LEARNING TEAMS AT THE DARDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

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1 LEARNING TEAMS AT THE DARDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL Historically, a key component of MBA and executive programs at Darden has been students working together in groups. These teams range from informal to formal, academic to social, small to large. Despite these differences, all teams share a common intent: to accomplish more than individuals acting alone could. This is true whether we are talking about clubs and organizations, first-year sections, informal study groups, or assigned learning teams (LT). This document highlights some of the key considerations regarding Darden s first-year learning teams, including their formation, program expectations, and sources of support. Purpose of Learning Teams in the First Year Learning teams are central to the first-year experience at Darden. The reasons are anchored in several core beliefs about how learning can be enhanced. Our first belief is that learning is enhanced when students follow a four-point learning cycle: individual preparation, small group discussion, classroom interaction, and individual/small group reflection. This cycle is continuous and repetitive as students achieve greater and greater depths of understanding. Our second belief is that team interaction is increasingly a business fundamental, as well as a leadership skill. Learning to work effectively in diverse groups and developing a peeroriented leadership style are becoming increasingly important in companies today. Many businesses are using teams as the basic building blocks of their organizational structure. 1 There is also a trend in business toward more project-based work, which crosses departmental or even organizational boundaries, 2 and this calls for a different set of skills from traditional jobs performed in bureaucratic hierarchies. 3 We believe that students should be able to apply judgment, knowledge, and analytical skills to all arenas that affect individual and organizational performance, including the skill of working in teams. 1 See, for example, Whole Foods Is All Teams, 2 See Alliance Competence: Maximizing the Value of Your Partnerships, by Robert E. Spekman, Lynn A. Isabella, and Thomas C. MacAvoy; see also Michael Useem and Joseph Harder, Leading Laterally in Company Outsourcing, Sloan Management Review (Jan/Feb 2000). 3 Tom Peters elaborates on this point in The Wow! Project, a summary of which can be found at This note is a revision of one prepared by Joseph Harder and Lynn Isabella as the basis for class discussion. Copyright 2000 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an to sales@dardenpublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Rev. 8/05.

2 -2- Finally, we believe that individual students are potential learning catalysts for one other. Individual students are both learners and teachers. Achieving individual mastery is one aspect; helping others achieve their own mastery is also critical to the learning team philosophy. Sharing your expertise in certain business disciplines is expected. As a result, each learning team offers the potential for each member to teach, and not just on topics of immediate relevance to the academic curriculum. Specifically, first-year learning teams: Facilitate individual learning, both in terms of task and collegial support. Provide a frequent laboratory in order to learn the basics of team effectiveness in a world that is becoming more team oriented. Invite individuals to help, coach, and develop others this includes both engaging the group in helping you learn what you don t know, and learning how to teach others the skills you already have. Provide a trial run following individual preparation before full-class discussion in which individuals can try out their thoughts in a small group and hear how others think about the issues. Encourage reflective discussions and learning from others, including cross-pollination among sections. Darden s Learning Teams Are Different While most of us have had many group or team experiences, Darden s learning teams are different from traditional groups. There is a fundamental difference between groups that have a formally designated leader (e.g., consulting team, group of analysts, task force, or project team) and those teams that are self-managed groups of peers. In the latter, rather than power and accountability being formally situated with one person (i.e., the group manager, the project leader, the chairperson of the taskforce, the informal team leader), there is at least theoretically a sharing of power and accountability. No one is the leader; everyone is leading in a learning team. Because Darden learning teams are self-managed, they call for a distinct set of skills in order to be effective. Rather than one particular individual holding responsibility for things like agenda setting, providing direction or vision, keeping the group focused, mediating conflicts, delegating responsibilities, and debriefing the group s activities, these and all other tasks are distributed throughout the team. Every learning team member is both a leader and a member. This basic distinction is key to understanding how learning teams are different from other teams of which you may have been a member.

