“A learning organization is an earning organization”. Perhaps this phrase has a marked significance in the current times, as the dynamic business environment is forcing the organizations to continuously evolve and sometimes totally transform themselves to continue growing. Infact learning organization is a term which was first coined by Peter Sange and in his words “where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole (reality) together.”
So what do you think are the ingredients required to build a learning organization? I think the shared vision, the organizational leadership and above all “ a learning culture” are the building blocks of a learning organization.So let us understand how do we go about building a learning culture?
What is a learning culture?
A learning culture is a collection of organizational conventions, values, practices, and processes. These conventions encourage employees and organizations to develop knowledge and competence.
Why do you need a learning culture in an organization?
Companies that invest in a learning culture boast greater employee productivity by 37%, an increase in positive customer service by 34% and delivery of quality products and services by 26%, and employees are 58% more likely to have skills to meet future demand
In short, the benefits of having a good organizational learning culture are the following
•Increased productivity and profits.
•Decreased employee turnover
•A continuous improvement mindset among the employees.
•Enhanced ability of the individuals to adapt to the changes quickly
Now let’s see how to create a good learning culture in your organisation??
‘The human resource department should be responsible for that right ?’ I am sure many people will have this thought in the mind.
But it should be understood that creating a learning culture is never the responsibility of a single department alone. It is the collective responsibility of the entire organisation and its workforce to ensure a good learning culture is built and sustained in the organisation.
1.Start Top Down
To create a learning culture in an organisation, the process should start top down. In every organisation the top management has the power to reinforce the learning initiatives. While the implementation can be done by the learning departments, the overall strategizing and pioneering to create a learning culture rests with the leadership team.
However , It becomes the responsibility of the learning and development team in winning the trust of the senior management to start the various learning strategies in the organisation..There can be times when the management might feel skeptical about the success, the cost factor, ROI etc. but I recommend the learning and development team to take extra efforts to convince the management to get their positive responsive.
2.Rethink the traditional learning and development approach
The employers should realise that the present day learning style cannot be the same as the traditional classroom training, which was followed a decade ago-it needs to evolve and match the current learner’s requirements. With the workforce going to be replaced by the millennials in the immediate future, the organisation should focus on new learning initiatives.
Millennials are hooked to their mobile phones and tabs and hence the organisations have already started using m-learning as as a part of their learning strategy..
When deciding to build an organizational culture, the employers should be well aware of this and encourage a learning culture which is future proof.
2.Start the process from the time of onboarding
When new employees are hired , they should immediately feel that the company maintains a positive culture of learning. The role of HR manager is important here to make sure that the company’s policies on promoting learning is explained to the new joinee.
This makes the prospective employee happy and he/ she feels more associated to the organisation.
The employees of today are not looking just for an opportunity to work, instead, they are more focussed to establish a career which helps them to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge etc which they believe that every organisation has a greater role to play.
3.Every training and development initiatives should be formalised
If training and development plans are not formalized, employees may not take the learning process seriously and they will not participate in the learning process.
An informal learning setup will not help in creating a learning culture in the organisation as it can go zig zag with no one to own the responsibility and take the accountability.
To achieve this the management should make the employees feel that learning is aligned to business strategies of the organisation.
4.Give recognition to learning and encourage employee engagement
By rewarding the employees who have successfully learned new skills will motivate the other employees to learn. This will eventually lead to a continuous learning process where the employees will start learning by themselves.
The organisation can start various initiatives to bring employee engagement like promoting creative thinking, gamification among the employees. Learning can be enhanced by allowing the people to think freely.
A learning culture which is fostered by the spirit of competition can do wonders for your learners as they can learn while competing with each other-winning loosing etc
5.Analyse the feedback
The organisation should regularly take the feedbacks from the learners to evaluate the benefits of training and development and to determine if the training investment is well spent.
6.Remove the barriers
The feedbacks will help to understand if there are any barriers to the creation of a good learning culture in the organisation. It is a fact that old habits die hard, hence I recommend you to identify the barriers and take the time to ensure that they are eliminated from the system.
7.Allow the employees to experience the learning and motivate them to develop the habit of sharing the knowledge
Don’t rush to get instant results, learning is a continuous process and will take time to reap the benefits. Hence I recommend to give the employees the required time to enjoy the learning experience.
Sharing is caring and people will be more encouraged to share knowledge and information if they are required to do so.Formalizing this will ensure that the employees share the knowledge with their peers.
Organisations are seen promoting the formation of healthy social groups inside the organization which can actively help in easy sharing and dissemination of knowledge .
When people start enjoying this experience, the organisation can see the change where the employees will take their own initiatives to share information and knowledge and this becomes a complete cycle, where everyone is contributing to the learning system.
8.Accept the mistake and learn from them
There is no bullet proof method to establish a learning culture, one should admit that there are many strategies and elements which are implemented on a trial and error basis. Hence mistakes are common to happen, the organization shouldn’t worry about this and stop their efforts instead they should try to learn from the mistakes.
Like Rome was not built in a day, learning culture also cannot be built overnight and requires time, continuous initiatives and an unflinching commitment from all the concerned stakeholders. So what do you think of this blog? Please share any more ideas you are following to build a learning culture in your organization.
