Remote Networking Tips #25: Start (or Join) a Learning Circle

Learning Circles can be a great way to learn something new and ensure that you continue to learn new things while working from home. A learning circle can be an internal group for your team to ensure you keep up your CPD, it can be an internal group for people working in a particular sector or specialism. It can also be used externally, as a small networking group for people wanting to learn a new skill.

01. Decide on the Topic

Choose a topic related to your work that you want to learn more about. This could be a technical skill or a soft skill. Once you have decided on a topic, find colleagues or contacts that might be interested in learning about the same topic or share the same interest.

02. Set a specific time and day of the week (and stick to it)

Decide on a time, day and frequency for your learning circle. There is never a time that will suit everyone – so just set the schedule and go from there. If people can make it great if they can’t carry on anyway.

A 30-45 minute slot on a fortnightly or monthly basis should work well for getting you started.

03. Send out an invite

Send out the calendar invite for an online meet-up (with a description telling people what it is all about). As too many people will make any club too big and meetings too long, you should cap the number of people that can join the club (but do bear in mind that you will probably have a couple of dropouts per session).

04. Set the Agenda

Before each session set an Agenda. The group should select a relevant sub-topic for the session and a presenter to lead the discussion. The Presenter should be selected for their expertise where necessary or for presenters’ desire to learn and share.

Then each month you can then get together (via video conference) to talk about the topic this should be based on either some pre-reading and/or where you have someone in the group (or a guest) give a short presentation.

In the meeting invitations that you send, include the agenda and any pre-session preparation and ensure that the attendees have enough time to prepare.

05. Get the Conversation Started

Each session should be introduced by the facilitator. The Facilitator should explain the purpose of the session, set basic ground rules (e.g. Chatham House Rules), and explain how the session will work.

Then everyone in the learning circle should quickly introduce themselves (if they do not already know each other), sharing:

• Their name
• Role and/or team /Company
• Their previous experience with the topic or what they hope to learn

Even if the group does already know each other it can still be useful to ask people to share what they hope to learn from the discussion.

The facilitator should keep notes regarding what people would like to focus on to help guide the discussion.

06. Presentation,Q&A and Open Discussion

Once everyone has introduced themselves, the presenters should then share their presentation and speak about the topic. If they are an expert they may give a more formal presentation, if they are a nominated presenter, they may take a more informal approach and share what they’ve learned about the topic in question, and the sources of their information.

There should then be an opportunity to ask questions of the presenter, followed by a discussion between the attendees – either directly linked to the presentation as an exercise or activity or as an open follow-up .

The facilitator should guide this discussion, positioning the presenters as experts and encouraging other attendees to bring in their own questions and expertise. 

Hopefully, the discussion should flow from the conversation, but if you need to give it a boost, you can ask questions such as:

• Does anyone have any other experience or expertise to share on this topic?
• Does anyone else have an example of doing this in practice? or an alternative?
• Are there aspects of the topic or considerations we’ve left out that are important or that anyone else would like to add or share?
• How might you incorporate this into your day-to-day work?

The Facilitator should also look back at the learning objectives and ensure that these have been covered and/or check if peeople feel like they got an answer/the help they were looking for.

07. Reflect

Finish the session with some reflection. This is a great time to collect ideas for future topics. If you haven’t got a programme of topics set out at the outset, also discuss future topics that people would like to see.

Further Reading:

• Smaller types of Networking Groups – Explained!
• Remote Networking Tips #23: Join a Virtual Book Club
• Remote Networking Tips #24: Set up your own Virtual Book Club