Collaborative learning : Go - For - IT program 

 Learning Launch 

 Challenge 

 I lead technical solution engineering team of experienced telecom engineers . My team is distributed   globally . Role of my team is to act as a technology consultants and steer technical discussions to close   sales . 

 Telecom domain is changing rapidly , my challenge was to ensure team is up to the speed with the latest   technologies and keep their knowledge updated . This would help my team to provide right consultative   advice to sales team to successfully close the sales . 

 Another challenge was to deal with time zones and to deal with it effectively . I wanted to have my team   participate in its full attention and energy span while acquiring training sessions . Being globally   distributed it was economically not viable to arrange in person trainings for teams . 

 We tried so may various smart options like sharing documents , videos and training materials on   cloud / ftp server etc . but could not achieve desired results . Challenge shared by team they they could n’t   get enough time to spend on the training material in busy schedule . 

 Application : 

 For our launch to the program we decided to come up with the ideas which will address challenges and   encourage the team members to learn new things . We scheduled a 1 - day workshop to brainstorm and   discuss some of the ideas to over come this challenge . During workshop We identified traditional   learning models and started thinking beyond those . Some ideas came on table are , designing application   to learn on the go this app would include the specific training which we want to deliver another idea   came up was creating a cheat sheet with all important aspects of new technology area . After assessing   those ideas , those were still not fit to address our challenges . 

 We had to schedule second workshop to discuss more and this time we targeted to think out of the box   by using silly ideas and we learn that any idea is not silly even if it looks like . 

 Finally , team came up with an idea to have open book questions every week on topic we want them to   learn . This how we designed 3 stage approach for self learning : 

 1 . Identify : New technologies to know will be identified by team members and every Friday we will 

 release set of questions on topic to the team every Friday , 

 2 . Acquire : Team members should work on getting answers for those questions within specific 

 timeframe by leveraging all resources they could have ( e.g. Google , Books , Training sessions ,   speak to expert etc .. ) and submit their answers to program moderator 

 3 . Present your knowledge to team : For conclusion - We asked team members to present their 

 understanding on topic for 15 minutes to entire team 

 Now its time to test the idea . 

 Insight : 

 We planned to run test program on our idea to see its viability . We also decided to run it within specific   timeframe . Since this was self study knowledge acquisition process for my team , I also wanted to ensure   that team members are getting the right knowledge and concepts . We learned very interesting   confirming facts which was adding a great value to my team . 

 Confirming Facts : What worked well in this approach was 

 1 . Exploration for information : This triggered team members to search various sources and refer 

 details to find appropriate answers . Unknowingly everyone was getting to know something new   during this process 

 2 . Flexibility – There was 1 - week time frame to the set of 10 questions which enabled team 

 members not to use their personal time and find enough time to find answers 

 3 . Increased collaboration : We intentionally did not plan to have restrictions on team members . It 

 is completely open book questions assessment . This encouraged them to talk to each other   about the topic and questions . Which was also indirectly increasing collaboration between   them . 

 4 . New Perspectives : Team members went beyond the information they refereed through various 

 sources but also started thinking about how new learning can be applied in practice 

 5 . Increased knowledge about the subject : We engaged subject matter expert from organization 

 to attend the presentations of the team . He assessed and confirmed that the candidates are   aware about the subject . 

 6 . Increased confidence to talk on subject : Since there was a fearless 15 minutes presentation slot 

 provided to each , team members started feeling confident to talk about those subjects . It also   acted as dry run for us to identify improvement areas of the team members . 

 7 . Latest knowledge up to the Speed : Process of knowledge acquisition was through all available 

 sources , so knowledge acquired was latest and close the current developments 

 Disconfirming facts : They were there but completely overruled by confirming facts 

 1 . Information accuracy : Since team was free to explore various information sources to gather 

 their answers , big question was “ is the source of information accurate ” … 

 In our approach we mitigated this concern through the expert assessment during presentation .   There is good mechanism available in our approach to mitigate this concern . Hence this   disconfirmation fact could not sustain ground . 

 2 . Timelines : Time provided to the team to gather information . We found that 1 week is sizeable 

 time to gather information regarding 10 questions on new topic . Given the ample availability 

 3 . Efficiency of Team : Many fixed mindset stakeholders brought up this concern as disconfirming 

 fact that team members spending time in gathering information is going to bring down their   current efficiency . However , during test pilot , we did not observe any of such impact . 

 Approach : 

 Through design thinking and leveraging structured approach towards solving problem democratically   and by engaging everybody in process we collectively design and developed this new learning model for   my team . This approach was addressing most of the critical challenges and was also empowering team   members to self learn the subjects . 

 There was no any restrictions to anybody other than timelines and presentations sessions which   enabled team members to elevate their knowledgebase and mainly whole team bought this concept   whole heartedly . 

 Now we are in a cycle of enhancing this model further and defining future roadmap . I current modelling   we engaged only within our team and built this framework . We are planning to go next level where we   will be engaging various teams who can contribute towards this . These teams are product management ,   Tech . Strategy , learning & development etc . Adding more cross functional teams will add onto more   wider perspectives to the program which will take it to next level . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Collaborative learning : Go - For - IT program 

 Learning Launch 

 Challenge 

 I lead technical solution engineering team of experienced telecom engineers . My team is distributed   globally . Role of my team is to act as a technology consultants and steer technical discussions to close   sales . 

