When I was 16 I wanted to be Chuck Berry. I got to him through the Beatles who recorded a lot of his songs. A school friend gave me a double cassette of Berry tracks and that was me for life. I even saw him perform. You didn't expect much and took what you got. He was animated, the band probably met him for the first time that night. They would have known his songs but he was wont to change keys unnecessarily, the band was forced to watch his hands and find the right key. On one song he played the piano. Still, I saw Chuck Berry.
The heading comes from Chuck's "Too much monkey business" and provides the perfect excuse for me to discuss Chuck. However this post is about a book that Rudolf and I are writing.
For a long time we've been punting the concept of INTRATERNSHIPS. Writing a book starts with an idea and then you build it up from there. INTRATERNSHIPS are an application of the peer learning process. In its simplest form it's a formalisation of informal training. There's no shortage of informal training within an organisation. It happens all the time. But is rarely monitored and endorsed.
My research (I do have to thank co-pilot for this) sent me this paper. Dr Keerthirathne doesn't stray from the standard argument that peer learning is best used in an educational environment. We've looked for books that argue that this is the most valuable training tool in the workplace. None exist – so we're writing a book. It's going to be nowhere near as academic as the as the standard literature that you read, including Dr. Keerthirathne.
Back to Dr. Keerthirathne. He helped me a lot with formulating the theory in my head. I've seen it everywhere without being able to actually describe it. I'll list a few of the things that I picked up
- Peer learning takes place among group of individuals with the same status who interact one another. I argued in this (why) unpublished article that this definition is correct when people may feel that their job is on the line if they don't learn a new system. The article is all yours to publish by the way. However I think this description is too limited. A successful INTRATERNSHIP programme must have people from various hierarchical levels in an organisation to be effective. We'll talk about this in the book
- Peer learning is more effective when learning objectives are clear. As obvious as this is, I hadn't thought about that. I thought people would get together and teach each other stuff. No – a clear agenda for each session must be established.
- Sometimes students may have the feeling of inferiority since they are facilitated by a more knowledgeable (peer). The learning process can facilitate peers in an INTRATERNSHIP developing a closer working relationship. This is part of the collaborative learning. Getting to know each other and developing strong sense of community are two basic principles in peer learning.
- In peer learning, all parties should be aware that peer learning includes both teaching and learning. This is obvious but forgotten. Our INTRATERNSHIP programme emphasises that we want each person to listen and express an opinion on how things could be better, easier, more cost effective or quicker.
Here's the draft preface.
It must have taken the child twenty attempts at standing up. Some were more successful than others with each one resulting in the child falling on her backside. The twentieth attempt resulted in the child managing to grasp the cushion on the couch, she steadied herself and looked around at her parents whose enthusiasm for her had vocally grown with each attempt.
It was simply a matter of time before the baby girl would start walking and putting her fingers into places that might have caused her serious injury. She learned to hold her own spoon and feed herself by watching her parents and older siblings as they ate.
This wasn’t a one-way street. She soon taught her parents that there were clothes she would or would not wear, whilst they learned that there were certain foods that she would eat and friends that she liked more.
This scenario has been repeated many millions of times, probably billions of times in homo sapiens alone. New generations come into the world, learn by watching and in turn teach the people who are teaching them. It’s coded into our DNA. We embrace this concept of learning up to a point and then head off to a life of formal education followed by many years of working experience.
We do know that we learn most of what we do by doing it. What we don’t know is that we are limiting our learning potential in the workplace by not actively collaborating with our many work colleagues and exchanging knowledge and information.
The reason behind this is simple. There is always a greater focus on academic learning through courses and companies just don’t focus on the internal knowledge that is its greatest asset.