59. Five Ways to Create a Learning Culture that ALL employees benefit from! With Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change Your Workplace with Myself Preena Shah, where we uncover today how you can find ways to optimize your organizational cultures.

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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast with myself Preenasha, and today I am going to be talking to you about creating a learning culture at your workplace. But before we dive in, let's define what we mean by a learning culture. A learning culture is an organizational culture that values and supports continuous learning and development for all employees. I emphasized all. I'm gonna go back to that later in the conversation. It is a culture that encourages experimentation, encourages employees to take risks, and it encourages employees to seek out new opportunities for growth and development. How wonderful does that sound? Now is this your workplace? If it's not, listen in. If it is your workplace, then listen in nonetheless because I've got some extra food for thought for you. So why is it important to create a learning culture at your workplace? First and foremost, a learning culture helps to foster innovation and creativity. When employees are encouraged to learn new things and to take risks, they're more likely to come up with creative solutions to problems that they face themselves. Hello, what a great idea. This can lead to increased productivity and a more dynamic and agile organization, and that's what we all want. A learning culture also helps to retain and attract top talent. Employees, particularly those in the younger generations, value opportunities for growth and development. And by creating a culture that values learning, you can attract and retain the best and brightest employees. Additionally, a learning culture can also help to improve employee engagement. When employees feel supported in their learning and development, they're more likely to feel motivated and engaged in their work. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and an optimized organizational culture and therefore reduced turnover. So, how can you create a learning culture at your workplace? I have a few tips. Making learning and development a priority is one big essential element in this ingredient recipe book of creating a learning culture. Now this means providing opportunities for employees to learn and grow, such as training and development programs, mentorship programs, access to online learning and so much more. I have seen many organizations cut their budget, especially in learning areas, due to changing market conditions. What a dumb decision that is. Think about it, as the world, as technology, as society, and as the workplace changes, you put your learning budget. What the hell? How will your employees stay on top of their game? How are they going to hone their skills? Employees certainly don't want to fork out for the cost of their own development. They still hope and expect for their workplace to provide this benefit. And it is a great benefit of a workplace if you truly have a learning culture. So I've got a few ways where you can create a learning culture. Way number one is to encourage a growth mindset. A growth mindset is the belief that one's abilities can be developed through effort and learning. Encourage employees to embrace this mindset and to see challenges as opportunities for growth. So an example here is to do a pre and post-mortem on projects. That's what I called it when I manage large teams anyway, you can call it what you want. What it is, for example, is an intentional way to create space to think and learn prior to a project start and post the project end. Ask the right questions for the pre and post-mortems. Ensure they're open questions and not everyone gets a chance to contribute and ask the right questions. You see, we're all often too quick to move on from one project to another without spending enough time on the lessons learned. You are missing out on golden opportunities by not pausing to listen and learn. Another idea is to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Encourage employees to identify areas for improvement in their work and ask them to seek out ways to improve. This could involve seeking feedback from colleagues, experimenting with new approaches, and seeking out new development opportunities. Most of us know about the 70-2010 development principles, but most of us do not apply it. For those of you who don't know what the 70-2010 development principle is, it's a framework that suggests that learning and development should be a balance of different types of experiences. According to this principle, 70% of learning and development should come from on-the-job experiences. 20% should come from interacting with others, such as through mentorship or networking. So the idea behind the 70-2010 principle is that a combination of these different types of experiences provides the most comprehensive and effective learning and development opportunities for your workforce. 70% of on-the-job experiences allow individuals to apply what they've learned in a real-world setting. 20% of interacting with others allows for an exchange of knowledge and ideas that cross-pollination is really important for your organizational culture. And the 10% of that formal bomb-on-seat training provides that structured learning and the opportunity to build new skills. However, the issue is that most organizations still rely solely on that 10% bomb-on-seat training in the hope that it develops staff. And it's all too easy to outsource training. Yes, I know, as well as consulting and speaking to optimize organizations, I also provide training, and that I might be doing myself out of work. Truth is, that's fine by me. Earlier this year I've turned down a few training delivery opportunities as they were a simple tick in the box. A tick in the box because they were to gloss over workplace issues rather than handling them internally. Bogger that, address your issues and then develop your stuff meaningfully. Another way you can create a learning culture is to encourage a culture of collaboration. Collaboration can be a powerful way to facilitate organic learning and growth within your workplace. Encourage employees to work together to share knowledge and ideas and support each other in their learning and development. You can do this by encouraging open communication. Encourage team members to speak up and share their ideas and make sure that everyone feels heard and valued. You can foster a sense of community, encourage team building activities, and create opportunities for team members to socialize outside of work. Now there's boundaries there that you still need to maintain. Promote teamwork. Encourage team members to work together on projects and celebrate team achievements. Encourage mentorship. The power of mentorship is something else. Encourage team members to mentor each other and provide opportunities for individuals to learn from their colleagues. Another thing you can do is to provide and support resources. So in order to foster a learning culture, you need to provide employees with the support and resources that they need to learn and grow. This could be things like access to learning resources, time off for training, and obviously support for professional development. Some organizations that I've supported have all of their core training available to all staff, no matter what level you are. And by core training, I mean training that is linked to the organizational culture that you know is trying to be built. That will benefit all. Imagine a learning culture that is inclusive, that doesn't just have learning programs for leaders and pie potentials, but it has learning programs for all. How revolutionary is that? Am I preaching to the converted yet? So in conclusion, creating a learning culture at your workplace can have numerous benefits for both the organization and for your employees. By making learning and development a priority, fostering a growth mindset and encouraging continuous improvement and providing support and resources, you can absolutely create an environment that values and supports continuous learning and development. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Ways to Change Your Workplace podcast. Remember to press subscribe, and I'll see you in the next episode.

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All details about this episode are in the show notes. Also, don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and on Instagram. I am thina.shar. See you there too.