The Practice of Learning Teams

Book excerpt: Learning Teams from Dr Todd Conklin, PhD, are part of a way of looking at safety, quality and operational excellence differently by a facilitated approach to worker engagement and supporting the empowerment of people to own safety, quality or operational excellence. A Learning Team is notable because it encourages organizations to obtain and consider different perspectives and angles of functional diversity to define a problem in a group context. The different perspectives that emerge from a Learning Team group demonstrate that no one person holds all the knowledge needed to solve complex problems.A Learning Team involves facilitated engagement (using a facilitator) with workers to understand and then learn from the opportunities that are presented by:1) Everyday successful and safe work (Everyday Learning Teams)2) Events or incidents that could have or did harm workers (Event Learning Teams)3) Introduction of changes (Management of change) that could affect worker safety (Periodic Learning Teams).Learning Teams support both worker learning and organizational learning by allowing the different stakeholders groups to understand better what, when, how, and why, people do things differently rather than following formal, written procedures or systems. By understanding what is necessary to make sure things go right, it is possible to focus on ensuring that factors which make things go right are present in the workplace every day. In the book Dr Todd Conklin states: "The Practice of Learning Teams will become a powerful resource in changing the way organizations learn and improve their operations. This book is easy to read and full of great concepts that can be used as soon as you read them. I love a book where you read an idea in the morning and try the same idea that very afternoon."This book has been written to act as a guide on how to:1) Integrate Learning Teams into your organization2) Improve worker learning and build critical thinking skills for workers in their everyday work3) Improve organizational learning using Learning Teams4) Become an effective Learning Teams facilitator by understanding what core capabilities and competencies are neededThroughout this book, we will explore examples of applications of Learning Teams in safety, quality and operational excellence.As the reader, you will gain additional knowledge and understanding about Learning Teams in the context of:1) The expected outcomes of a Learning Team2) Where you are at and how you become an effective Learning Team facilitator3) Learning about what makes a successful Learning Team4) When you can use a Learning Team to build and improve worker knowledge5) When you can use a Learning Team to build and improve organizational knowledge6) An opportunity to see the different contexts in which a Learning Team can add value7) Reflecting and learning from real-life experiences where Learning Teams have been successful, and considering the pitfalls that make them less effective.