A learning culture is key to retaining talent. Here are five ways to create one

01 Create psychological safety

What it means
In a learn­ing organ­i­sa­tion, peo­ple must feel safe to ask ques­tions and exper­i­ment.

How to do it
An atmos­phere of psy­cho­log­i­cal safe­ty involves reg­u­lar­ly ask­ing team mem­bers for their ideas and show­ing appre­ci­a­tion for their input. Most impor­tant­ly, lead­ers must give peo­ple per­mis­sion to make mis­takes by refram­ing them as oppor­tu­ni­ties to dis­cuss, learn and improve.

Read­ing rec­om­men­da­tion
Coura­geous Cul­tures, by Karin Hurt and David Dye, longlist­ed for the getAb­stract Inter­na­tion­al Book Award 2021: “Our favourite def­i­n­i­tion of cul- ture comes from Seth Godin, who says cul­ture is sim­ply: ‘Peo­ple like us do things like this.’ In a coura­geous cul­ture, peo­ple like us speak up. They are will­ing to share their ideas. The default is to con­tribute.”

Why it’s impor­tant
“For crit­i­cism to be effec­tive, lead­ers need to cre­ate an organ­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture that accepts it,” says Michael Wieder­stein, exec­u­tive edi­tor at getAb­stract.

02 Obtain leader buy-in

What it means
For a learn­ing cul­ture to flour­ish, lead­ers must set the tone, empha­sis­ing that learn­ing is a cen­tral tenet of the organisation’s val­ues and mak­ing their own learn­ing part of their dai­ly habits.

How to do it
Man­agers should incor­po­rate learn­ing in team mem­bers’ goals and acknowl­edge when they’ve mas­tered new skills, while also enabling them to ded­i­cate a por­tion of their work­ing hours to learn­ing.

Read­ing rec­om­men­da­tion
Change Your World, by John C. Maxwell and Rob Hoskins, short­list­ed for the getAb­stract Inter­na­tion­al Book Award: “Trans­for­ma­tion is pos­si­ble for any­one will­ing to learn and live good val­ues, val­ue peo­ple and col­lab­o­rate with them to cre­ate a pos­i­tive val­ues cul­ture.”

Why it’s impor­tant
“Humans are pur­pose seek­ers. We all need to feel con­nect­ed to a high­er pur­pose,” says Pao­lo Gal­lo, author, exec­u­tive coach and adjunct pro­fes­sor at Boc­coni Uni­ver­si­ty, Milan.

03 Create an inviting environment

What it means
An effec­tive learn­ing ecosys­tem pro­vides a vari­ety of learn­ing for­mats in order to meet the indi­vid­ual needs of team mem­bers. It must also include col­lab­o­ra­tive tools to lever­age peer-to-peer learn­ing.

How to do it
Instead of push­ing for­mal train­ing, organ­i­sa­tions should give team mem­bers the tools to pull learn­ing con­tent from sys­tems and from each oth­er. With a cen­tralised learn­ing hub, learn­ers can find con­tent, access sup­port and share knowl­edge.

Read­ing rec­om­men­da­tion
Burnout Fix, by Jac­in­ta Jiménez, short-list­ed for the getAb­stract Inter­na­tion­al Book Award 2021: “True leisure is not com­pen­sato­ry, nor is it what the­o­rists refer to as ‘spillover’ leisure such as lay­ing on the couch and scrolling on social media. Real leisure is all about psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­cal replen­ish­ment: You walk away from your time feel­ing more rest­ed, cen­tred and restored.”

Why it’s impor­tant
“It seems coun­ter­in­tu­itive, but struc­ture begets flex­i­bil­i­ty. The more struc­ture you have around how work hap­pens, the more flex­i­bil­i­ty you could have in terms of when and where that work hap­pens,” says Cal New­port, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of com­put­er sci­ence at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty and New York Times best-sell­ing author.

04 Foster curiosity and a growth mindset

What it means
A curios­i­ty cul­ture makes organ­i­sa­tions more inno­v­a­tive, as peo­ple ask ques­tions and lis­ten. This nur­tures col­lab­o­ra­tion, coop­er­a­tion, and trust, improv­ing per­for­mance as peo­ple trans­late their innate desire to learn into action.

