July 14, 2008

5 ways to jump-start your learning

You’re already half way through 2008 and you have been so busy just getting the work done that you haven’t taken the time to develop your skills. The good news is that learning doesn’t have to be a solitary activity.

Here are five easy ways to collaborate with your team to keep learning top of mind:

1. Share thought-provoking articles or books. The old way is to attach a distribution list to an article and hope that it doesn’t get buried in someone’s inbox. The new (and better) way is to use an article as a catalyst for discussion in a meeting. Our favorite conversation-starting questions include: How does this apply to our work? How could this information influence or change our approach?


2. Invite a colleague to share stories. Leverage your network to find out how other companies are solving the problems you’re facing. For example, invite a communication professional you know to tell the back-story behind his/her company’s intranet—what’s successful, what needs to be improved and how he/she decides what to do next.


3. “Get out of the house.” If your mother or father ever said this when you were a kid, you understand the power of changing your environment. Whether it’s a museum tour, a team lunch or an offsite meeting, getting out of the office changes your perspective and stimulates learning.


4. Assign tasks to conference attendees. Here’s a great twist on the standard approach of sending a representative to a communication conference: Share the agenda with the entire team before the conference and determine the top two or three things to investigate. Then it’s the responsibility of the attendee to report back. Think of it as investigative journalism.


5. Set one team goal for the year. We’re so focused on individual development plans that we often lose sight of what we need to accomplish as a team. By setting one goal for the year and asking the entire team to contribute, you’ll create a manageable (and memorable) focus. For example, one of our clients decided that being better communication advisors was the team’s priority. Team members spent the year defining skills, identifying best practices and determining the changes they wanted to make.