Why is it important to build a learning culture?

Why building a learning culture is a worthy investment

• Within your organisation, do you often find resistance to change and new ideas?
• Are you aware of miscommunications or lack of communication between departments?
• Do you work with individuals who only complete their assigned tasks with no interest or desire to improve or go beyond the minimum requirement?
• Are innovative or new ideas met with resistance, never recognised or seem to make no difference?
• Do you feel you have little to no support for your professional development?
• Do you feel your input and efforts have little to no influence on the overall success of the organisation?

One would think that this is the result of a toxic culture. And yes, in part perhaps it is. But a better diagnosis of this challenge is a weak learning culture. It’s an environment that does not cultivate a mindset of learning, does not embrace change, and does not inspire innovation.

A strong learning culture is the key to innovation and growth

In 1990 Peter M. Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline and several other publications unravelled the importance and characteristics of a healthy learning culture.

The idea is that if more people in an organisation learn, they can create more value for the company.

Constant learning inspires creativity. Creativity is essential for innovation. Innovation is necessary to navigate changes and only through navigating and embracing change, can we grow.

How to evaluate the learning culture of an organisation

Several strategies can help evaluate the strength of a learning culture.

Listen to your employees

An aspect that has become more important in recent years is the need to listen to employees’ opinions and wishes. Employees often have first-hand experience and valuable insight into the actual problems or obstacles that stand in the way of creating a learning culture.

A very effective way to measure the strength of your learning culture from the perspective of the employee is through surveys and questionnaires.

Strategic questions, that could provide valuable intel could include:

1. What’s the biggest motivation or incentive for you to learn at work?
2. How open to change are your leaders when it comes to workplace learning?
3. Do you regularly and openly share information that you have learned informally?
4. What types of learning do you think the organisation does best and worst?

Examine learning programs

A learning culture is fueled by the energy and desire to learn. For this reason, it’s imperative that any learning initiatives incorporated, inspire a drive to grow. Content should be fun, interesting, relevant, current and inspirational.

It’s important to frequently check the relevance of learning content and ensure that your learning initiatives are not counterproductive.

In our Ultimate Training Needs Analysis Playbook we provide a checklist of items that you can use to validate proposed courses.

Confirm company values

At the heart of any organisation lies a set of commonly shared values. These are generally powerful and theoretically create a beautiful culture. Too often however these values are forgotten or not imposed or shared with the greater organisation.

To build a strong learning culture, be sure to align your strategy with the company values that are already shared by the executive team and form part of the processes and procedures implemented.

Know where you stand -  Perform a Company Learning Culture assessment

Strengthening your organisation’s learning culture is the key to unlocking innovation and growth, thereby increasing profitability and securing a promising future. But this change does not happen overnight.

Recognising the importance and power of a strong learning culture, Upskillist provides a 4 step pathway to help you kickstart this process.

Step 1: Evaluate the Strength of Your Learning Culture

The first step is to understand where you currently stand. You need to evaluate the current status of your company's learning culture.

Take the Assessment

Step 2: Review Your Results

Upon completion of the questionnaire, the current strength of your company culture is rated and a strategic guide to improving aspects of the culture is provided.

Consider these strategies and start making small changes to improve the learning culture and empower your employees to learn.

Step 3: Try the Upskilllist Learning Platform for Free

Along with the strategies provided in the learning culture guide, we offer a free trial of the Upskillist learning platform. With over 70 courses, designed to captivate a modern audience, you’ll be one step closer to infusing a culture of learning.

Start upskilling in a few easy steps

Step 4: Contact Upskillist for a Free Consultation

Finally, receive free guidance and advice from our consultants who specialise in providing bespoke solutions for your specific needs.

Book a Demo

Take the steps to improve your learning culture today with our Company Culture Learning Assessment.

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