3 -3- Opportunities and Challenges of Learning Teams Learning teams in the first year offer students a number of opportunities. These opportunities include: Getting to know a small group of people more closely. Having a smaller home base than the section. Learning about cognitive and cultural differences through real experience. Working closely with people you don t know initially. Banding together to help each other out, learn from each other, and teach another what you know and what you are good at. On the flip side, achieving maximum benefit from a learning team is not without its challenges. These challenges include: Finding a way to deal with people who learn differently faster or slower than you do. Finding common ground among people you don t know well and who may have very different expectations, goals, and intentions. Overcoming differences in styles, dispositions, and cultural norms. Engaging individuals whose language facility, culture, values, and beliefs are different from your own. Getting beyond what is good for you individually and considering what is best for another on a team. Learning to deal collaboratively with others during times of high stress. Getting your way and giving others their way at the same time. Teaching as much as you are taking. Learning how to rely on others when they don t do things the way you do. Darden believes these challenges and opportunities, when embraced, will help you learn skills and strategies that will be critical in your future. Frequently Asked Questions 1. What do learning teams do? Ultimately, the overall goal of learning teams is to facilitate learning about the functional topics in the curriculum as well as about working in diverse teams. Within this goal,

4 -4- students in teams find themselves doing many different things: tackling cases by offering firstcut answers to case questions; helping each other understand concepts discussed in class; sharing perspectives and opinions (people reading the same case tend to have very different views); figuring out how to approach the material; reviewing what happened in class; and offering assistance to those members with questions. In addition to such regular discussion of materials to be covered in class (usually the next day) or program deliverables (periodic activities you will be asked to do in your teams), most learning teams do other things for their members. This might include reviewing resumes, providing suggestions during the job-search process, exchanging valuable feedback, helping others understand difficult concepts, or simply listening to one another about frustrations or concerns. Because they usually serve as more than simple case-prep groups, learning teams continue to be one of the most-mentioned positive features of the Darden experience in alumni surveys. 2. Why are learning teams assigned? There are two important reasons why we choose to assign learning teams rather than let them emerge on their own. First, research in social psychology shows that, when given freedom of choice, individuals have a tendency to group with people who are either: (1) similar to themselves, or (2) attractive to them interpersonally. Either of these patterns would run counter to our belief that part of the purpose of learning teams is for members to learn about operating as part of a diverse team. Second, most students will have limited choice in selecting specific work colleagues when they leave Darden. Prospects for success in teams are enhanced to the extent that individuals have worked through some issues of being in a team composed of diverse individuals. 3. What criteria are used in assignments? Learning teams are formed on the basis of the following criteria: Diversity we endeavor to have each learning team be diverse. The sources of diversity on any given team will vary, in part, based on the demographics and background of the entering class, but may include gender, country of origin or residence, educational background, and professional experience. While the process is not perfect, we strive to have each team contain men and women, individuals with both U.S. and non-u.s. passports, and people with both business and non-business backgrounds or experiences. Of course, each team will discover other sources of diversity, as well as areas of similarity, as the year progresses (e.g., learning styles, work preferences, work-life balance priorities).

5 -5- First-year sections we also create teams to allow for cross-sectional integration and learning by making sure that each Darden first-year section is represented on each learning team. 4. How much time should we spend in our learning teams? The answer, of course, varies with your team s preferences, the complexity of the materials you are preparing, and the level of individuals preparation for the meeting. Most learning teams average between minutes of learning-team time per class/case once they become acclimated to Darden. 5. What general principles will help us hit the ground running? There has been a wealth of practical research about teams that may be useful to you. While there is no way to fully capture the breadth and richness of this knowledge, here are some initial points to consider: Teams that spend time getting to know one another as people tend to do better overall. As a result, much of the learning team orientation will be devoted to helping you learn about each other. Teams do best when they: agree upon what they are trying to accomplish (vision, purpose, goals); how they wish to accomplish this (ground rules, norms, values); what essential roles members will play; and how the team is going to determine if it is accomplishing its goals (performance measures). Your team will be encouraged to spend some time developing consensus on these important issues early on and then revisit them occasionally before launching into a new task. Focusing on process is as essential as focusing on task. Task is all the doing things of a learning team, such as preparing the case; process is how your team goes about those tasks. Taking time out to discuss how the team is doing or the extent to which all members are feeling engaged or valued is an important, easily overlooked step of capturing lessons learned and preventing mistakes from recurring. It is natural for groups to evolve as they interact, and there are predictable obstacles and issues at different times. One model of how groups develop identifies four typical stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. During Forming, the central question is Who are we and what should we be doing? In Storming, tension arises around leadership and direction of the group. In Norming, basic standards of what is acceptable and unacceptable are agreed upon, at least implicitly. Finally, when Performing, the group has achieved synergy, where the performance of the group is greater than the sum of its parts. The point to remember is that your learning team is not static; it grows and changes as members get to know each other better.

