Aligning Personal Values with Company Core Values, Every day is a school day

In my?first article in this series , I stress the importance of aligning personal values with those that you uphold in the workplace. In the next 10 posts, I will be covering my values and how they can be actioned in the workplace.

Family Rule No. 7: Every day is a school day

In reading the book Raising Men Eric Davis asks, "Are you in the constant practice of learning new things and remaining someone worth learning from?" Remaining curious is an innate value I have not only prided myself on but championed when I've seen it in my children, loved ones, and members of my teams. Lifelong learning is not only good for your career and overall growth but terrific for your health. A healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body and learning something new keeps your brain developing, even as you age. In addition, learning something new can help reduce stress.

So, when I was in Austria a few months ago watching a barman make an old fashioned in a wildly different manner than I had seen in the U.S. I asked him about his method. He walked me through his steps and told me why he did it the way he did, and then said, "Frau, every day is a school day" with a toothy grin. He just wrote rule number 7.

At home, the more visible ways this rule is followed can be in the following ways:

1. Answer questions children or family members have as long as you can capture their attention. As long as they're curious, their minds are open to learning.
2. Read in the home daily, and change it up. We don't always read a sweet nighttime story. Sometimes it's a book about the body, historic airplanes, or a choose-your-own-adventure.
3. Visit places together as a family and learn something new, and share with each other your learnings and discoveries from your adventures.
4. Encourage exploration and individual learning. You'll often be surprised what subjects your family will be drawn to when they're left on their own.
5. Develop an environment that stimulates learning and curiosity, openness, and communication so that everyone feels encouraged to remain eager to be in constant practice to learn.

These are simple, but with your ideas and values around making "every day is a school day," I invite you to do what's best for your home.

How can "every day is a school day" be applied in the workplace?

It depends on the culture of your organization, team makeup, and value system. However, here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Develop rituals to encourage learning; including curiosity meetings, and education days/hours, and follow them.
2. Ensure learning is a priority for the Leadership team and has the right resources to facilitate a meaningful program.
3. Build a learning culture with open communication. People should be encouraged to talk about, and share what they’ve learned via a forum or a show and tell.
4. A learning culture isn’t a one-and-done practice it needs to remain continuous to drive growth and adaption within the organization and drive a growth mindset.
5. If leadership is emphasizing the importance of learning and practicing it themselves, it is likely the teams will follow. Leadership buy-in is a must.

How can?"every day is a school day"?be a value identified while interviewing an organization?

If this is an essential value for you and you're interviewing companies, some questions you may want to ask in the interview process may include the below:

1. What do growth and learning look like at {company}?
2. What opportunities and routes for career development and skill development are available?
3. What type of employee development program is put in place to help your team gain/improve skills?

Having a culture of learning, curiosity, and a growth mindset is essential for nurturing innovation and willingness to take risks at the company level. But, it often starts in a home environment and is easily fostered in the workplace. On the organizational level, employee education grows the number of talented people in a company. The result — the more skilled and educated your people are, the better your business performs in terms of revenue and profitability.

Here's to making every day a school day, at work and at home.

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