How groups sped up client learning and gave us new insights even after more than three decades of teaching

On Yelp, there is one restaurant with a very curious distinction. It is not the most popular restaurant, nor is it the one with the greatest number of reviews. Instead, it is famous for something rather unexpected. It has more 1-star reviews than any establishment listed by Yelp.

How did it get such an infamous rating?

Chef Davide Cerretina’s owner advertised a special: Leave a 1-star review on Yelp and get 25% off a pizza. He made this offer because, to him, the Yelp review system appeared unfair. He says that when he refused to pay for advertising on Yelp, his 5-star reviews disappeared. After some time, he decided to pay Yelp for ads. Later, he decided to cancel Yelp advertising.

Soon after this cancellation, something quite suspicious happened — 1-star reviews started appearing at the top of his page.

To Cerretina, that was the last straw. He decided to upend the entire system and request 1-star reviews from all his patrons. The national news media picked up this strange choice, which helped keep his restaurant full of happy customers.

All alone, there was only so much Cerretina could do to deal with his Yelp problem. He could reach his goals only by leveraging the power of his group of happy customers. Similarly, when we want to learn a challenging skill, we achieve far greater results when we use the power of groups to speed up the learning process.

Group learning means that you don’t go it alone.

You learn along with at least one or two others. You learn from each other. You help and support each other. You learn not just from your own mistakes but from the mistakes of them as well.

Why do groups help us learn better than solo learning?

Because you learn from what other students do. You make a mistake, and the group learns from that mistake. You create a new approach, and the group gets to experiment with it.

We saw this happen quite a bit when we changed our training courses to a group-based model in 2019. Students would learn the basics, then experiment and try new things and report back. They came up with new questions. Then, they did the work to discover the answers.

We’d been teaching this process for 30 years, yet we found that we gained new insights that improved our work. We save these insights, too, so that each new group can build from what we learned from the last group. As a result, the learning never stops. However, not all groups will help you learn.

To have effective learning in groups, a few conditions are required.

First, you must have a safe zone for people to work. No one will experiment, admit something didn’t work, or try new things without feeling safe to explore.

Second, you must have mechanisms that make it easy for people to see each other’s work and comment on it in a supportive way.

Third, you must have an instructor who can manage the learning process the way a conductor guides an orchestra. The instructor must create an environment where all this happens and do what is necessary to maintain it so that everyone can play beautiful music.

Can’t I learn on my own?

Yes, learning on your own can be wonderful. If you find great learning materials and are diligent, you can figure out how to do just about anything without having a group beside you.

However, solo learning is not nearly as energizing as learning with a great group.

All your experimentation is on your own, you miss out on the dozens of experiments that will be conducted in a shortened time-frame when you learn in a group. You make your own mistakes and learn from them, but you don’t get to learn from others’ many mistakes. As a result, learning is far slower.

Learning alone is inevitable at times, though, and can also be enjoyable, especially when you aren’t concerned with how fast you travel. There are times when I do it and enjoy it. Yet, learning and teaching in a group is often the way to get to your goal more quickly, and it can be a lot of fun, too.

Here’s what Nicholas, a participant in LMT1, had to say about learning in groups.

On the subject of the group, it was amazing. I’ve taken so many online courses over the years, and without fail, there’s always a village idiot. You know who I’m talking about—the troll who seems to derive some type of pleasure from upsetting others. Nobody like that here at all. And the amount of trust and opening up that went on was inspiring.
Here, we’re actually encouraged to go through other’s homework and postings. Not only is that refreshing, but it’s massively helpful. Every day, new ideas and new ways of looking at things would present themselves. Those little pieces are like the mortar between the bricks, and I think it’s safe to say everyone benefited.

Nicholas gave such a great metaphor – group members’ perspectives are like the mortar between bricks. It makes your learning so much stronger than what we can achieve alone.

Summary

Groups can speed up learning because more people are experimenting and reporting back simultaneously.

Groups aid learning only when the group feels safe. This is what’s required for people to report on what didn’t work so everyone can learn from it.

It’s necessary to have an instructor to ensure that all elements required for learning are in place.

LMT1: Core Belief Coaching includes every element required for a group to accelerate learning.

  • You learn in a safe zone.
  • Participants post work in small groups, which makes it possible for you to learn from what they did.
  • You show up, post your small assignment each day, and review the work of your group mates.

If that were all, you’d be lightyears ahead by the end of the course, but it’s much more than that. Our participants form a community. They make friends. Many are still in touch years later. So yes, you’ll be able to confidently help yourself and others eliminate beliefs, but you’ll gain much more.

We look forward to seeing you in the course.