organization, the potential for community-led change cannot be underestimated (McKinsey, 2007).

The silent movement

Maverick identity across Microsoft is not widely known. Members may sometimes know each other and the community through word of mouth. Others have artifacts with the maverick symbol as an esoteric representation of the community. Now, four years since the beginning of operation:maverick, keeping track of membership has become irrelevant. The model of engagement and mechanism of practicing micro-behaviors has been adopted across the organizations of Microsoft. Mavericks are empowered and silently leverage the engagement model and community without calling attention to “mavericks” as a brand. The reason is to prioritize learning, continuous improvement, and the betterment of Microsoft. Frameworks and programs like Model Coach Care (Shibu & Lebowitz, 2019), Perspectives (Velush, 2018), and Microsoft Values to name a few, have had mavericks involved in the development phase; and as a result, they continue to use the model of engagement across organizations for the purpose of driving inclusive behaviors, share their learning and insights, and to empower peers to achieve more.

References

Bandura, A., (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Centola, D. & Macy, M., 2007. Complex contagions and the weakness of long ties. Chicago, IL.: The University of Chicago.

Chorzempa, B.F., Smith, M.D., & Sileo, J.M. (2019) Practice-Based Evidence: A Model for Helping Educators Make Evidence-Based Decisions. Teacher Education and Special Education Vol. 41 (1) 82-92

Cross, R.L., Parise, S., & Weiss, L.M. (2007). The role of networks in organizational change.?https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-role-of-networks-in-organizational-change

CTSA Community Engagement Key Function Committee Task Force on the Principles of Community Engagement 2nd Edition. (2011) Bethesda, MD.: NIH Publication

Microsoft Values (2019). Our Corporate Values Corporate Values I Microsoft

Scharmer, C.O., Shepherd, W. et al. (2016) Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges. San Francisco, CA. Berret-Koehler Publishers

Shibu, S. & Lebowitz, S. (2019). Microsoft is rolling out a new management framework to its leaders. It centers around a psychological insight called growth mindset. Microsoft Is Using Growth Mindset to Power Management Strategy businessinsider.com);

Velush, Lukas (2018). Brain-friendly employee feedback turning the tide at Microsoft. Brain-friendly employee feedback turning the tide at Microsoft - Inside Track Blog