The learning culture in a company is the set of values, attitudes, and expressions that employees and executives exhibit in relation to learning. It is the expression of the organization's culture reflected in topics related to education, knowledge management, change adoption, feedback processing, and therefore adaptability to new challenges in the market and the environment.
Do you want to assess the state of your company's learning culture? Review this checklist; it contains external aspects or manifestations that speak to the quality, health, and richness of the soil nurturing your organization's learning:
- How do employees perceive a new learning initiative? Is a new course seen as an opportunity for learning, or is it viewed as a burden that will take away effective working time?
- Is it necessary to remind them to complete their courses? How do they respond to these reminder messages?
- Do leaders in business and operational areas turn to learning, training, or education as strategic partners in problem-solving or seizing opportunities?
- Do leaders appreciate the contribution of learning to sustaining the business's competitive advantage? Or do they view learning initiatives as less time for activities that "add value"?
- Do those working in learning areas feel that they genuinely contribute to the business? Do they experience satisfaction seeing that the content they designed or developed is applied and leads to changes in behaviors that eventually result in tangible impacts?
- Is there a healthy practice within the company of exchanging knowledge and collaborating so that information flows seamlessly between departments?
- Are internal or external initiatives supported to develop employees? Are educational resources promoted, or are there supports for external education for employees?
- When the organization completes a project or achieves a result that will allow capitalizing on lessons learned, is there a receptive mindset to receive and value constructive feedback? Are these lessons learned recorded and reviewed in a formal and reliable system?
- Are leaders true examples of active commitment to their own learning and that of their teams?
- Does the top management have confidence in the transformative and impact-generating power that learning has on the business? Are they certain that learning is a source of return on investment?
- Is the organization open to new ideas and willing to experiment? Does the company believe in the power of minimum viable products that will mature over time into what is expected of them?
- Does the organization embrace change and adapt to new circumstances with resilience, knowing it has the ability to learn and transform?
How did it go? In the next installment of this series, we will explore together some practical strategies that will help gradually work on the substrate that sustains learning in today's organizations.
