| How do I build a learning organization? | If you want your group to experience some of the benefits of learning, there’s really only one thing you need to do: make learning a priority. You can do this by creating space for reflection and action. |
When your organization is young, small, growing, or in transition, its superpower may be an ability to learn. Hear me out.
To learn is to gain knowledge or skill, then to hold onto what you’ve learned and use it again in the future.
We tend to think of “learning” as an individual pursuit, something linked to personal performance, onboarding, or career development. But learning is something that organizations and teams can—and should—do, too.
The best part about learning is that you get good at what you do. You succeed more often, and that success means you have more impact.
As you learn, the work also gets more satisfying. You need less effort to do the same things. You get to enjoy success and to avoid some of the effort and struggle. As you earn respect and your reputation grows, so does your influence. The more rewarding the work, the more sustainable it is and the more momentum you can maintain.
Learning smooths the path forward: it’s true for individuals, and it’s true for organizations.
As a leader, your job is to normalize learning. The way you approach and highlight learning dictates the way your organization will develop knowledge, skills, and ways of working. Your actions influence how both individuals and the group learn (or don’t learn) and grow.
If you want your group to experience some of the benefits of learning, there’s really only one thing you need to do: make learning a priority.
You can do this by creating space for reflection and action.
Reflection is simply the act of looking backwards. Instead of jumping into discussions about future plans and to-do lists, you examine what has already happened and learn from the experience.
Reflection provides you with feedback from the past to guide your work going forward. It should be as natural as using a mirror while you comb your hair or looking at your computer screen when you type.
Whenever groups meet, your job is to make sure that there is time for people to reflect on recent results, share insights, or even reflect privately.
As simple as it is, reflection is a skill that needs to be practiced. People don’t always pay close attention to what they’re doing. It’s not easy to verbalize what you observe or to anticipate the most important details. It takes time to understand what you know that other people need to know. And some people may not feel comfortable sharing an observation that differs from the group’s.
That’s where you come in. First, you make sure that there is a moment or two for reflection. In the beginning, you may need to put reflections into the context of the organization’s mission, underline key insights, and acknowledge the value of what people are sharing. Pay special attention to activities that are repeated often or consume a lot of resources — that’s where learning can lead to the biggest performance improvements.
Over time, reflecting becomes more natural and learning becomes a routine.
Action is when learning is incorporated into behaviour. Let’s look at the definition of learning again:
To learn is to gain knowledge or skill, then to hold onto what you’ve learned and use it again in the future.
When you are learning, you are adopting new habits and incorporating new knowledge into your work. Changes, even small ones, lead to improvements and new success. (If the lesson you learned was to keep doing what you were doing, that’s useful too! That clarity can boost confidence and guide people in training.)
Without action, learning doesn’t help. Talking about lessons learned without changing anything is a feel-good exercise, and a distraction.
A leader should make sure that insights, skills, and knowledge are influencing the work people do. Know what progress to look for, what changes are being implemented, and follow up regularly. Ask questions that will prompt people to report on their results. Describe how those results support your organization’s core mission and impact, so people see the connection between their actions the group’s impact.
A leader’s job is to encourage learning; this doesn’t mean you have to also be a teacher all the time.
People learn in different ways:
The best thing you can do is ensure people have opportunities to experience all three ways of learning and you create time to discuss progress and results.
One last thing.
It can feel like “learning” needs to be a big deal. In fact, most of the things we learn that help us improve are incredibly small. We learn keyboard shortcuts and conversation tactics, vocabulary, and ways of problem-solving. Learning is cumulative, not necessarily dramatic.
When an organization has a culture of sharing information and encouraging learning, small lessons pile up that lead to big gains. This is how you develop an ability to explore and navigate big, challenging issues and strategic decision-making. This is how small, young, growing organizations become sophisticated, effective teams.
When people are comfortable with change, skilled at reflection, and know how to incorporate ideas into actions, they have the fundamental power to achieve great things together. That ability starts with you.
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