1. Agreeing the task.

The broad task in this session is to develop an understanding of the expectations of the team about training that is embedded in their own experience of the work they do; to explore the team's current experience of learning i.e. what is helpful and what is not helpful in enabling people to develop ideas and skills about their work. The learning objective of this session is to map out the existing working experience of the team and to identify both opportunities and barriers for the team for on-going development and learning. To identify and mark shared intentions across the team about "how we want to move forward in what we do together".

2. Explaining the issue.

The basic framework of AMBIT needs to be presented to the group in a somewhat didactic way, but the key message is that AMBIT is not a monolithic, rigid, command and control approach to "how to do it" - but is more a framework to support teams to develop and learn from their own position of local expertise. So it is critical that teams have some of their own thoughts and shared understandings of (a) what they feel they need to preserve in the ways that they work, and (b) what areas they feel they might benefit from introducing change, or simply clarifying agreements across the team about. AMBIT does have a "curriculum" (see Core Features of AMBIT and the AMBIT Competencies), and provides a clear framework and coherent theories and practice that are based in evidence and which have been roadtested by many different teams working in a wide variety of settings, but it is at least as much about providing local teams with a platform for developing their own local expertise as it is about "telling people what to do".

Depending on the group this section needs to be allocated something between 30-60 minutes. In the page Core Features of AMBIT and AMBIT: an overview there are two talks by Dickon Bevington providing an overview of AMBIT. For teams with staff less familiar with the material, it is important to avoid a theory bombardment which can be quite aversive.

3. Practicing.

Doing something active is essential in order to ensure that all members of the team have a voice. Not everyone will be equally enthusiastic about different parts of the work and the way the team operates etc, and this needs to be acknowledged. A number of activities are suggested and will depend on time availability.
1. Recognising and respecting this individual variability is a key element of team training.

• Try using Line-ups - exploring individual differences to explore these.
• Simply acknowledging the likely reality, that in no group of people are there likely to be identical thoughts and feelings about new material.
• Simply stating the intentions for this exercise (here you are Broadcasting Intentions) - as helping identify shared intentions within the team about "how we get better at what we are (already not bad at) doing".

2. Learning takes place in the context of the overall experience of the job

• See Developing learning organisations - the work of Peter Senge.
• Acknowledging the EXISTING EXPERTISE in the team - use the Team training session: what interventions do we do? to map the many existing interventions that the team already uses.
• Working in pairs, use AMBIT Pleasure and Pain at Work Questionnaire to explore current experience of work and then feedback to whole team.
• Creating a dialogue in the team about how we learn together: Learning about Team Learning - a discussion exercise
• Documenting what team members want to learn, and what to preserve: What I would to like to learn and what should be preserved?

3. Embedding learning in experience
Depending on the time available, it may be enrich the way a team reflects on its working context by (Sculpting a network)

• Consider typical stress responses in:
• service users
• practitioners
• teams
• systems

Look for cues in the material arising to help clarify where special emphasis might be required in the training to follow. In doing this, have regard to some of the Core Features of AMBIT:

• AMBIT: an overview - emphasising that AMBIT must help with:
• Stress in Workers (which is proper and normal, not shameful) = Working with your TEAM
• Hard to Reach Clients = Working with your CLIENT
• Complex networks (that easily, if unintentionally, deliver an aversive experience of care = Working with your NETWORKS

4. Reflect

• Reflect on what emerged from the training practice that has the group has done.
• Review the existing team audit form (Pre-training team audit]) that was completed before the training.
• Are there ways to change from existing patterns of LEARNING at work. What feelings might this evoke in the team members?
• Review learning objectives of the session

5. Manualize

Based on the team discussion, make a sub-page (Log in, switch to Edit mode, and click + Manualize our work) documenting your team's discussion about either What helps a team to learn? or Train the trainer: potential barriers to achieving training objectives or Pre-training team audit.