The document discusses how the EIIL uses Kolb's learning cycle approach in its workshops. It starts with a short task or interaction, followed by observation and review of behaviors and results. Coaches then provide explanations and participants plan changes to behaviors. With repetition, participants improve their observations and ability to consciously apply knowledge to develop skills in learning from experience, both of others and their own interactions. The EIIL has adapted this approach for its High Performance Leader workshops on team skills and Masterclass workshops to help participants extract learning from interactions with experienced seniors.

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KOLB CYCLE
(INDUCTIVE)
EIIL Learning – Key Learning

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EIILLearningand
theKolbCycle
At the EIIL our workshop designs
follow the Kolb learning (sometimes
improvement) cycle
• We recognise that ‘Plan > Do > Review’ is
only really effective when a thorough
Review (of detailed factual observations)
is supplemented with a ‘Theory’ step to
explain possible reasons why we
observed what we observed.
• Our coaches have developed their
expertise in observing team behaviours.
They have helped teams improve their
team-working skills over more than thirty
years, working with thousands of teams in
industry, in NGOs and in elite level sport.
• In 2006 the EIIL first adapted this
approach to acquiring business leadership
knowledge and to developing the skill to
acquire this knowledge effectively and
respectfully.

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EIILLearningand
theKolbCycle
Inductive learning
• In our High Performance Leader (HPL) team-
working workshops, as increasingly used in
the coaching of sports teams and athletes,
we start the Kolb cycle not with a lecture
(theory) but with a short Task (action).
• Our coaches (and the team) observe team
behaviours and Review to record detailed
and factual observations of cause and effect.
• Our coaches give explanations as to why
certain behaviours may have got certain
(observed) results, and the team is then
tasked to prepare their next Action step – to
plan to change their behaviours and to see
what works to achieve a desired effect.
• With repetition teams improve their
observations and are encouraged to practice
deliberate behaviours.
• When they are able to consciously apply at
will their knowledge of the effect of these
behaviours, we consider them to have
developed skill.

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EIILLearningand
theKolbCycle
Kolb and the EIIL Masterclass
• Since 2006 our Masterclass workshops have
developed based on this successful team-
skills approach.
• We replace the short physical tasks of the
team-skills workshops with a direct
interaction with seniors from our EIIL
network.
• Our coaches provide expert observations of
both content and process, and help teams
make sense of their interaction through
review, together with short explanatory
‘lecturettes’.
• The EIIL Masterclass workshops encourage
participants to develop their skills in
respectfully extracting learning from
experienced seniors during their interactions.
• We call it ‘learning to learn from experience’
– both from the experience, and
experiences, of the senior, and from their
own experience of their interaction.
• Once learned, we believe this is a skill which
should stay with the best throughout their
careers.

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Concrete
Experience
(Action)
Abstract
Conceptualisation
(Theorising)
Active
Experimentation
(Preparation)
Reflective
Observation
(Review)
How do we work ?
•Task Exercises
•Guest ‘Interviews’
•Coach Input (process only)
•Background Reading
•Web Research
Learning to learn from experience
KOLB Learning (Improvement) Cycle
Output:
•Individual notes and
plans, group flip-
charts
•Presentations – any
task/general session
items
•Reports – individual
feedback
•Key Task Output…..
EIILLearningand
theKolbCycle

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Next Generation Leadership
EuropeanInstitutefor
IndustrialLeadership
NextGenerationLeadership