6 -6-6. What specific or common practices can make or break a learning team? There are numerous practices that can help your learning team, and other practices that are unhelpful at best. During learning team orientation, these practices will be discussed, but as a start, they are included in Figure How long should our team stay together? Your learning team should stay together as long as it is meeting its members needs. Teams can and do change their composition over the course of the first year, though the vast majority of students (>80%) report that they are still meeting with a learning team (not necessarily their original one) on a regular basis at the end of their first year. Whether changing composition or not, your team must take responsibility for its actions with regard to its membership. Since one of the purposes in using learning teams is to provide a learning laboratory in team skills for students, the faculty expects that you will give your learning-team experience more than a good faith effort. That is, we expect you to attempt to work through troublesome issues that arise in your team and consider lessons learned before making drastic, irreversible changes. Some tough spots are worth going through. One strong preference we have is that, before changing the composition of your learning team in any way (whether dropping out, joining another team, or adding a member), you discuss this with your entire team present. 8. How are learning teams supported? There are some features of the first-year program that support the development of learning teams and provide occasional checkpoints. The learning-team orientation activities are designed to help team members learn about each others strengths and backgrounds. In addition, we know that teams often benefit from the evolving best practices of other teams, which you will get during a scheduled learning-team check-in within the first month of the program. In addition to the above programmatic activities, there are specific individuals who know about the learning-team process and are concerned about your experiences. Consider speaking to the director of student affairs, the learning-team director, or a second-year student mentor from the Managing Teams class (which you will learn more about shortly). Of course, you can always turn to any first-year Darden faculty member as well. Concluding Thoughts Learning teams at Darden are an instrumental part of our culture, heritage, and beliefs about learning. If you take away only a few messages, make it these:

7 -7- Darden s LTs are different from teams you may have experienced before Darden. You will need different approaches, skills, and perspectives. Your classmates are an outstanding group of individuals. Find ways to connect on similarities, rather than accentuating differences. How other LTs work (last year or this year) may not be right for your team. Each team will be different. It will take a while to find your team rhythm. Give yourselves that time.

8 -8- Figure 1 Practices That Can Make or Break Your Learning Team Case Preparation Helpful Practices Read each case on your own. Find a study buddy someone to work with in the afternoon prior to LT. Seek help from others before LT quick phone calls or s go a long way. Get as far as you can with your individual analysis. Unhelpful Practices Obsessing about one case and missing others (especially assuming you ll get the gist in team). Expecting to get each and every case to the same level. Not really trying the case, because you expect someone in the LT to get it/do it for you. Believing that answering the assignment questions means you prepared the case. Assuming that understanding how someone else did the spreadsheet means you will know how.

9 -9- Figure 1 (continued) Practices That Can Make or Break Your Learning Team During Learning Team Helpful Practices Have a facilitator for the week someone to watch time, ensure even participation. Choose case leaders individuals who will take the lead role in the conversation on the case. Rotate that responsibility, especially to members who are not expert. Don t have the CPAs do all the accounting cases. Start each case discussion with What is this case about? Or Why this case? Ensure that the conversation considers the broader issues in the case, not just the assignment questions. See and understand that people get the material at different rates. Figure out ways to allow for different learning styles, reading speeds, and language facility. Remember you don t need to figure out everything in LT. There is class! Build into LT time to review what you are learning, practice new skills, or discuss questions of interest. LT doesn t have to be all about cases, cases, and more cases! Discuss how you are working together every couple of weeks (mentors can be very helpful resources in this regard). Make time to spend socially. A good meal goes a long way. Be willing individually to compromise, adjust, adapt. Unhelpful Practices Concentrating on the answers, not the process of how to get the answers. Splitting cases (too early and too often). Obsessing about minutia. Avoiding your own individual analysis in favor of a team spreadsheet or notes. Treating cases unevenly. Expecting your LT to give you the case answers. Moving from case to case without reflection or perspective. The B.S. rule ME, ME, ME. Individually being a!*@#.