This fall, consultants at Columinate will launch CBLD Academy, an on-demand learning loaded with revitalized and accessible content. Cooperators can expect three courses within the “Foundation Series” at the outset, with more courses planned to round out this base of co-op training. “It’s a natural and a march towards progress in how we provide a framework for learning about the co-op business model,” said Leslie Watson, governance consultant at Columinate.

CBLD: Cooperative Board Leadership Development

For 10 years Columinate offered CBLD 101—a robust, in-person training designed for board members. Then, a global pandemic arrived. While an online finance training had already been in the pipeline at Columinate, it soon became clear that a variety of such learning formats were positively needed.

Online offerings during the pandemic included the flagship CBLD 101 course, which did serve the dispersed geographic nature of Columinate’s clientele. But consultants still heard concerns about the frequency with which training was offered. Said Watson, “The concept of CBLD Academy is fully rooted in client need. As a team, we are constantly asking, ‘How can we serve people? How can we serve co-ops? How can we make it easier to orient people and directors?’ This Foundation Series is an answer to what co-ops have been asking for.”

What does it look like to serve different kinds of learners, with different schedules and differing abilities, who sit in a live session for 75 minutes, often at the end of their day? Envision discrete little training nuggets in 25-minute blocks. Beginning later in 2023, content from CBLD 101, “Governance Essentials and Finance Training for Directors,” will be rolled out in sequence. Participants from co-ops enrolled in the Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) program may access the individual courses online at any time. All Columinate content available to CBLD clients will be part of the Academy. And once the Academy is fully operational (expected in 2024), any of Columinate’s consultants may decide to offer a CBLD Academy version of their trainings.

“As we envisioned this, we were intentionally thinking about how to deliver content in new ways. Small group conversations had been relied upon a lot during in-person events, for example,” Watson explained. “We designed the Foundation Series so learners can stop and go back to review sections. We pause for a mix of media, to repeat, or to take a quiz within a course. Every course is explicitly tied to the learning outcome, what we want the participant to get out of it. Our hope is the new on-demand format is accessible in terms of time and capacity, and respectful of clients’ efforts.”

Columinate will track cooperators’ progress through courses of the Foundation Series (starting with the initial three offered this year: CBLD 101, Governance Essentials, and Finance Training for Directors) and upon completion, participants will receive a virtual gold star. Then, an easy-to-read report may be produced for individual co-ops, reflecting who has participated. It all represents a new layer of support from Columinate in monitoring training requirements that co-ops may have for new/returning directors, who are likely to proceed at different paces.

On top of benefits for learners and the cooperatives they are part of, the on-demand webinar format of CBLD Academy has already enhanced Columinate itself as a team. Watson shared her enthusiasm and curiosity for collaboration within the consulting cooperative. “I’ve been able to understand how my colleagues teach on these topics. And together we’ve explored shared language around our work (as appropriate) and the most important learning outcomes we all agree on. When my colleagues create an amazing presentation within their area of expertise, we can now share it outside of a traditional model through the Academy. Together, we are building our own resources to eventually offer six or eight different Foundation Series courses. I’m so glad to be a learner from my talented colleagues!”

Together with her teammates, Watson hopes for participation and feedback as CBLD Academy takes its first steps. “We are going to start where we start and get better from there. We excitedly ask CBLD clients to help us with that. We’d like everyone to be partners in the quest for continuous improvement.” Welcome to a new era of on-demand cooperative learning—welcome, CBLD Academy.