Designing an Effective Learning Team

When it comes to building athletic and performing arts teams, traditional schools invest time and energy to make these teams highly effective.

When it comes to building academic teams within traditional schools? Well, not so much.

I recently read with interest an article that appeared in Fast Company earlier this year titled “How Building Teams with Diverse Work Experiences Can Drive Success.”

According to the authors, Jenny Fernandez (a marketing executive, startup advisor, leadership coach, and adjunct lecturer at Columbia University, and Luis Velasquez, an executive coach and leadership facilitator at Stanford University,

“When forming your dream team, you must lean into your strengths to capitalize on who you are at your best and [connect] with people who complement your skill set.”

Fernandez and Velasquez point to three mental shifts we need to make to design a team built for future success.

Invite Divergent Thinking

“Surround yourself with teammates who are strategic partners from different backgrounds and who bring a wealth of experience and expertise along with them. Gartner research states that a highly diverse environment can improve team performance by up to 30%. Inviting divergent thinking and lived…experiences will bring different points of view and value propositions.”

Evolve Your Definition of Success

“You are not looking to replicate what has been done but to be disruptive and create something new. To unlock opportunities and grow, create a team that is versatile, agile, and open to learning new approaches to innovate and create a new vision for the future.”

The Competitive Advantage of Diversity

“When looking at someone’s…experience, it’s easy to see the differences as a disadvantage or gap. …[T]he goal is to look for people who can adapt quickly. Instead of fixating on whether someone has experience…, you must focus on whether or not they have the soft skills you need. If you are looking to be innovative, search for curious people. If you are looking to develop your [group’s] reputation and expert brand, then look for connectors and relationship builders.”

“Resetting expectations of what good looks like and focusing on [your teammate’s] strengths and transferable skills trumps specialization. Once you have selected the right people to join your dream team, set the conditions for the team’s success [by focusing on these three strategies]:”

Foster a Culture of Trust

“When a diverse team is given the time and space to explore, they can identify novel ways to approach problems and create value. Leaders who motivate this discovery process will empower teams to be strategic and think bigger. So, be sure to create a culture that equally values results and creativity. Executing with excellence is essential but nurturing a team culture that values exploration will create more innovate solutions for any organization.”

Encourage the Devil’s Advocate

“Take advantage of the new perspectives by encouraging dissenting opinions. One way to ensure this is to assign the role of challenger or devil’s advocate to someone on the team. This person’s job is to question assumptions, push back on ideas, and ensure that all ideas are thoroughly vetted before moving forward. This is not meant to be adversarial but to help your team create bigger ideas and make better decisions by preventing groupthink. The role of a contrarian is someone who is tasked to question assumptions, think critically about proposed solutions and push the team to think outside the box.”

Connect the Dots

“It’s unavoidable. As the world has become increasingly complex, we need more and more people to navigate the rapidly changing landscape. Nowadays, teams need to find relationships between everyday interactions and sometimes between seemingly disconnected things. Steve Jobs said it best, ‘Creativity is just connecting things…The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” This ability to connect the dots is the new secret recipe for success.”

When I was a school principal, it was amusing to me how academic teachers would degrade athletic coaches and fine arts directors as sub-par professionals. Compared to algebra or English literature, how could one seriously think baseball or choral performance deserved the same consideration?

But what I noticed was how most of those coaches and directors built teams. They practiced inviting divergent thinking, evolving their definition of success, embracing the competitive advantage of diversity, fostering a culture of trust, encouraging the devil’s advocate, and connecting the dots. Most of my academic teams never got close to the effectiveness demonstrated by my athletic and fine arts’ teams.

I’m not sure if most students and teachers currently in the traditional school setting can exercise the strategies Fernandez and Velasquez lay out in their article.

I do know that a learning cohort, made up of a diverse set of young learners, led by a well-trained adult learning leader has a much better chance at executing on what the two authors lay out as important when it comes to building effective teams.

I saw it with my own eyes at our personalized learning lab school located within the Houston Museum District.

And I think we all see it as today’s alternatives to traditional school continue to pop up and multiply.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB