World Class Team Leaders
What's new in team working
The Level 2 Certificate in Team Leading developed by the Institute of Leadership and Management has been accredited as part of the National Qualifications Framework. A 65 hour programme, it can be run as a taught programme or using Building Success 2 as a flexible learning programme supported by occasional workshops.
There is also a Level 2 Award in Team Leading. This is a 22 hour programme, particularly suitable for those people who are new to the team leader role and need very focussed support programme to help them cope or are looking to become team leaders and want to be prepared for the role.
The Institute of Leadership and Management is the UK's largest management and leadership awarding body, with some 90,000+ learners a year receiving its qualifications through its 2,000 centres worldwide.
Using Building Success 2 as part of a Distance, Flexible or Open Learning Programme
This guidance is designed to help ILM Centres using Building Success 2 as part of a programme employing some form of Flexible Learning. This will range from a full Distance Learning mode through to a largely classroom-based approach, with Building Success sessions used as support materials. The terms Distance, Flexible and Open Learning are often used interchangeably. The Learning and Skills Council in England also uses the terms Distributed and Electronic Learning, and Blended Learning. For simplicity the term Flexible Learning should be understood here to include all these different forms of 'non-traditional' (ie classroom-based) provision.
Adults (and most Team Leaders will be over 18) learn best by combining practical experience with more abstract ideas. This is known as experiential learning and was originally developed as a concept by David Kolb. He suggests that the best learning occurs by reflecting on practical experience, relating this to abstract ideas and then planning how to apply what has been learned. This cycle (experience, reflection, abstraction and experimentation) forms a cycle, known as the learning cycle.
Building Success 2 incorporates this model by using case studies and reflection to encourage learners to think how their learning might be applied and to draw on their own experience in making sense of new ideas.
Flexible learning programmes, especially those which combine individual's use of Building Success on their own (and probably in their own time) with group workshops, seminars, role plays and other group activities can build on this model. The Building Success sessions offer the chance to develop learners' understanding of the (not too abstract) ideas, and workshops enable them to look at how they might use what they have learned in their own work.
How does this add to their learning?
'Traditional' classroom-based teaching and learning often doesn't offer enough time for critical reflection and can 'bombard' learners with ideas too fast for them to absorb. Building Success offers learning in 'bite-sized' chunks lasting about 30 minutes, which learners can digest easily. By regular small amounts of learning they are more likely to absorb the ideas and reflect on them, so that they then have a conceptual base to draw on in workshops and other group activities.
By starting with a group induction, learners can learn what the programme is about and how it is organised. You also need to decide which Building Success sessions learners will use. The diagnostic self-assessment in each Unit's Introduction can be used here. This may involve some form of one-to-one advice and discussion and, ideally, the agreement of a leaning contract or action plan, so that the learners agree what they will be doing, and when.
The induction, as well as explaining the programme, may well introduce some of the key ideas underpinning teams and leadership. Because learners will be doing a lot of their learning on their on, it can help to form small groups who can support each other during the programme and possibly meet up informally. Exercises to help build a common purpose and sense of confidence in themselves and each other are useful at his stage.
Having a completed the induction, learners will work through the agreed Building Success 2 sessions until their next workshop, where they should have the opportunity to discuss their learning and relate it to how they currently perform and how they might change their performance.
Activities such as role-play exercises, case studies and simulations can help to develop understanding and performance. There should also be some opportunity for individual review of learning (using the assessment exercises they will have completed at the end of each session) and the agreement of new learning contracts/action plans.
In addition, learners will need the support of tutors/coaches/mentors to ensure that they don't feel alone. The longer the interval between formal meetings, the more important it is to have some mechanism for contacting and encouraging learners, especially in the early stages of a programme, to ensure that they have developed a pattern of working and are keeping to their plans. It is not enough to expect learners to call for help - tutors/coaches/mentors have to be pro-active.