How To Drive Continuous Learning And Build A Learning Organization

How To Drive Continuous Learning
Koto Amatsukami/Shutterstock.com
Summary: The learning organization is not an end state but a journey of continuous learning and evolution that requires commitment from everyone in the organization to grow together. This article explores how to drive continuous learning and build a learning organization.

Strong L&D Teams Drive The Learning Evolution

"An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."
Jack Welch

L&D teams can help companies transform into learning organizations by adding continuous learning opportunities during every step in the employee journey. These steps include onboarding, ongoing development and training, career paths, knowledge management practices, performance management processes, etc.

Learning leaders can also play a role within these efforts through engaging employees around new learning activities while helping managers understand what type of training and development programs work best with certain types of employees or positions at different stages throughout their careers. By doing this, L&D teams can ensure they’re creating an environment where people want to learn more about themselves and others—which further builds up organizational capabilities over time.

So What Is A Learning Organization, And Why Build One?

Companies are learning organizations when learning is a core part of the culture, and it permeates through their entire organization. Learning can be fueled by intentional learning or learning that emerges from an employee’s experience with the product, service, and customers.

The learning organization is a learning environment with a performance-based culture. It should be propelled by continuous learning, which ultimately creates an environment where learning becomes ingrained in the employees’ behaviors and decision-making process. These changes lead to an increase in organizational learning and help employees become lifelong learners. A successful L&D team is essential for learning organizations to thrive.

Building Blocks For An Effective L&D Team

The following 5 elements are the foundation for a successful L&D team that promotes continuous learning and can help create a learning organization:

Passionate Learning Champions

They make learning a part of their work. These champions are passionate about their jobs and learning. They provide a vision of continuous learning, selling it as much and as often as possible, and create the right conditions for learning to occur within an organization by promoting organizational alignment around learning goals.

Ian Schneider/Unsplash.com

A Learning Culture

It is a culture characterized by trust, respect for individual differences, curiosity about what might be better, and a willingness to take risks. In addition, it’s essential to be clear about learning values and have learning processes in place to support learning at all levels of the organization.

Shared Vision

This is a crucial element for building a learning culture. Learning isn’t effective unless it’s tied directly back to results and business goals so everyone involved knows what they are working toward together. This helps employees understand how their learning will help the company achieve its goals.

Frequent Touchpoints

Learning should be a part of everything employees do. This means taking advantage of learning opportunities during one-on-one and group interactions, in formal and informal ways, including sharing knowledge with others or collaborating to solve problems.

Continuous Learning

This is all about learning that takes place throughout an employee’s career, not just when they are in training or development programs. It involves utilizing learning resources and tools to support learning at every stage of a person’s professional life, even during their time on the job.

Building A Culture Of Continuous Learning

Continuous learning can help create transformation for an individual, but it also benefits the whole organizational culture. The act of continuous learning can lead to better productivity, higher retention rates [1], increased customer satisfaction, innovation, and more. However, building this type of culture requires learning leaders who are passionate about learning, are supported by their company’s leadership team, and can engage employees around new learning opportunities.

L&D teams play a critical role in this type of organizational transformation by helping create an environment where continuous learning is readily available for all types of learners throughout the employee journey. This includes learning professionals who are passionate learning champions themselves.

Continuous learning is a journey, not something that happens overnight.

Annie Spratt/Unsplash.com

It’s a process of establishing awareness, then progressing through stages such as commitment and implementation before reaching optimization and transformation over time.

The Path To Becoming A Learning Organization: 7 Stages Of Evolution

These are the 7 stages of evolution:

1. Learning Awareness

The first stage is awareness, where managers start understanding the concept of learning and how it can impact their business. At this point, you might see some leaders beginning to ask questions like, "How do we get learning into the DNA of our organization?" or "What are better ways for us to develop employees so they have longer tenures with our company?". You’ll also find managers at this stage who want to explore learning opportunities more thoroughly but don’t know where to start because there are a lot of different options available.

2. Learning Search

This stage is where people start looking for new ideas about how things could work better but aren’t sure what they need to learn or who should teach them. At this point, you might find some pockets of enthusiasm around learning tools like training courses, videos, etc., but there isn’t yet any widespread commitment to learning.

3. Learning Commitment

This stage is when people start making commitments around what they need to learn or how they will apply it, but there isn’t yet much understanding about why everyone should be committed to this effort. This is mainly because not enough has been shared with them regarding goal-setting for initiatives tied back into employees’ personal and professional goals. You’ll find managers at this stage who are excited to see learning initiatives taking off in different departments but still trying to figure out how they can work more closely with them.

