You may believe that training and learning are very much the same. However, there are some stark differences between the two. The difference lies in where you expect development to come from. In a business culture focused on training, the responsibility for employee learning lies with trainers, who provide motivation for learning through workshops, courses, elearning, and conferences. However, in a learning business culture, the responsibility of learning isn't on specialists, but on each employee. In a learning culture, employees are expected to find out what they need to know, and seek out the knowledge and skills, and know where to apply them.
The learning happens everywhere, and all the time. There are many ways to make this successful without increasing the stress on your employees. Firstly, you need to ensure that you have learning resources freely available. This lets your employees personalise their own learning to fit their needs and personal preferences. Secondly, you need to imbibe your staff with a supportive mentality, letting your employees see daily work as learning experiences, as well as letting them have personally planned learning activities.
There are various methods that can be utilised to help transition from a training culture to one of learning. Shadowing other members of staff, team-orientated workshops, impact evaluation, and testing methods before full implementation, all carefully aligned to the business objectives of a particular position. This helps emphasise what new employees need to learn from your current staff, but also lets your current employees ease your new employees into their positions.
This style of peer-to-peer accountability creates a desire to learn, but there are many other benefits to making peer groups. It will help employees push themselves outside of their normal comfort zones, as your employees learn from each other with the help and guidance of managers. This increases the transfer of knowledge and creates communities of practice, with topics being discussed and explored by interested parties across the organisation. Individual development plans that outline the goals for learning and align them with corporate goals are also important in this step.
It’s important to recognise this behaviour and the successes it brings with some type of public acknowledgement. Since the real impact for an organisation is the increased retention, ease of recruiting, and helping the further development of talent, things such as promotions, new roles and responsibilities, and positive feedback from customers should be highlighted and celebrated.
However, in order for a self-learning program to be a success, it must be ingrained deeply into corporate culture, from the CEO down to the intern. With a top-down approach, success will cascade down throughout the organisation. It’s important that every employee understands, and is measured in relation to, his or her role. From manager to employee to the “company,” each role is important and must be clearly defined.
While there are many approaches to creating a successful learning and development program, there is nothing like giving employees the drive and confidence they need to find their own way to success. For the organisation, a pervasive culture of self-learning drives speed, performance, and results—all of which are critical in the business landscape.