Run a Small Peer Learning Session

Reader situation

You’ve noticed that several people in your network or Circle face the same professional question, and you think they could learn from each other. Bringing them together is easy. Making the conversation useful takes a little planning.

Central idea

A small peer learning session brings people together to compare experience around a focused question. Set a learning goal, give everyone room to contribute and finish with a reflection or action each participant can own.

Practical steps

1. Learning goal. Choose one question the session will explore, and write it down. “How do we make one-to-one meetings more useful?” is a good learning goal. “Management” is too broad. The goal should be something participants face in their own work, so they come with experience to share as well as questions.

• Decide what a good outcome looks like. Usually it’s each person leaving with one idea they’ll try, rather than a group agreement.

1. Participant mix. Invite four to eight people. Fewer than four can limit the range of experience; more than eight makes it hard for everyone to speak. Aim for variety in roles, organizations or stages, so people learn from situations different from their own. Tell each person why you’ve invited them and what will be asked of them.

• Consider the balance of seniority. If one participant is much more senior than the rest, others may defer to them. That can be useful if the goal is to learn from their experience, but it can limit a peer exchange. Mention at the start that everyone’s experience is equally welcome.

1. Pre-session prompt. Send a short prompt a few days ahead: “Come with one example of a one-to-one that went well and one that didn’t.” This helps people arrive with specific experience rather than general views, and it gives quieter participants time to prepare. Keep the prompt short enough to answer in a few minutes.

• Include practical details in the same message: the date, time and time zone, how to join, how long the session will last and any agreement about confidentiality. Clear logistics help people arrive on time and ready to contribute.

1. Timed discussion. Plan the time and share the plan at the start. A 60-minute session might run like this:

• 5 minutes: welcome, the learning goal and how the session will work.
• 25 minutes: each person shares their example briefly, two or three minutes each.
• 20 minutes: open discussion of patterns, differences and questions.
• 10 minutes: reflection and next actions.
• As facilitator, keep time, invite people who haven’t spoken and gently move on when one example takes over. You can participate, but your main job is to help others contribute. If the group starts debating a single answer, bring it back to experience: “What have others seen happen when they tried that?”

1. Reflection and next action. In the final minutes, ask each person to name one thing they’ll try or change. Write these down and, with permission, share a short summary with participants afterwards. Naming an action aloud makes people more likely to follow through. If the group wants to meet again, agree a date and a question for next time.

• A short message a few weeks later, asking how people’s chosen actions went, helps turn the session into lasting learning. It also tells you whether the format worked and what to change for the next session.