Learning How to Learn (VII): Interaction

Barely a few years ago boys and girls in Africa didn’t have specific individual ages. Rather, they were in groups, cults, and peers. So a boy's age and maturity isn’t measured by when he was born but by which age group he belongs to. In addition, initiation into higher social platforms is done in a collective way together with other members of the same group or peer.

In as much as this concept sounds archaic and possibly ineffective to us today, a careful search as to why it was done in the first place will reveal some astonishing things about how we learn. Children were grouped in peers and cults so they could learn by interaction. In some of these groups what they had weren’t “teachers” (from a narrow meaning of the word) but guides and counsellors. So, they learned to hunt together, farm together, dance together and get married together. As time went by these groups develop such strong bonds that they’ll willingly die protecting each other than live without the other.

Our present-day classes are designed in a way that narrowly imitates this method of peering but we contradict the goal of grouping by encouraging and enforcing individualism within the group. 
If you will learn effectively, I propose you form groups with people of like minds. Interact with one another, advice each other, complement weaknesses and sharpen strengths. In my book, Do it Like Kids, I suggested 5 unifying factors that ensure groups and teams work effectively. Here is a summary:

1. The unifying factor of harmonizing skills: members of a team should complement each other in skill. If you have everybody in a group having just one skill, know that you have no team at all. There is practically no way such a group can effectively provide excellent service at all times. When children form teams, team players take up roles that they feel they can best fit into. They don’t all take up the same role because it makes play boring.

2. The unifying factor of shared purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal reason. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” In line with that I say if the purpose of a team is not known and shared by the team players, abuse is inevitable.

3. The unifying factor of performance goals: A goal is an aim, something someone wants to achieve in a specified period. In view of this, a performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

-         Write them down in clear terms

-         Set a time frame

-         Make a list of everything the team will have to do

-         Plan

-         Review often

4.  The unifying factor of approach: the approach taken to achieve the performance goals is as important as setting the goal in the first place. If you know where you are going, then you immediately become restricted in the number of roads that will lead you there.

5. The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken.