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KOLB CYCLE (INDUCTIVE)

EIIL Learning – Key Learning

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At the EIIL our workshop designs follow the Kolb learning (sometimes improvement) cycle

• We recognise that ‘Plan > Do > Review’ is only really effective when a thorough Review (of detailed factual observations) is supplemented with a ‘Theory’ step to explain possible reasons why we observed what we observed.

• Our coaches have developed their expertise in observing team behaviours. They have helped teams improve their team-working skills over more than thirty years, working with thousands of teams in industry, in NGOs and in elite level sport.

• In 2006 the EIIL first adapted this approach to acquiring business leadership knowledge and to developing the skill to acquire this knowledge effectively and respectfully.

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Inductive learning

• In our High Performance Leader (HPL) team-working workshops, as increasingly used in the coaching of sports teams and athletes, we start the Kolb cycle not with a lecture (theory) but with a short Task (action).

• Our coaches (and the team) observe team behaviours and Review to record detailed and factual observations of cause and effect.

• Our coaches give explanations as to why certain behaviours may have got certain (observed) results, and the team is then tasked to prepare their next Action step – to plan to change their behaviours and to see what works to achieve a desired effect.

• With repetition teams improve their observations and are encouraged to practice deliberate behaviours.

• When they are able to consciously apply at will their knowledge of the effect of these behaviours, we consider them to have developed skill.

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Kolb and the EIIL Masterclass

• Since 2006 our Masterclass workshops have developed based on this successful team-skills approach.

• We replace the short physical tasks of the team-skills workshops with a direct interaction with seniors from our EIIL network.

• Our coaches provide expert observations of both content and process, and help teams make sense of their interaction through review, together with short explanatory ‘lecturettes’.

• The EIIL Masterclass workshops encourage participants to develop their skills in respectfully extracting learning from experienced seniors during their interactions.

• We call it ‘learning to learn from experience’ – both from the experience, and experiences, of the senior, and from their own experience of their interaction.

• Once learned, we believe this is a skill which should stay with the best throughout their careers.

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ConcreteExperience(Action)

Abstract Conceptualisation(Theorising)

ActiveExperimentation(Preparation)

ReflectiveObservation(Review)

How do we work ?

• Task Exercises• Guest ‘Interviews’

• Coach Input (process only)• Background Reading• Web Research

Learning to learn from experience

KOLB Learning (Improvement) Cycle

Output: • Individual notes

and plans, group flip-charts

• Presentations – any task/general session items

• Reports – individual feedback

• Key Task Output…..

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www.eiil.net

Next Generation Leadership

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