How to do it
Busi­ness lead­ers need to make inter­nal and exter­nal knowl­edge read­i­ly avail­able and encour­age team mem­bers to seek out infor­ma­tion. They should invite cre­ative inves­ti­ga­tion with open-end­ed obser­va­tions such as “I won­der why…” or “I won­der if…”

Read­ing rec­om­men­da­tion
Return on Ambi­tion, by Nico­lai Chen Nielsen and Nico­lai Tillisch, short­list­ed for the getAb­stract Inter­na­tion­al Book Award 2021: “Peo­ple who report a high return on ambi­tion are very good at bal­anc­ing achieve­ment, growth and well­be­ing over time. Our book helps peo­ple gain greater self-aware­ness and make more delib­er­ate choic­es regard­ing their ambi­tions.”

Why it’s impor­tant
“Boil­ing ambi­tions and objec­tives to one guid­ing prin­ci­ple will free you up to reach for the stars – with­out going astray,” says Sara Kuepfer, staff writer for getAb­stract.

05 Promote a mentorship and coaching mindset

What it means
Dur­ing the 1960s, the Cen­ter for Cre­ative Lead­er­ship out­lined the 70/20/10 ratio of learn­ing: peo­ple accom­plish 70% of their learn­ing from chal­leng­ing expe­ri­ences and assign­ments, 20% from a men­tor, coach or oth­er influ­en­tial per­son and 10% from for­mal instruc­tion, such as class­room work.

How to do it
Lead­ers should lis­ten more rather than giv­ing instant advice and should aim to ask ques­tions that guide their mentees to dis­cov­er their own best answers.

Read­ing rec­om­men­da­tion
Lead. Care. Win., by Dan Pon­te­fract, short­list­ed for the getAb­stract Inter­na­tion­al Book Award 2021: “To become relat­able – to be a bea­con of for­give­ness and kind­ness, to be hum­ble enough to ask for help – affects the very heart of your lead­er­ship.”

Why it’s impor­tant
“Devel­op­ing new lead­er­ship mind- sets, capa­bil­i­ties and behav­iours is one of the most impor­tant things HR can do to set the organ­i­sa­tion up for suc­cess as we emerge from the pan­dem­ic and trans­form our busi­ness­es,” says Josh Bersin, founder of the Josh Bersin Acad­e­my.

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What is a learning culture?

A learn­ing cul­ture includes fos­ter­ing a curios­i­ty-dri­ven envi­ron­ment that sup­ports a growth mind­set. Organ­i­sa­tions ben­e­fit from improved employ­ee engage­ment and tal­ent reten­tion. Employ­ees in turn ben­e­fit from devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties that can sup­port ver­ti­cal or lat­er­al growth, and the chance to pur­sue new and rel­e­vant skills.

The pan­dem­ic has launched a glob­al bat­tle for tal­ent, the likes of which haven’t been seen for many years. Over two-thirds (69%) of employ­ers are report­ing dif­fi­cul­ties fill­ing roles, a 15-year high for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive quar­ter, accord­ing to a sur­vey pub­lished in Sep­tem­ber by Man­pow­er Group. Mean­while, research by HR soft­ware provider Per­so­nio reveals that over a third of employ­ees (38%) are look­ing to change jobs in the next six or 12 months.

Remu­ner­a­tion and perks have a role to play but in order to recruit and retain tal­ent, devel­op greater loy­al­ty and improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, more and more organ­i­sa­tions are real­is­ing that it’s essen­tial to cre­ate a learn­ing cul­ture in their teams.

getAb­stract dis­cov­ers, rates and sum­maris­es knowl­edge from a wide range of sources, includ­ing books and arti­cles, to help peo­ple make bet­ter deci­sions at work and in their pri­vate lives. In this fea­ture, based on the getAb­stract white paper, Build a Learn­ing Cul­ture in 5 Steps, authors and con­tribut­ing experts offer their top tips for cre­at­ing a vibrant learn­ing cul­ture.

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For the past 20 years, getAb­stract has helped organ­i­sa­tions build cul­tures that pri­ori­tise learn­ing and growth. Down­load the white paper, Build a Learn­ing Cul­ture in 5 Steps, at getab.li/117e

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