Learning to make a difference:

exploring and taking risks

Why pioneering social learning leadership matters

We live in changing times. We don’t know today what we are going to need to know tomorrow. As individuals, communities, organizations – indeed as a species – we have to get better at learning together and on the go. This is social learning. Social learning leadership is developing the art of leading this kind of learning. It calls for a commitment and a rigor in learning to make a difference. It requires the creation of social learning spaces. It is about becoming intentional in cultivating the qualities that make these spaces productive social containers for learning and innovation. The point is learning to make a difference, whether it is in the service of individual participants, an organization, a field, or stakeholders in a complex problem.

Who should join

This workshop is anyone interested in using the craft of social learning leadership. It is primarily intended for people who have some experience or who have attended a BEtreat workshop before, but everyone ready to explore new issues is invited. Engaging at the cutting edge online will give us an opportunity to take some risks and explore innovative ways to take full advantage of online.

What we focus on

Our new book ““Learning to make a difference: value-creation in social learning spaces” just came out and we will use it to provide a foundation of readings for our joint exploration of cutting-edge issues. This will anchor our conversations and our approach to your project. This equips us to explore the edges of what we already know. We work as a community during this workshop to help each other learn from our own practices and projects. What we explore includes:

• Latest developments in the theory and practice of social learning spaces
• Defining your learning edge: framing your cutting-edge challenges and why they are important for the whole group to explore with you
• Using the value-creation framework from the book: how does what you do create value, how do you frame and monitor that value, and what does this mean for learning to make a difference?
• Living out your leadership: take a lead in shaping the social learning space and pushing the group to address your cutting-edge issues
• Innovative use of tools: exploring the use technology for social learning online.

How it unfolds

The workshop takes place in a carefully designed communal online space.  You also build your own space where you can invite colleagues to see something of your context and to engage in chatting or thinking with you.

Interactions are a mix of synchronous conversations (on Zoom) and collaboration (on Mural or Google docs) as well as asynchronous interactions (in a discussion forum).

We all meet synchronously as a whole group twice a week, for a total of around 4 hours per week. The rest of the time is for reading, reflections and small-group work.

Days and times we meet synchronously:

2:00 – 4:00 pm New York (Monday and Thursday)

7:00 – 9:00 pm Lisbon (Monday and Thursday)

6:00 – 8:00 am Melbourne (Tuesday and Friday)

8:00 – 10:00 am New Zealand (Tuesday and Friday)

Each week, we recommend selected sections of the book to help frame the challenges and opportunities in your work. Beyond that, the exact agenda and themes are collectively determined:

•  Week 1 – Finding the cutting edge:

  • Part I of the book: Latest development in social learning theory
  • How is this relevant to the difference you want to make?
  • How can we help each other?

  Week 2-3 – Exploring cutting edge issues in our practice:

  • Part II of the book: Learning modes and the value-creation framework
  • We work on the concrete cases of participants to drive our learning
  • We reflect on what we are learning about content and process
  • We use tools innovatively to work together

  Week 4 – Reflecting and looking to the future:

  • Epilogue of the book: Where is social learning theory and practice going from here?
  • What are we learning about ourselves as social learning leaders?
  • What open challenges remain and where are we each going next?

Price and discounts

• Early bird, if paid by November 1, 2020: $960
• Teams of three or more people from the same organization: $960 per person

Limited number of partial scholarships available for people whose circumstances make our prices prohibitive. Fill out application here.

Register and pay now