“A Learning Team is not a meeting to decide who was wrong, but a space to understand how work really happens, so we can create BetterWork® for tomorrow.”
Founder of Learning Teams Inc and Author on Learning Teams Brent Sutton
"Learning means taking the time and creating the space for workers to help the organization understand the problem, and then and only then, address the solution."
Creator of Learning Teams Concept Dr Todd Conklin
"Learning Teams help us bring operations back into the heart of improvement, where it has always belonged."
Operational Excellent and Quality Advocate Brent Robinson
What is a Learning Team?
At its simplest, a Learning Team is a group of people who come together to understand work. Not “Work as imagined”, the way it’s written in procedures or flowcharts, but “Work as done”. The messy, adaptive, everyday reality.
A Learning Team is not an investigation in disguise, nor is it about root causes or corrective actions. Instead, it’s about listening and sense making. The goal is to build a rich picture of how the system behaves on a good day and on a bad day. And how the system supports or hinders work, and how to find ways for work to get better. This connects directly to the HOP principle: “Error is normal”. If we treat errors as rare exceptions, we’ll keep blaming people. If we accept error as part of the system, we’ll design better systems.
Learning Teams give us the space to explore those errors in context, without shame.
How can Learning Teams be used?
The three main uses of Learning Teams are:
Learning from work: Exploring tasks to understand variability, adaptations, tradeoffs and hidden or emergent risks.
Learning from change (system/process): Learning when new technology, rules, or processes are introduced, anticipating how workers will actually adapt, the presence and impact of tradeoffs, and creating or improving work design that supports work to go well.
Learning from events: Learning from a surprise, near miss, or incident, involves understanding conditions rather than assigning blame.
How is a Learning Team run?
A Learning Team is conducted by a facilitator. When we think about facilitators, it’s tempting to imagine someone in charge, someone with all the answers. But in a Learning Team, the role is very different. The facilitator is not the boss of the room. They are the guide. They create the conditions for learning to happen and they support the Learning Team cycle of Learn-Soak-Solve-Share™ to happen.
Learn: Seeing work through different lenses
Start in “learning mode”. We bring the people who do the work together, and get curious about how the job actually happens, what went smoothly, where they had to adapt, and where in the system is it made easy or hard. No fixes yet.
Our job is to listen, “go and see”, and build a shared picture of the Work as done, not hunt for a root cause or a culprit. Groups consistently outperform individuals at surfacing the real problems and the context around them, which is exactly what we need before we even think about solutions.
Soak: Letting the stories and learning ripen
“Soak time” is the space for workers to reflect on what they heard, compare notes with teammates, and let the story settle. This soak creates the mental shift from problem identification to problem solving. You’ll also use soak time outside of events. In routine work, a short, regular “soak” lets crews look back, make variability visible, and spot weak signals together, which are small patterns that don’t scream for attention but matter over time.
Think of soak time like letting bread rise. If you rush it, the bread is flat and heavy. Give it time, and it becomes light, strong, and nourishing.
Solve: Look for change that can be owned and valued by everyone
We re-gather for the second session and shift into improvement. The group narrows ideas into practical changes, defines the defenses we already have, and builds new ones, still grounded in the story workers co-constructed.
Share: Turning one team’s win into everyone’s look-fors and where learning grows
After a Learning Team, both the workers and the organization gain a clearer understanding of the work and what supports or hinders effective and efficient operations. But the value is trapped with the few who were there. Sharing is how we set it free for others.
Once a story is out in the world, it starts a second life. Another team recognizes the pattern and builds on the opportunity to improve itself.
Learning Teams Resources
Beginners Guide to Learning Teams
A Deeper Dive into Learning Teams
