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Play of the month: The best teams are always learning!

Kristen Roth

Building strong work relationships is a challenge (and it's probably even more of a challenge for those of us who are remote!). But it’s a challenge we need to take on — those relationships are much more important than we might think. What better way to strengthen them than by learning something new together?

learning together.png

When teams make time to get together to share experiences with a goal of professional development in mind, it’s a win-win situation. With our Learning Circle Play, you’ll encourage continuous learning across and between teams by facilitating structured learning activities. And after running the Play, you'll walk away with new information you can use in your daily work and (bonus!!) deeper connections with your teammates.

Now here’s the really fun part: Learning Circle topics have no bounds. They can be based on specific challenges your team is facing, such as exploring ways your team can incorporate more customer insights into your work, or general professional development topics that the team is interested in, like public speaking or honing your negotiation skills.

We’ll walk you through the Play step-by-step here, and can’t wait to hear more about your teams' learning journeys. What topic do you think you’ll pitch to your team first? Do you already have a structured way of learning together?

Share your processes and ideas with us!

Comments

Jimmy Seddon

Thanks for sharing @Kristen Roth! Funny enough our company does something very similar to the way this play is described on a regular cadence.

Kristen Roth

Do you, @Jimmy Seddon ? That's great! What was the last topic you all learned about? And what's been your favorite so far?

Jimmy Seddon

So this actually came as a result of trying to control how much time was spent on "Demo Day" of a sprint, talking about various new technologies that might have been incorporated into our environment.

Every Thursday, we have a standing meeting for people to share what they have learned about something (both the good and the bad) as well as give others to opportunity to ask questions both about, why we decided on what we did, where we see this going in the future, how other teams can get started if they are interested in following suit, etc.

One of the recent interesting talks was done by a team working putting our entire development environment inside a docker container to reduce the local setup and install requirements.

Kristen Roth

Wow. That Thursday standing meeting sounds awesome. I'm sure we all have impactful experiences each week (each day?!) that we just forget about as we keep chugging along. Carving out time to purposefully remember and share those experiences on a weekly basis is such great idea!

Taranjeet Singh

Thanks for sharing, @Kristen Roth ! This play is definitely going to be useful for any team's skills development. Unfortunately, in my current company and role, I don't have a team and I only work as an Atlassian SME to provide and/or implement services for our clients. But, I wish I get to work with a team in future where we can together learn from each other using such plays.

Kristen Roth

We're glad to have you here in the Community, @Taranjeet Singh! It's also a great place to learn from each other

Taranjeet Singh

Agreed! That's a valid point and this Community is currently my only team where I get to share and learn things from.

Thanks, @Kristen Roth !

Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_

@Kristen Roth thank you for sharing. Totally agree with this playbook.

Darryl Lee_2jimne

Thanks for sharing @Kristen Roth !

Srinatha Tondihal

Nice article. Thanks for sharing @Kristen Roth

Belto

Thanks for sharing @Kristen Roth

Elizabeth Barr

Continuous learning is so crucial for success, individually and as a team. Love it!

Lucas Modzelewski _Lumo_

We used to do it, but at some point we stopped. This organised play will help us get back on track @Kristen Roth Thanks for sharing!

Fabio Racobaldo [Catworkx]

Nice article

Srinatha Tondihal

@Elizabeth Barr Agreed. Learning never ends.

Srinatha Tondihal

Hey @Kristen Roth , again great article but do you have any article on how to encourage a fellow colleague who is kind of introvert and make him speak confidently in a group. ?

Kristen Roth

Hi @Srinatha Tondihal! I can't think of any articles on that topic in particular, but I do think this would make for a great discussion here in our Teamwork Lab group! Are you open to starting one? 👇

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/forums/postpage/board-id/Teamwork-Labforum-board

It would be great to get advice and hear personal experiences from others in this group!

Wouter Bruinings

We have a great learning culture at the company where I work. Quarterly we can follow trainings and some days to learn new things. Every sprint we take actions from our refinements to get a little better each iteration.

Kristen Roth

That's so great to hear, @Wouter Bruinings! Do a lot of your coworkers participate in the continuous learning opportunities?

Connor_lld39i

Excellent article!

Summer Hogan_q8imea

Great article @Kristen Roth

I do something similar with my team to gauge our strengths and weaknesses, but overall I am lucky and have a great team. We finish almost every sprint with all features/stories complete. It is rare we have any carry over, so I think my team is very cohesive and strong.

Craig Nodwell_7eve9b

I couldn't agree more, group learning creates bonding.

Okan Erdogan_i5ujtx

Boils down to sharing which is caring and also learning!

Craig Nodwell_7eve9b

Great post, I treat each and every engagement as a learning opportunity.

Sakina

Learning is the only way to success

Valerie Knapp_dpp5c6

This looks like a great idea, will have to give it a try!

vikram_eupqsc

Great Article @Kristen Roth thanks for sharing.

Zulfiqar Bin Zafar_gcva07

Yeah learning new things and implementing into the work always helps to grow with you

YogeshKR

Nice Idea! Thanks for sharing

Dave Mathijs

I absolutely agree, #alwaysbelearning!

My energy comes from sharing experiences and blockers with colleagues, helping each other getting a different view on the matter.

Sayed Bares [ServiceRocket]

I would say learning new things are fuel to your growth, if you stop learning, you feel burnt out, and even worst, you will not be motivated enough to take the next step. In our company, we usually have quarterly goals to learn something new

Jonathan V_

Interestingly, I had done this once or twice with my team, but never as structured as the play describes, and never on a regular on-going basis.

This is definitely something I see myself wanting to do with the team, especially since I am working on us being more cross-functional.

Kai Becker

Haven't done this yet, but this seems very interesting.

Dan Breyen

Can't stop learning. Even if the company doesn't provide classes, you need to find them on your own. I'm always finding books or podcasts that can help with personal growth.

For teams, schedule a Team meeting to review a feature or part of your project to show the rest of the team. It can drive innovation.

Juan Carlos Vera

Learning every day

Dan Breyen

agree!

Dan Breyen

Life happens and environments change. You never know what's new out there that can help your team. AND, there are plenty of great ideas that are already being used that can apply to your team as well.

Sidar Yarar

I have very good colleagues who are constantly developing and are very happy to share their experiences. I have to say I have pretty Luck

Michelle Yip_vmosd9

Thanks for the great read! Observing how ourselves and others show up in a session can be useful when assessing the mood of the room, and understanding how 'ready' the team is for an activity like this which requires high participation rate.

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