Being transformation-ready doesn’t mean adopting the latest technology or rewriting your mission statement to keep up with current trends. Instead, it’s about developing a learning culture that positions the entire organization to adapt to the inevitable unknowns the future will bring and equip the workforce with the capabilities needed to stay competitive amidst these changes.
5 characteristics of a learning culture
Empower transformation-ready employees
- Develop employees’ habits of mind so they can recognize outdated practices and drive necessary changes quickly and efficiently
- Ask whether the environment you’re creating embodies the following characteristics
- “Learning culture”
Time
Leaders must allocate time for learning if they are to expect employee growth to occur
- It doesn’t matter how effective a learning program promises to be if employees don’t have the time to participate
- Google and others have instituted the 80/20 rule
- Offer employees 20% of their time to learn, develop, and experiment on new ideas
- Small doses of microlearning sprinkled throughout an employee’s week can have a big impact
Does the culture produce and support insightful workers?
Insight isn’t an innate quality, though. Cultures must nurture it by creating opportunities for employees to acquire knowledge, explore promising ideas, and experiment with new solutions.
- They must also encourage the pursuit of lifelong learning.
Is it cultivated by leaders at the organization?
Leaders have an outsized influence on everyone at an organization. Directors who want their managers to learn and grow must model a willingness to do so.
- This requires developing leaders with intellectual humility – they must be open to learning, commit to improving, and never use their intellect or position to discourage others.
Does it extol growth mindsets?
In his studies, psychologist and professional development consultant Robert Keagan found that people in most organizations expend copious effort trying to hide their weaknesses and learning needs.
- Failure is not an antonym of success, but part of the growth process.
Budget
One way to maintain a consistent budget is to gain buy-in by making the value of learning explicitly clear
- Write a mission statement that aligns your vision with organizational objectives, then choose and design programs with ROI in mind
- Every organization will have unique training needs, although a common denominator is often the leadership gap
- Set well-defined goals for programs like these, and keep a regular pulse on their effectiveness
Final note Learning leaders are important drivers of organizational culture
Hiring managers should look for applicants with qualities such as insightfulness and a growth mindset
- Senior leaders should allocate time for their direct reports to participate in training
- The executive team should become L&D’s biggest advocates and evangelize for keeping the learning culture alive and strong
Collaborative and matrixed
Sometimes the time required to hone a new skill will be too great. In these instances, insightful workers need to connect with those whose complementary skills can be an asset.
- Organizations energized by a learning culture work to break such barriers down by creating learning experiences that span departments
Adaptable
A learning culture provides time and resources for employees to hone the skills needed to adapt to changing market conditions and demands, skills like resilience and agility