4. Learning Implementation

The fourth stage is implementation. The organization starts moving forward on learning initiatives by working together and sharing resources. However, there isn’t yet a shared understanding of how learning fits into their daily work lives, nor what success will look like in terms of new capabilities being developed or business impacts achieved. At this point, you might start seeing some leaders who are committed to learning and others who aren’t entirely sold on it because they’re not sure about all the changes that will be required when things don’t go as planned.

5. Learning Optimization

The fifth stage of this learning transformation is optimization, where people start questioning whether what they’re doing is actually working and how it could be improved. You might see some leaders trying to keep learning efforts afloat by putting more money into existing initiatives but not changing how those resources are applied within different teams or departments. You’ll also find some efforts around continuous improvements, such as process mapping activities, because there’s a growing need to understand learning processes and capabilities more thoroughly.

This stage of transformation is where people start seeing larger-scale changes across different functions or departments within an organization because there’s more integration between learning activities at every level (e.g., cross-functional teams). At this point, you might see some leaders trying to move away from traditional learning initiatives toward knowledge management practices. It may be that they’re not fully satisfied with how things are working out on the ground but also starting to realize what type of impact it could have if done well.

6. Learning Reinvention

Stage six is reinvention, where organizations start looking for new ways for learning and talent management processes within existing structures. For instance, when combined, learning and talent management practices can provide a learning organization with the ability to improve performance and build current employees’ capabilities while also attracting top talent from outside. You’ll find that managers at this stage are starting to get creative by thinking about new learning initiatives that meet their needs, whether it’s blended learning or something else entirely.

7. Learning Transformation

The final stage is transformation, where learning becomes second nature for everyone in the organization no matter what role they play within it. At this point, you might see leaders who have created a complete shift toward continuous learning having a significant impact on everyday operations even though there may be some challenges along the way. Managers at this stage know how important being a learning organization is to their company’s success and are looking for learning initiatives that will create value and drive culture change.

Suzanne D. Williams/Unsplash.com

Examples Of How Companies Have Become Learning Organizations By Leveraging Their L&D Capabilities In Different Ways

Here are a few learning organizations that have successfully transformed their culture and leveraged their L&D capabilities:

  • Netflix
    Netflix has created learning teams inside the company that work with managers on topics directly related to their team or function. These teams have helped create a learning culture by identifying learning needs for different roles within the company.
  • SAP
    SAP invests heavily in learning for all employees because education is one of its core values. They have developed learning frameworks for every job where they provide training materials, certifications, skill tests, and even online courses so employees can grow their skills at their own pace.
  • IBM
    IBM has made continuous learning a priority throughout its history by continuing to invest in learning technology to make learning more accessible to employees. They use learning platforms, learning games, and learning apps to engage learners by providing on-demand learning opportunities. Their learning organization strategy is called Operation Learn, which focuses on learning professionals who provide learning opportunities to employees at all levels.
  • Cisco Systems
    Cisco Systems has learning professionals known as "learning champions" that are embedded into all company areas to provide learning experiences for employees at every stage in their career journey. They advocate on behalf of learning across different departments within Cisco’s organizational structure. This creates a culture where continuous learning is seen as an essential part of the employee experience.

Conclusion

To successfully move forward with continuous learning, you need both leadership support and employee engagement [2]. Leaders committed to learning help ensure it’s part of every business strategy. This includes senior executives like C-suite leaders, line managers, and even teams themselves. Employee engagement starts by focusing on relevant learning resources that address real challenges people face at work: creating frequent learning opportunities, leveraging technology to enable anytime anywhere learning, celebrating individual successes as well as organizational wins tied back into the goal of building learning capabilities and learning culture.

Organizations become learning organizations through continuous training programs that focus on driving employee engagement throughout their career at every level within an organization, whether entry-level staff members or senior management.

The learning organization is not an end state but a journey of continuous learning and evolution that requires commitment from everyone in the organization to grow together.

References:

[1] 2018 Workplace Learning Report

[2] 7 Statistics That Highlight the Value of Continuous Learning

eBook Release: Curious Lion Inc.
Curious Lion Inc.
Curious Lion is not your typical learning company. We're like a ghostwriter. You stay in the spotlight while we support you behind the scenes with brainstorming, strategy, learning design, and production.

Originally published at curiouslionlearning.com.