Can building a learning culture be a competitive advantage?

Last year, I read a book called “You Can’t Learn It All: Leading in the Age of Deep Expertise, by Wanda Wallace. I was reminded of it today by a friend on social media.?

I’m more persuaded today by the book’s premise than I’ve ever been.?

The amount of information coming at each of us today is astounding. There are 306.4 billion emails sent per day.?

The average “office” worker receives 120 emails per day.?

I don’t even attempt to read all of the emails coming in. Every day I unsubscribe and delete emails, yet the numbers continue to increase.

I spend several hours on social media, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter.?

In the most recent report from We Are Social, people spend an average of 2.5 hours on social media every day. From independent consultants to sizeable prestigious management consulting firms, content creators create and distribute their content daily on these social media channels.??

I clip and organize exciting articles, research reports, and white papers that I encounter in my daily activities in Evernote’s content management system.?

I have yet another system that I use to track interesting people that I come across on social media and yet another for recommended books.?

Most important, I have a community of people that I engage with daily. We’re all reading, writing, and thinking about the issues impacting the people we serve.

Out of necessity, I have become a learn-it-all, and here’s what I think that means.

My learning responsibilities are two-fold.?

First, there’s what I owe myself for my growth and development. I put skills and personal development into my personal growth and development category.

Second, there’s what I own my community to help them grow and develop.?

I put what I learned for career advancement and organizational advancement in the community growth category.?

These are things that I often learn in the community for the benefit of others. While it’s true that the learning benefits me, I’m learning it so I can take that knowledge and help others.

My thinking on this topic comes from an abiding belief that we have been given gifts and talents. They are unique to us.?

While on this Earth, our job is to make the most of those gifts and talents.?

But, our gifts and talents aren’t given just for our benefit. They’re given so that we can help others. That’s what we do for our community.

I believe it’s the second idea that has awakened around the globe due to the pandemic.

Let’s take mask-wearing as an example. For the most part, we’re all familiar with mask-wearing. The idea is simple. I wear this mask to protect me, but also to protect you.?

I am not here on the Earth alone to serve only myself.?

But instead, I am here with billions of other people. I am to think about myself, but I also think of others.?

We live and work in communities.?

I started Accelery years ago out of a deep concern about people.?

Seeing the changes underway, I could tell that the coming disruption would be significant. The only way for companies to adapt quickly enough to survive is to learn their way through it.

So, what does that mean??

Every company must move to build a learning culture as quickly as possible. Work is changing fast. The pandemic accelerated the trend.?

No organization will recruit and hire enough people to transform for the future. The process would be too slow and too expensive.?

The reality is that the fastest way to transform will be to enable your existing employees.?

Joe Whittinghill, corporate vice president, learning, talent & insights at Microsoft, says that building a learning culture requires providing the content, platform, and services necessary to develop people and offering time and space to learn.

[Read my post about Microsoft’s astonishing cultural transformation and the interview with Joe Whittinghill.]??

I can not overstate the alternative for organizations or people if they do not develop a learning culture.?

Organizations that do not adapt won’t make it. Their people will be out of work. Shareholders will get nothing.?

Undoubtedly, this will happen to many organizations; but, yours doesn’t have to be one of them.

Beth Loeb Davis, Connor Diemand-Yauman and Prof. dr. Nick van Dam recommend reframing “lifelong learning” to “lifelong employability” to help everyone understand the stakes.?

You can read my post sharing their thoughts here and the article here.

A company full of learn-it-alls has a competitive advantage.?

That’s why Microsoft is investing so heavily in its people. That’s what I believe as well.

If our people aren’t able to learn, collaborate and create, they’re not employable.

Increasingly, we’re going to see employers looking for learning skills when they hire.?

Growing as a person and in your skills to advance your career and organization is the best way to demonstrate lifelong employability.?