How to build a team culture of learning.

Someone recently said to me “If you don’t look back at yourself a year ago and think you knew nothing, you haven’t learnt anything!” This resonated. According to Deloitte, skills now only stay relevant for 5-6 years. Continual learning and re-skilling will be the foundation of the future of work. Curiosity, agility and grit are some of the most in demand soft skills and are most often demonstrated in those with a learning mindset. So, how do we build a culture of learning within teams to develop the soft and technical skills needed for the future? How can we enable learning to become as ritualistic as a morning coffee or a weekly team meeting? Sharing with you some simple tips that I have found effective in building strong team engagement towards learning! 

Firstly, make learning a priority yourself. I dedicate 1-2 hours every week to learning and my routine is listening to a podcast when i’m getting ready for work (The Daily, WorkLife and Freaknomics Radio are some of my current favs) and then I complete a LinkedIn learning course on my commute into the office once a week. I’m a morning person so I choose to optimise my time then and I’ve noticed on the mornings when I miss doing some form of learning, I don’t feel as creative for the rest of the day. A learning course I recently found impactful was an Influencer Interview with Jeff Weiner and Oprah Winfrey, where they both discuss the power of intention in your career. This course helped me reframe a number of personal and professional goals I had previously set myself for the year.

Make learning a standing agenda item in your team meeting. In our team we discuss “learnings/hacks/podcasts/books/blogs” each week as an opportunity for the team to share anything they have discovered that week and what they learnt from it. This could range from an office 360 hack on calendar invites to discussing Shawn Achor’s book 'Big Potential' and how individual success is intrinsically linked to the success achieved together as a team. No learning is too big or too small!

Taking time out to learn together. Do people on your team share common development goals? Completing a course together is a great way to learn and collaborate and what i’ve seen in my team when others understand peer aspirations, they are more invested in helping them achieve their goals together. We have a program in APAC called 'EvolveIn' which encourages our whole APAC Talent team to learn together focusing on different core learning objectives every quarter. My team in China come together to complete Shane Snow’s LinkedIn learning course “Introduction to Storytelling” as a way of continuing to evolve how they tell the LinkedIn China story to candidates.

When a team member shares an aspiration or challenge, follow up with sharing a learning recommendation. John Ullmen’s LinkedIn Learning course “Influencing Others” has helped many of my team with their goal of strengthening relationships with stakeholders or operating more effectively in a matrix as an example.

I have seen uplift in team collaboration, engagement and performance since focusing on learning as a team. As the saying goes, “The more I learn the more I realise I have so much to learn!”. I’d love to hear your tips on building a culture of learning or any learning recommendations you’ve recently completed in the comments!