4 Ways Instructional Design Can Support Team Building in Your Nonprofit
As I think about all the challenges nonprofits face, all the burnout nonprofit leaders experience, and all the amazing things they want to accomplish, I am consistently reminded of how important strong trusting relationships really are.
That's why on this episode, I wanted to explore how good instructional design can break down silos and build those relationships in your nonprofit.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
00:58 Why we need to build good relationships in nonprofits
02:31 How training can support relationship building
03:14 4 Ways to build relationships through training
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4 Ways Instructional Design Can Support Team Building in Your Nonprofit
When I worked internally at a national nonprofit, we had one training that was THE training. It was a pivotal experience in a person's career and the place where they decided to stay with the organization for life.
Why?
One of the reasons was the relationships that were built during the learning experience.
People were able to meet and build deep relationships during this training. They met people they would never have otherwise met and they built relationships strong enough that they would stay connected throughout their entire career.
Real relationships.
As I think about all the challenges nonprofits face, all the burnout nonprofit leaders experience, and all the amazing things they want to accomplish, I am consistently reminded of how important strong trusting relationships really are.
That's why I wanted to explore how good instructional design can break down silos and build those relationships in your nonprofit.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
How do we build strong, trusting relationships through training?
Anytime we are bringing people together, virtually or in person, we have the opportunity to build relationships. This means training can support team building in your nonprofit, but we have to be intentional in our design if we want to build these relationships and break down those silos that exist in our nonprofits.
Let’s take a look at four different ways that we can build relationships through training.
1) Build Mini Learning Communities in Your Nonprofit Training
Anytime you're bringing people together in a synchronous way, you can build relationships, but that is so much easier to do if you're using smaller groups.
Depending on the size of your organization and the training you’re offering, your training could have 20 people or 100 people.
Relationships are often easier built in small groups. So whenever you have the opportunity to divide that larger group into groups of three or four, do it.
If it makes sense to keep learners in the same small group throughout the training, do it.
There are times when it does make more sense to divide them up and have them rotate through different groups, but sometimes it's good to keep them with the same three or four people the entire time.
When they're in these smaller groups,
They're more likely to open up and share.
They're more likely to learn each other's names.
They're more likely to actually get to know each other.
Your quiet learners are more likely to open up, rather than sitting back and letting those extroverted learners dominate the conversation.
Your learners who like to process things internally can do so and still have time to share.
It's just wins all around.
Small groups are an easy way to facilitate relationship building. So as you're creating learning experiences in your nonprofit, think about all the opportunities you have to use small groups.
But obviously… you need more than a small group to build relationships.
Have you ever been in a small group and walked away thinking, I don't really know that person any better than before?
We also need to design the experience so learners can open up and talk with each other. That brings us to the second way that instructional design can help break down silos in your nonprofit.
2) Design Learning Experiences That Invite Deeper Conversations
Invite learners into deeper conversations. We want them to share their experiences. So we want to design conversations that acknowledge that learners have experiences and expertise to share.
We might use prompts like:
Share about a time you did this thing.
Share about a time you ran into this particular situation.
What worked?
What was challenging?
What would you do differently now?
These questions invite them to reflect on their experiences and open up and join the conversation. They get to brag a little bit about their experience. But these questions also prompt them to be a bit vulnerable as well.
As they share in their small groups, the other people listen, and the learner feels seen, heard, and valued. This is a big part of feeling connected and in relationship with someone.
So as you're creating your learning experiences, ask yourself - What questions can I use to invite learners into the conversation and allow them to share on this deeper level?
We can also take this even deeper, not just use small groups, not just design these really great conversations, we can prompt learners to co-create something. That brings us to the third way that instructional design can help us break down silos in our nonprofits.
3) Invite Co-Creation as a Way of Team Building
Anytime I can get learners hands-on, I will. Almost any learning can lend itself to co-creation.
Whether they are working in their small groups to co-create a future vision, a set of procedures, a scenario, a presentation, or something else, it's important that they work together to create something. Something that will benefit them, or something that will benefit other people.
This time spent working together is time spent building relationships.
So as you're creating learning experiences, again, ask yourself - What is something the learners can create that will help them achieve the objectives while also building those relationships?
4) Lean into Continuous Learning
Finally, the fourth way instructional design can help break down silos - it can't stop with a training.
Provide a way for learners to continue connecting after the training.
Do you have a learning community they can join?
Can you add them to an email list?
Is there a place on your knowledge management platform that they can connect?
Is a Facebook or LinkedIn group an option?
Can you create a community of practice so that they can connect again in the future?
Maybe you have a conference or an all-staff meeting where you can host a little reunion for everyone who attended this particular class?
What options do you have? Be creative, and find a way for those learners to continue connecting over time.
Relationships are a superpower in your nonprofit and L&D can help create them.
But,
We have to be creative.
We have to be intentional.
And we have to design our learning experiences to facilitate those relationships.
When we do that, we can sit back and watch the impact it will have on our nonprofit.
To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 86.
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