Page 132 - Leveraging Up ebook by Joanne Linden 2021 ACE Peer Network

Leveraging Up!

Align Around the Peer Learning

Community’s Purpose

Stakeholders — sponsors, program staff, community

partners, champions and participants — all have goals and
expectations about what participation in a peer learning program will

yield. Discover an intersection where a goal can fulfill multiple

stakeholder objectives. Verify the value of the purpose with the
different groups involved. Based on the needs, you can innovate and

experiment with the best facilitation methods, frequency of
interaction, online tools, success metrics and length to achieve those

objectives.

However, a major pitfall occurs when the organizers or sponsors of

the peer learning community are unaware of or disconnected from
the participants’ current context. For instance, a sponsor might want

the facilitator to say, “Tell us how you’re implementing your quality
improvement plans,” when in reality, few people in the group have

the resources to even get started on a quality plan.

Peer learning facilitators help bridge this gap by returning to the

common purpose, starting with the current reality, then growing
capacity to move toward the desired future.

124