Creating a Culture of Learning in Your Organization

Learn to build a culture of learning in your organization with this course that teaches you how to structure learning into the culture of your organization so that everyone has a passion for it.

In this course I explore the ways that you can contribute to building a culture of learning in your organisation. Not just helping people learn, or driving education and training, but how you can create a firm-wide, global culture that embeds a passion for self-learning and education into the structural fabric of your company. To make learning part of your DNA.

What to Expect from the Course

In this video series I'll talk about how creating a culture of learning is vital to a progressive, high-performing team as well as the overall organisation. We'll also see how learning and crucially learning in a supportive and learning-focused environment can make all the difference to employee progression, morale and also helps to fight burnout and stress issues.

About Me

I love getting things done, but just as importantly I love keeping my team and colleagues happy, ensuring they not only deliver for our clients but grow both professionally and personally.

I've got over 20 years experience working for some of the biggest and highest-pressure enterprises in the world, including some of the most prestigious financial institutions there are. I've led teams small and large, remote, local and global and have experience providing Agile IT solutions and services to non-technical business users, as well as IT professionals and development teams.

What Learning Used to be Like

We are living in a golden age of learning. The opportunities that exist today are beyond anything that we could have expected even 30 years ago.

How to Max Your Learning as an Individual

Implementing a culture of learning places a great deal of responsibility on the individuals in a company to embrace the learning programmes devised by leadership, and actually embed learning into their own culture and every day life.

Everyone Says They are a Self-Learner

Learning is a popular topic of discussion these days. As we've seen, it's a common complaint in employee surveys and often cited as a reason for leaving a firm or a team. "I just don't get opportunities to learn", "I don't get enough training". Ok fair enough. That might often be the case. But it's also true that even when presented with ample opportunities for learning, many people, well - don't.

Online Communities

One of the most powerful avenues for self-learning is that of the online community. If you're not part of the main communities in your subject area of interest then you're really missing out.

Embedding Learning into Daily Life

If you really want to maximise that self-learning efficiency then there are ways that one can grab some extra learning for free. You can do this by embedding learning into your every day life so that you pick up knowledge by accident.

Teach It to Learn It

So how do you know when you've learned a subject? Is it when you've got a good enough working knowledge to be able to contribute to a discussion? Or is it when you're good enough to use that software to improve your productivity?

Learning New Vs Becoming Expert

One of the most common complaints I hear from people who struggle to self-learn is that they just don't have the time. They don't have the time to do the work they're supposed to do during the day, never mind add to it with other subjects. So how can they learn more? How can they get mastery in another subject?

Listen Faster

24 hours in each day. No matter how much you want it, that's what you get. So if you can't have more hours in the day, then can you get more learning done in each of those hours?

Develop the Right Mental Habits

Successful self-learners tend to show the following mental characteristics. Do you have them? Don't worry if you don't, they are all learnable and something that anyone can implement, practice and perfect.

Make it Easier on Yourself

Learning is hard. It takes a lot of mental and physical effort. So we need to make it as easy as possible to learn. Not only to actually learn, but we need to make the whole process easier.

Manager Responsibilities

Developing that culture of learning isn't just down to the individuals, although that is fundamental. There's a big responsibility on people managers of all levels, but especially middle and lower management, to develop the framework and capability that allows members of teams to embrace learning.

Don't Worry If People Leave

As a manager I've heard it before from other leaders, that they're apprehensive about implementing a culture of learning.

The Benefits of a Skilled User Base

Our users not only force us to keep learning, to maintain our position as THE subject matter experts in the firm. But they also challenge us, make sure we are developing the service in the right way, employing the correct strategies and technology approaches.

Push It, Push It, Push It

As a manager it's your role to make sure that you drive learning across your team. And that doesn't mean a big presentation about the importance of learning in your yearly strategy meeting, it means constant, unwavering, and brutal persistence.

Make People Good Enough to Quit

When a new person joins a team of mine I always tell them that it's my job to "make them too good for this company".

Lunch & Learns

Just as we spoke about using the teach it to learn it approach to really validate your learning. One of the best ways to do this is the Lunch and Learn or Brown Bag session.

Personalised Learning Plans

As a manager you'll already be utilising that sports coach mindset to manage the individuals in your team. Treat everyone with respect for their individuality and you'll find that people learn fast, and effectively.

Use It or Lose It

Learning comes at a cost. And businesses can't waste time and money on those who don’t have the attitude or desire to get the most out of them.

Get a Learning Buddy

One thing a manager can do is to encourage a system where more experienced employees can partner with and look after a more junior person.

Senior Leaders' Responsibilities

We've seen how there's a lot that individuals and people managers need to do to truly embed learning into an organisation. But the real direction comes from senior leadership. Learning programmes are expensive and difficult and as such, the direction and backing given by senior leaders is critical.

Walk it from the Top

For learning to really embed into a company and become a true organisational pillar and behavioural fundamental, it's vital to have that message come right from the top, or as close to as possible.

Learning Wherever, Whenever

For all of the learning avenues that you as a senior leader have enabled for your people - make sure that you're considering all of the individual choices people make in terms of learning.

Create Learning Champions

One great way to make any large programme succeed is to create a champions mentality around it. Identify the people that are REALLY into it and give them the special treatment and a bit more responsibility. I like to call them champions.

Gamification

Even with the best learning resources available, it's always a challenge to ensure that people make use of the expensive platforms you've implemented, and attend the training you've paid for. You can't force people. So what else can you do?

Sell, Sell, Sell

By selling, I don't mean going out and actually charging money for learning, although that is extremely popular these days. But it's the responsibility of senior leadership to be able to sell their vision of a learning culture to their own senior management, the board and right up to the top of the house.

Create a Varied Library of Resources

The more varied you can make your learning experiences, the greater the chance of being able to not only persevere with learning, but the experiences themselves will be far richer and more rewarding.

The Feedback Loop

As the owner of your learning initiative, it's vital that you employ the act of gathering continuous feedback on your progress. The good thing is that there are lots of people across the firm, that could be thousands or tens of thousands of learners that will be able to contribute to the development of your learning culture. As a senior leader it is vital to engage with and embrace the key participants that are involved in your programme.

Learning Takes Time

Finding time for learning means something else is gonna give. Although by making use of the dead time in the day, as we discussed earlier, can significantly minimise this. But yes, learning does indeed take time.

1. Individuals with a thirst for knowledge.
2. Managers that want to embrace a learning mindset for their teams.
3. Senior leaders that want to develop a culture of learning in their organisations.

1. How to create a culture of learning in your organisation
2. How to maximise your learning every day
3. The responsibilities of senior leadership for building a culture of continuous learning
4. How you can be a true self-learner

Have a desire to learn and want to develop more skills.