Internal Learning Culture: Our “It” Factor Secret Sauce
Written by Jessica Gibbons
Over the years, Elevate has honed a set of concrete practices that supports our team in cultivating connection, learning collaboratively, and taking intentional action toward meaningful changemaking. This ensures that we’re not only “talking our talk,” but that we’re walking our walk” alongside our clients.
We leverage such practices to guide us in living out a true “learning culture” across our organization — one in which we regularly reflect on the following:
What are we doing? (What is “it”?)
Is “it” working?
How could “it” work better for us and our clients?
If you’re “it”ching to know how we concoct our “it” factor secret sauce (and how you can, too), then read on!
Ingredient #1: Connection
We have a norm here at Elevate: Our staff are individual, whole humans who are in this work together. We find that we do our best work when we can show up fully as ourselves. We’ve created a team culture where employees can take up space however they choose (via humor, expression of personal interests, musings, etc.) as they navigate the world on a daily basis (a challenge in and of itself!). We pair this human-first approach with a commitment to performing high-quality work that provides support and accountability in our project management efforts.
We know from lived experience and from the research at large that building relationships isn’t extra work; rather, it’s the very heart of the work itself. As author and educator Stephen Covey said, “Change moves at the speed of trust.” We’ve seen this play out across the organizations and collaboratives with whom we’ve partnered over the last 10 years, and it’s equally true at Elevate. We can learn from, grow, and improve our practice and its impact only when we have established a strong foundation of mutually respectful and supportive relationships.
In order to foster connection, we’ve cultivated and integrated the following core practices into our team culture:
Weekly Full-Team Meeting
Our full team meets weekly (on Mondays) for an employee pulse check. Who needs help with what? Are we on track to meet key deadlines? What’s on the calendar this week? Are there any topics we need to discuss as a full team?
We use a color-coded system adopted from the Collective Impact Forum to assess, express, and acknowledge how we’re each showing up at the start of our work weeks.
Monthly Full-Team Lunch
Once a month, we treat ourselves to a lunch date on Elevate’s dime. This is typically a totally unstructured time for folks to share a meal and catch up. We really value it!
Quarterly Team Building “Pool Party”
Leigh Ann Roberts of the Circle Center says that if you ask people to jump into the pool of vulnerability when there isn’t any water in the pool, then people get hurt. Once a quarter, we intentionally fill up the pool by hosting engaging teambuilding sessions. We’ve done personality assessments, explored our working styles, workshopped how to give and receive feedback, and more. (What have been some favorite teambuilding sessions in your world? Let us know!)
Ingredient #2: Learning
Learning is a core value at Elevate and central to all of the services we offer. You’re a good fit for partnering with Elevate if you’re ready and willing to “go there” with the folks around the table. When we talk about learning, we don’t just mean learning a new skill or new content (though that is certainly included!). We also mean the messy process of unpacking assumptions, taking on the perspectives of others, looking at data with honesty, discussing thought processes, asking tough questions, and remaining open to real mindset shifts. Learning is just another word for changing: When we learn something new, we are changed in some way. Deeply entrenched systems-level challenges shape the work we do, and if we’re ever going to be able to change them, then we, ourselves, need to be open to changing deeply, too.
In order to integrate learning as a concrete practice at Elevate, we toss these ingredients into the mix:
Reflective Practice
Once a quarter, the full team comes together to share updates and reflections on what’s happening within our individual practices. This might be:
Something that’s been successful (and that might provide helpful takeaways for others)
Something we’re finding challenging
An area we’re exploring
It’s an opportunity for the full team to reflect together on the work we’re doing, to share input and perspectives, and to think about how we can continue to improve.
Learning Plans (a.k.a. Syllabi)
Everyone at Elevate is encouraged to create an individual learning plan for how they want to grow as a practitioner. We call these our syllabi, and we support them with individual professional development budgets and quarterly one-on-one check ins.
Collaborative Data Review
As a full team, we look at a lot of data about our work and make meaning of it together. Whether it’s our project budgets, client feedback, staff feedback, financial position, or bandwidth, we’ve found that we get the most clarity and momentum when we talk about these things together.
Ingredient #3: Intentional Action
Sure, learning is great, but at the end of the day, it’s most effective when it leads to some form of follow-through. We support our clients in crafting clear strategies — whether through evaluation, strategic plan, or program design — and, most importantly, in putting those strategies into action. We use similar processes internally to make space for intentional action.
Values
For all internal decision-making or process refinement moments, we reference our organizational values to ensure our plans are aligned with how we want Elevate to show up in the world. We make space for open discussions about this with the full team.
Life Cycle of an Idea
At Elevate, we fully embrace the fact that, as a small business, we must continually adapt to our external environment in order to thrive. We learned early on that, for full-team conversations about potential actions to be effective, we need to be clear about where we are in “the process,” (be that the early brainstorming phase, the finalizing decisions phase, or somewhere in between). We use a simple Life Cycle of an Idea to help us stay on the same page.
Quarterly Strategy and Planning Meetings
Once a quarter, we have a full team meeting to share business updates, reflect on last quarter, and check in on our annual goals + priorities for the next quarter. This creates clarity about who’s working on what, and it affords us the opportunity to re-prioritize as our circumstances change. If this tool sounds useful, then check out the template we use for this particular agenda and facilitation guide.
And there you have “it”! Our secret sauce.
Do we meet a lot? Yes. Do we spend a fair amount of time on non-billable team-building and learning sessions? Yes. Is it worth it? Undoubtedly. These practices and dedicated meeting space are some of the key ways that we live out our theory of change internally and stay rooted in our values.
