Managing Next Level Learners: Supporting ‘Fast Fish’ in Your Organization
This three-part track is all about helping managers create a workplace and culture that supports effective learning. The focus? Helping your team be ‘fast fish’ in their work environment to boost performance. Drawing on the latest research, we’ll discuss how we can support workers to modify their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical environments to enhance their own learning and performance — kind of like fish creating vortices in the water to swim faster — as well as some important caveats to consider. We’ll kick off with a quick workplace check—is your workplace a ‘learning organization’ in the current sense? Then, we’ll cover specific actions you can apply right away to support learning for the people on your teams.
Individual Sessions
Session I: An In-Depth Look at the Moves of ‘Fast Fish’ and How Managers can Support Them
Thursday, February 1st from 12-2pm EST
In the first session, we will consider the features of learning like a fast fish and will practice a set of five actions in which these learners engage. We will consider examples of each action and how managers can support them in their workplaces. Using their own work context, participants will generate examples of where the five actions might apply and generate a plan for practicing them in their workplaces.
Outcome: Managers have new ways of thinking about their role in influencing employee success and tools to create an environment that supports their team members to succeed and grow.
Session II: Making the Most of Emotion, Attention, and Initiative as a ‘Fast Fish’: Implications for How Managers Support Employees
Thursday, March 21st from 12-2pm EST
In the second workshop, we will look at the implications of research on learning and how it informs the specific moves that fast fish learners make. We will consider how emotion can propel or derail employees and the kinds of managerial support that can help workers engage in proactive management. We will also consider current ways to manage attention and initiative in the workplace and the implied shifts for the moves that fast fish learners make and how managers support them.
Outcome: Managers create environments and interact in ways that empower their team members to proactively tend to their needs, manage attention and encourage initiative in the workplace.
Session III: Unlocking Learning Transfer in the Workplace
Thursday, May 2nd from 12-2pm EST
The ability to use what is learned in one context in other contexts is known as transfer and it relates to one of the five key moves that ‘fast fish’ make in leveraging assets forward. Transfer can be designed into workplace contexts to help people gain the most from their experiences. This third workshop considers ways to frame transfer in how people engage in work. We will consider the role of the individual, the “experienced others” that they work with, and the environment in which they are working.
Outcome: Managers have tools to support their team members to transfer previous knowledge and experience to their new tasks or activities.