According to Edgar Schein, culture shapes the behaviors of people in an organization. Learning is both a skill and behaviour and for that to happen in a consistent and effective manner, it is essential that organizations build a culture of learning.
Learning in Today’s World
With multiple online learning platforms offering learning for no or low cost, knowledge and learning have gotten democratized. However, there is a huge skill deficit that exists. According to a recent Deloitte report, 90% of CEOs believe their company is facing disruptive change driven by digital technologies and 70 percent says their organization does not have the skills to adapt.
“The widening skill gap is also due to the fact that knowledge in today’s world gets outdated at a rapid pace; the half-life of a learned skill is estimated to be five years. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report 2018 predicts that by 2022, no less than 54% of all employees will require significant re- and upskilling.”
The report adds that to remain effective and relevant in this context, a mindset of agile learning will be needed on the part of workers as they shift from the routines and limits of today’s jobs to new, previously unimagined futures.
Building a Culture of Learning
According to an Oracle report on “Seven Steps of Building a High-Impact Learning Culture”, a learning culture is a set of organizational values, conventions, processes, and practices that encourage individuals, and the organization as a whole, to increase knowledge, competence and performance.
Learning in this context becomes a way of life and is pulled. Learning is not limited to certain contexts, but rather happens in the flow of work and life. For this to happen, learning needs to be approached at two levels–
- Learning as a mindset and attitude
- Learning as a behaviour and skill
Learning as a mindset and attitude
This is more foundational of the two and is more difficult to develop. A mindset of learning would enable people to choose it rather than resist it. The following aspects would be important to build this–
Alignment
Learning agenda that is aligned to business priorities and capability needs, as well as individuals’ skill requirements, would make the ‘What is in it for me” for both the stakeholders amply clear, creating a pull. This is the first essential step and would ensure that the ladder is leaning against the right wall
Sponsorship for Learning
Like every other aspect of Culture, Learning Culture should be top driven. Visible sponsorship by senior leaders to the learning agenda is important. Their inputs to designing the agenda, guidance in executing the same, especially in handling challenges, their role in reviewing, communicating learning’s importance and holding their teams accountable are all elements of the sponsorship
Democratizing Learning
Learning can no longer be controlled using rigid calendars and scanty classroom sessions. L&D professionals need to evolve as promoters of learning enabling self-learning. The accountability for the learning needs to shift to the learners and the same needs to be made clear
Expand Learning
Learning does not just happen while attending a classroom session or going through an e-course. Building awareness on experience and exposure based learning and creating avenues for the same would help to learn in the flow of work. That would create multiple learnable moments on the job, with managers and peers. Also expanding learning to various work experiences, including failures, which holds a huge potential for learning, is important
Make Learning Visible
Learning festivals, learning weeks, etc. can go a long way in driving across the importance of learning.
Learning as a behaviour and skill
Learning is a skill, and like every other skill can be learnt and mastered. When a substantial number of people have mastered the skill, then the culture comes alive. Some aspects in this regard are listed below–
Learning to Learn
This would involve multiple aspects like awareness of various avenues of learning, understanding one’s learning style and career aspiration, setting individual development plans and curating learning paths.
Manger Capability Building
Managers are key enablers of learning and they need to drive learning for their teams by building multiple teachable moments. That would enable continuous learning. Building managers’ capabilities to do this would be important.
Reinforcing Learning
Recognizing learning through visible means is important. Who are the consistent and heavy learners, what have been their efforts to transfer learning at the workplace, are some aspects that need to be recognised.
Rituals and Practices
Introducing and institutionalizing practices that drive learning on a continuous basis is important. Starting meetings with a learning connect, ending reviews by calling out learnings, mandating learning logs as a part of project closure documents are some simple practices that can go a long way in building a culture of learning.
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