 Telecom domain is changing rapidly , my challenge was to ensure team is up to the speed with the latest   technologies and keep their knowledge updated . This would help my team to provide right consultative   advice to sales team to successfully close the sales . 

 Another challenge was to deal with time zones and to deal with it effectively . I wanted to have my team   participate in its full attention and energy span while acquiring training sessions . Being globally   distributed it was economically not viable to arrange in person trainings for teams . 

 We tried so may various smart options like sharing documents , videos and training materials on   cloud / ftp server etc . but could not achieve desired results . Challenge shared by team they they could n’t   get enough time to spend on the training material in busy schedule . 

 Application : 

 For our launch to the program we decided to come up with the ideas which will address challenges and   encourage the team members to learn new things . We scheduled a 1 - day workshop to brainstorm and   discuss some of the ideas to over come this challenge . During workshop We identified traditional   learning models and started thinking beyond those . Some ideas came on table are , designing application   to learn on the go this app would include the specific training which we want to deliver another idea   came up was creating a cheat sheet with all important aspects of new technology area . After assessing   those ideas , those were still not fit to address our challenges . 

 We had to schedule second workshop to discuss more and this time we targeted to think out of the box   by using silly ideas and we learn that any idea is not silly even if it looks like . 

 Finally , team came up with an idea to have open book questions every week on topic we want them to   learn . This how we designed 3 stage approach for self learning : 

 1 . Identify : New technologies to know will be identified by team members and every Friday we will 

 release set of questions on topic to the team every Friday , 

 2 . Acquire : Team members should work on getting answers for those questions within specific 

 timeframe by leveraging all resources they could have ( e.g. Google , Books , Training sessions ,   speak to expert etc .. ) and submit their answers to program moderator 

 3 . Present your knowledge to team : For conclusion - We asked team members to present their 

 understanding on topic for 15 minutes to entire team 

 Now its time to test the idea . 

 Insight : 

 We planned to run test program on our idea to see its viability . We also decided to run it within specific   timeframe . Since this was self study knowledge acquisition process for my team , I also wanted to ensure   that team members are getting the right knowledge and concepts . We learned very interesting   confirming facts which was adding a great value to my team . 

 Confirming Facts : What worked well in this approach was 

 1 . Exploration for information : This triggered team members to search various sources and refer 

 details to find appropriate answers . Unknowingly everyone was getting to know something new   during this process 

 2 . Flexibility – There was 1 - week time frame to the set of 10 questions which enabled team 

 members not to use their personal time and find enough time to find answers 

 3 . Increased collaboration : We intentionally did not plan to have restrictions on team members . It 

 is completely open book questions assessment . This encouraged them to talk to each other   about the topic and questions . Which was also indirectly increasing collaboration between   them . 

 4 . New Perspectives : Team members went beyond the information they refereed through various 

 sources but also started thinking about how new learning can be applied in practice 

 5 . Increased knowledge about the subject : We engaged subject matter expert from organization 

 to attend the presentations of the team . He assessed and confirmed that the candidates are   aware about the subject . 

 6 . Increased confidence to talk on subject : Since there was a fearless 15 minutes presentation slot 

 provided to each , team members started feeling confident to talk about those subjects . It also   acted as dry run for us to identify improvement areas of the team members . 

 7 . Latest knowledge up to the Speed : Process of knowledge acquisition was through all available 

 sources , so knowledge acquired was latest and close the current developments 

 Disconfirming facts : They were there but completely overruled by confirming facts 

 1 . Information accuracy : Since team was free to explore various information sources to gather 

 their answers , big question was “ is the source of information accurate ” … 

 In our approach we mitigated this concern through the expert assessment during presentation .   There is good mechanism available in our approach to mitigate this concern . Hence this   disconfirmation fact could not sustain ground . 

 2 . Timelines : Time provided to the team to gather information . We found that 1 week is sizeable 

 time to gather information regarding 10 questions on new topic . Given the ample availability 

 3 . Efficiency of Team : Many fixed mindset stakeholders brought up this concern as disconfirming 

 fact that team members spending time in gathering information is going to bring down their   current efficiency . However , during test pilot , we did not observe any of such impact . 

 Approach : 

 Through design thinking and leveraging structured approach towards solving problem democratically   and by engaging everybody in process we collectively design and developed this new learning model for   my team . This approach was addressing most of the critical challenges and was also empowering team   members to self learn the subjects . 

 There was no any restrictions to anybody other than timelines and presentations sessions which   enabled team members to elevate their knowledgebase and mainly whole team bought this concept   whole heartedly . 

 Now we are in a cycle of enhancing this model further and defining future roadmap . I current modelling   we engaged only within our team and built this framework . We are planning to go next level where we   will be engaging various teams who can contribute towards this . These teams are product management ,   Tech . Strategy , learning & development etc . Adding more cross functional teams will add onto more   wider perspectives to the program which will take it to next level .
### Output: 