Three Tips for Running a Global Learning Cohort in Your Nonprofit Organization
How do global nonprofits bring people together for a global learning cohort, despite the challenges, for the good of all involved? That's what we're going to explore on today’s episode of Learning for Good with Tommy Lee.
Tommy is a seasoned leader with extensive experience in the areas of faith and work integration, organizational development, and strategic planning and he has a wealth of knowledge on running global cohorts.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
05:00 Tommy’s career journey and a lesson in getting the job done
13:24 The structure and goals of the global learning cohorts that Tommy is running
17:25 The challenges faced when running a global cohort and overcoming those challenges
22:26 Three tips for someone getting ready to start a global learning cohort
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Three Tips for Running a Global Learning Cohort in Your Nonprofit Organization
In 2020 I started co-chairing my daughter's school's Parent Teacher group…and what a time that was to get involved.
We faced so many challenges. Scheduling was tough for volunteers in 2020 so we had to think differently about how we engaged people. Plus, the school’s needs had changed after the initial shutdown in 2020 and technology needs that existed were suddenly imperative and urgent. And it was our job to help support them.
There was a lot to consider.
Bringing this group together in a cohesive way was tough. And this was with a group that was local and had shared goals and interests.
So what happens when we bring people together from across the world? We face challenges, just like the parent-teacher group at my daughter's school.
Many global nonprofits are facing this exact challenge:
How do they bring people together for a global learning cohort, despite the challenges, for the good of all involved?
That's what we explored on episode 55 of the podcast with Tommy Lee.
Tommy is a seasoned leader with extensive experience in the areas of faith and work integration, organizational development, and strategic planning. Currently, he leads three different organizations: Resource Global, Center for Faith and Innovation at Wheaton College, and TogetherLA.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
1) Running a Global Learning Cohort
Tommy founded Resource Global in 2010. They develop initiatives to engage marketplace leaders and train and coach them in regards to integrating faith and work. So as you can imagine, he has a lot of experience running global learning cohorts.
The global learning cohorts that Tommy runs are through an application process. 12 to 15 people are picked to be part of an 8-month cohort. They occur in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Austin, LA, and Hong Kong to name a few.
Each month there is a general theme provided. It is then up to the city director who lives in the city of the cohort to contextualize this theme.
Tommy provides the structure, and then the city director is able to take that structure and make it really relevant to the group that they're working with.
Tommy emphasizes that the context for each cohort is so important.
“If you want to expand, your key thing is finding your local context and local leaders who will guide you. Because my role isn’t telling people what to do. My role is to facilitate those conversations by trusting my city director. So whoever your city director is, you better make sure you trust them and that they can deliver and be able to assess what you need.” - Tommy Lee
2) The Challenges with Global Learning Cohorts and How to Overcome Them
Tommy has been doing this for a while now and he’s expanded over time so I asked him to talk about some of the challenges that he’s encountered when running these global cohorts.
1. Understanding the Local Context
The first challenge that Tommy mentions is understanding the local context of a new place.
“You have to go there as a student of that culture. The last thing you need to do is come in with all these assumptions.” - Tommy Lee
Tommy emphasizes the need to gain trust and you do this by asking questions and listening.
“You're asking questions. You're listening. You're finding the appropriate people. You're asking: What am I missing? Who am I hearing? You have to have a good understanding of what's happening on the ground.” - Tommy Lee
Tommy explains that if you make the wrong assessment, people aren't going to feel like they can trust you because you're not willing to listen.
2. Hiring the Right People
When hiring globally, Tommy highlights that the candidates not only need to be able to get the job done, but they need to be able to navigate both their own culture and American culture as well. This can be as simple as understanding the different time zones, which get very complicated when you’re trying to bring people together in a global learning cohort.
3. Building Trust and Opening Up Discussions
As a founder and president, Tommy explains that often people are hesitant to disagree with him and share their opinions.
“I had to understand that they also had opinions. I had to turn around and build that trust to say, don't just do what I told you to do. Am I on the right track? What would you do?” - Tommy Lee
As soon as people started disagreeing with Tommy, he realized that they were on the same page.
3) Three Tips for Running A Global Learning Cohort
I know that there are a lot of nonprofits out there that are either currently running global learning cohorts or are planning on starting one soon, so I asked Tommy for some tips that he would give someone who is getting ready to engage in this work.
1. Start Small and Understand the Culture
“Start small, start slow, get your feet wet, understand the culture.” - Tommy Lee
Tommy explains that when he first starts a learning cohort in a new place, for the first two or three years he’s just getting his feet wet and understanding the kinks.
“Fight the temptation of growing too big, too fast. Understand that your curriculum, even though it works very well, may not really be able to be translated well in different contexts.” - Tommy Lee
2. Hire Well
Tommy emphasizes the importance of hiring your team well and having structures in place to help them thrive.
“Hire your first person. And when you hire that person, it's your first time understanding them, instead of giving them a job, give them a couple of tasks. See how well they work.” - Tommy Lee
This just becomes even more important when you're talking about bringing in different cultures and different contexts.
3. Empower Your Leaders
When Tommy goes to the global learning cohorts in person, he explains that people automatically want him upfront and leading. However, Tommy prefers not to do this.
“I honor your culture. I respect you. When I come to your city, I sit under your leadership.” - Tommy Lee
Many leaders whom Tommy has met along the way have some of the greatest skills but they lack confidence.
“My job as the team leader is to serve them well by helping and believing in their leadership and growing their confidence. So one of the things that I do when I walk in I say, guys, that's our team leader right there. Grace or so and so, you're the guys doing the announcement. You're the one speaking, I don't need to be upfront all the time. I sit under your leadership.” - Tommy Lee
Through his words and actions, Tommy shows them that the power dynamic goes over to them.
“I am always under their leadership. And by doing that I serve them well. I honor them.” - Tommy Lee
However, when things go wrong or mistakes are made, Tommy does not shy away from accepting the responsibility.
“Be willing to make mistakes. Learn from those mistakes because your growth, your ability to continue to grow this organization, and the success of this organization rides and dies with you.” - Tommy Lee
To hear the full conversation I had with Tommy on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 55.
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