Lifelong Learning Communities: Connections And Content
“Community” is a hot buzzword, referring to everything from a physical neighborhood to a cohort of people rallying around a purpose or shared interest. As observed in Harvard Business Review: “The reality is that powerful communities are not just alive and well but also booming.” In business, communities often coalesce around a brand or user experience; Apple, for example, has an extensive community of product enthusiasts. Now, communities are becoming increasingly important in another space: lifelong learning.
For business schools, in particular, there is burgeoning interest in communities to maintain and build connections among former classmates and advance lifelong learning. I heard this earlier this year from multiple participants in an executive development program who are on the path to the C-suite. When I asked them how the program could progress, several people spontaneously used the word “community” to describe how they’d like to stay in contact with their cohort, maintain the relationships that they’d created, and continue learning together and from each other. The head nods in the room made it virtually unanimous.
What made this particularly interesting was how globally, functionally, and experientially diverse the group was. For example, one was a medical doctor from Macedonia, another was an executive in a U.S. department store chain, and two were executives of a manufacturing company in Scandinavia, yet they wanted to stay in regular contact and for a specific reason. More than just staying in touch or networking, what they want is to continue their learning journey together. They didn’t want it to end.
This is emerging as a ripe opportunity for business schools, across both degree programs and the rapidly growing range of nondegree programs, including executive education.
Business schools, with world-class faculty generating continuous thought leadership in a range of disciplines, and a network of alumni and learning program participants, are exceptionally well-suited to establishing ongoing learning communities. And there is a natural progression from the MBA or other degree program into lifelong learning programs, to sustain and grow peer connections and provide continuous learning in a rapidly changing world.
Communities are natural among people with similar functions or positions, such as chief marketing officers (CMOs) or finance professionals; but that’s not the extent of community formation. Communities can also bring together members who have shared interests or professional responsibilities, such as artificial intelligence (AI), supply chain and logistics, data science and analytics, digital transformation, human resources, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Being a member of one of these communities offers opportunities to share problems, discuss solutions, talk about ideas, and seek and provide feedback. Communities can also bring together professionals in the same industry or sector (for example, private equity, technology, health care, retail, nonprofits), enabling people to explore topics with others, who understand their business, and gain relevant insights. All of these commonalities, in addition to or in combination with communities of former classmates and learning program participants, enable ongoing relationships and continuous learning.
People have always had a natural desire to connect and talk with others who have similar experiences, particularly in their business, discipline and areas of interest. Today, digital technology platforms have become key elements of higher education (for hybrid classes, live virtual programs and incorporating asynchronous content). Now, digital platforms are enabling the creation of new forms of communities, encouraging member interaction, facilitating participation in forums and new types of events, and disseminating content.
The Business of Communities
Not surprisingly, the growing demand for communities to foster connection and lifelong learning has become a fertile opportunity for business innovation. One of the leading players is Volute, which builds communities for universities. As founder and CEO Michael Croft told me in a recent conversation (I’ll share a Q&A with him in an upcoming article), “We’re hearing more and more that people want to be engaged with their peers, both within their organization and outside their organization. Our communities are purpose-focused on learning.”
Peer-to-peer learning within a community lets participants share real-world experiences with others who can relate and offer relevant contributions, with an important added benefit. In university communities, new content and learning is provided and facilitated by thought leaders in their fields—namely, faculty. Faculty who are experts actively engaged in advancing their respective fields, plus often with industry experience and ongoing involvement, add greatly to the learning experience. As Croft explained, “We’re crowdsourcing business schools to provide their expertise [to community members]. This will involve the school community and the employer partners served by those schools—namely the employees and workforce within those organizations.”
Content Is Key
The lifeblood of a community is a continuous flow of new content that is additive to the participant interactions. Such content typically includes relevant research, discussion with the author of a newly published book, the opportunity to talk live with and ask questions of world experts in their field, and other leading-edge material that’s curated for the community. Again, business schools are exceptionally well-suited to providing such content and opportunities. This is why Volute relies on universities and business schools to generate and deliver current subject matter and interaction for its communities.
A peer group engaged in lifelong learning and a stream of highly relevant content are the essential ingredients for a successful community. They also create the potential for a community to be a subscription service. Members subscribe to a community for interaction with their peers as well as to receive an ongoing flow of meaningful content. They learn from both, and both create value. Members of a community may be organizations or individuals. A company, for example, may subscribe to a community to enable ongoing learning and development by key leaders, who may rotate over time. Or, members may be individuals, who subscribe and participate as an investment in their own professional development.
For example, an executive who completes an MBA, with a concentration in finance, and particular interest in private equity, is likely to find participation in a community of peers to be a compelling opportunity that offers multiple benefits. In addition to regular learning from new content that is specialized to their field, the executive benefits from sharing career development experiences with peers, professional networking and invitations to conferences, courses, and other relevant events sponsored by the business school.
Establishing and sustaining a rich and viable community requires the right combination of participants, content, interaction, curation, and facilitation. It can’t just contribute to the flood of information and connections available on social media and professional networking sites. Rather, the selection and frequency of content, cadence of engagement and facilitation of interaction must be optimized to provide meaningful value to busy professionals. Feedback from the community is essential to working out the right combination and formats of content and peer interaction.
The two dimensions of successful learning communities are networks and content. Business schools are particularly well-suited to creating these. Getting the combination of elements and interaction right is a process that’s being worked out and refined. The business models, including for subscription communities, are still evolving. What’s driving the growing interest and participation in communities is increasingly clear: Businesses and individuals want to engage with their peers, learn with and from each other, and partake of an ongoing flow of relevant content on key subjects, in world that’s presenting ever more new challenges and opportunities. Communities are emerging as an increasingly popular way to ensure that learning and professional development does not just happen episodically, but becomes a lifelong journey enriched by peer-to-peer interaction and informed by the latest thinking.
