You might have a training calendar.
You might even have a full training calendar — one where people actually show up.
But having that doesn't mean you have a learning culture. It might support that culture. But a training calendar, on its own, isn't a learning culture.
So what is?
A lot of people talk about culture and wrap it in fancy words. Here's all culture is: it's the way we do things around here.
So if we have a learning culture, it's a place where learning happens as a matter of course — in the nature and flow of the daily work, for everyone in the organization.
That's a learning culture.
So how do we get there? Here are five things you can do to help create it — or to see if you already have it.
Reframe Learning
Too many people treat training and learning as synonymous. They're not. Training is a great tool — one we can and should use to help create learning. But it's not the only way to do it. We need to reframe what we mean by learning, and how we define it.
Recognize Learning
We need to recognize that it's valuable. And we need to recognize it when people are learning, when they're growing, when they're making progress.
Promote Questions
It's okay for people to ask questions. We actually want them to. Questions are the spark — the impetus — for learning. We want to be promoting that in every place, in every way, in our organization.
Celebrate Learning
We need to celebrate those questions. We need to celebrate learning in all sorts of ways — not just recognize it, but celebrate it.
Allow Mistakes
I saved this one for last, because there's a caveat. We don't want people making the same mistake over and over. But here's the paradox: every one of us will say, "I learn from my mistakes." And yet if we don't allow people to make mistakes at work — if we ask them to hide them, or they become too careful, too unwilling to risk one — learning isn't going to happen. The only way we get a learning culture is if mistakes are allowed as part of the learning process.
So here's a thought for you, organizationally: reframe learning. Recognize learning. Promote questions. Celebrate learning. Allow mistakes.
Ask yourself how much of this is actually happening in your organization. And more importantly — ask others to observe it and grade it on that same set of criteria. That'll give you a much better read on how much of a learning culture you actually have.
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