How to create a culture of learning on your team

07.07.2020

In a poll of over 800 CEO’s conducted by The Conference Board, executives opened up about the top challenges they face in their role. One of the top three anxiety causing concerns was how to develop their next generation of leaders. These executives are worried about a phenomenon called the “digital divide.” According to the most recent Global Leadership Forecast cited here on Forbes.com, “Organizations with the strongest digital leadership capabilities financially outperform those with the weakest by a whopping 50%.” So how do you start building a culture of learning on your team?

 

Encourage Knowledge Building & Skill Attainment, Not Just Hitting Performance Goals

Can you truly have a high performing team if there is no commitment to building knowledge and attaining skills, only hitting performance goals? As J.G. Nicholls explained in, Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance, “Performance goals may create feelings of anxiety and interrupt task performance, whereas mastery goals promote involvement through self-evaluation and ongoing improvement. This suggests that mastery goals may provide a more positive effect on motivation and, in turn, goal achievement.” Meaning, if you don’t encourage your employees to set a goal around learning, and find their desire to learn something new, they’re only going to focus on what they know they’re being judged on; performance. If you can link learning and development to raises, promotions, and other career improving outcomes, you’re more likely to get employees leading their own ideas on learning and development.

 

Empower people to discuss new knowledge with co-workers and experiment on their own

This is most effective when leadership models the behavior it wants to see. If leadership can set the example that all employees should be excited about learning something new, and must take advantage of the programs the company has to promote new skill adoption, it will go a long way to getting buy in of employees at all levels. Don’t have a formal learning and development program? No problem. Does your organization have performance reviews, and are they asking what your employees want to learn about? Take that opportunity to encourage their interests in learning and development, and ask them how they think they will learn the best. Then follow through. Give your managers a budget, expectations, and a template to be accountable. For smaller organizations, a less templated program can feel more personal, affordable, and yield good results. In addition, the message that it’s OK to fail must come from top executives. No organization wants to spend big bucks on a learning program for employees, only to never have it get used, but the idea that you will be penalized for trying will halt any new learning program in its tracks.

 

Show and Tell how you Value and Encourage Learning

It takes more than announcing your learning and development program in an e-newsletter or social media post and then relying on employees to embrace it and take advantage of it. HR departments and leadership must actively talk about their educational offerings, share their philosophy around learning, and follow through on providing training and development opportunities.

 

Building a culture that encourages employee development, learning, and skill attainment does not happen overnight. However, by making a commitment to it, you’ll not only improve employee retention and improve the caliber of employees you are attracting, but you might also be able to lay the groundwork for your team’s next generation of leadership and get a better handle on succession planning. You don’t need a huge, fancy, expensive platform and software to track all of your efforts, you can start with your leadership allocating budget toward learning, and model the behavior you want to see from your employees.