The way people learn is definitely changing. Schools are shifting to iPad-based curricula. Colleges, universities and companies are relying much more heavily on web-based classes and training, taking advantage of both the affordability of such learning channels and of students’ interest in learning at their own pace, on their own time, and at their preferred location. It seems that good ole’ live, classroom-based, instructor-led training may be going the way of the buggy whip and the wire-line home telephone.

Well, call us old fashioned, but Greenlights still believes in real-time, in-person learning, and we experienced an example of why at an amazing event just this week.

On January 25, Greenlights had the privilege of partnering with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to design and lead a day-long collaborative learning event for all of their Central Texas grantee nonprofits. Some 90 nonprofit professionals representing 30 different health-, human services-, and education-focused nonprofits gave up their full days to participate in this specially-designed event. The results and feedback were wonderful, as evidenced by:

• End-of-day feedback scores averaging 8.5 on a scale of 10.
• Wonderful comments such as “Social Return on Investment (SROI) rocked my world!” and “Great organization and opportunity to network and plan!”
• And even a series of live tweets throughout the day that highlighted the value of the event.

Here’s why we believe the event was so successful, and why we believe nonprofits should continue to, where most appropriate, invest in and deliver in-person, real-time, collaborative training whenever they can to advance their missions:

• Custom-designed learning objectives and curriculum.
  Greenlights took the time to survey the training participants several months ago, and we asked them what they and their organizations needed most from training. They told us they needed help with securing sustainable, diverse funding, implementing a sustainable business model, and measuring and demonstrating impact. So, Greenlights designed a custom curriculum focused on integrating logic models, value propositions and value chain analysis across the organization to raise more money and better measure and communicate impact.
• Get the right people in the room.
  Based on the survey results, we also determined there was a need to get a cross-section of leaders in the room, including the chief program leader, development leader and marketing/communications leader. We invited staff filling all three of these roles to attend the training, as well as Executive Directors, both to attend the full day if possible or to join the training at the end of the day to see and augment their team’s work during the day.
• Focus on real, implementable solutions.
  Many trainings leave you full of new knowledge but without a real action plan for doing something with it. We designed the day to allow for significant collaborative work to be done right there in the training. Participants completed worksheets and templates, like our Logic Model Development Guide and a Simplified Social Return on Investment Analysis. We also ended the day by having each participant complete a specific action plan to how they would take the learning back to their peers, ED and board members and implement it in meaningful ways.
• Make space for collaboration.
  Sometimes participants learn as much from other training participants than from the actual instructor (or even more than him or her!). And most nonprofit staff have little opportunity to get time away from the office and from the daily grind to think strategically and collaborate with their peers. We designed the event to incorporate both a good amount of collaboration time for peers from the same organization and additional time for collaborating with and learning from peers from other similarly-focused organizations.

I can’t express enough how wonderful a sight it was to see more than 90 nonprofit leaders from some of Austin’s top nonprofits hard at work learning new concepts, adapting them for their organizations’ use, and sharing ideas and encouragement with their peers. There is no question that Austin is better off today because of the investment made by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and by their grantee organizations in the power of collaborative learning to advance mission achievement!