Want to be a know-it-all? The first step is to become a learn-it-all.
Building a learning culture means fostering continuous development to ensure your organisation remains resilient in the face of changing market pressures and technological advancements.
As the world changes, so must your workforce. Imagine how much your organisation could shift based on external events. For example, consider the impact a significant political change—say, a new president—might have on all your international collaborations. Of course, if you’re selling reptiles or fences, you might find that business is booming!
A learning culture creates an environment where curiosity thrives, and knowledge is shared and applied. It’s more than just providing employee training or basic CBT programmes. You can’t cheat your way into becoming a learning organisation with quick fixes.
Instead, it’s about integrating learning into your daily operations—where employees feel empowered to explore new ideas, develop their skills, and contribute to the organisation’s success.
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If the term “learning culture” feels like another HR buzzword, akin to marketing’s obsession with AI, you’re not wrong. But, like AI, there’s a reason it’s buzzing.
So, let’s break it down.
For good measure, let’s start with the classic Wikipedia version: “a learning culture is an environment where gaining and sharing knowledge is prioritised, valued, and rewarded. It’s about making learning part of the organisational ecosystem”.
Although it may sound like a dinner invitation from Winnie the Pooh, truly integrating a culture of learning within your organisation is no small feat. Compare it to getting a newborn hooked on broccoli—then multiply it by a thousand.
Every learner is unique, with different strengths and challenges. Effective learning requires personalisation, coaching, and opportunities for practice. Leaders must ensure learning is encouraged, not punished, even when mistakes happen.
A thriving learning culture has several key characteristics:
1. Learning is top of mind: Learning should be ingrained in employees from the moment they set foot in the company. It should be a clearly defined core value.
2. Prioritises peer-to-peer learning: Successful companies encourage employees to share what they’ve learned, especially information that helps them in their roles. This keeps everyone engaged in learning and supports the overall team.
3. Forward-thinking leadership: While established practices exist, companies committed to a learning culture allow employees to explore better ways of doing things. Leaders who prioritise learning over blame foster a safe environment for trying new solutions, even if they fail.
We live in an era of rapid change—technology is disrupting every industry, and consumer expectations are shifting. Hiring people with the latest skills is not sustainable in the long term. To meet your organisation’s evolving needs, it’s time to build a learning culture that enables every employee to thrive.
According to Deloitte, organisations with a strong learning culture are:
An IBM study also found that 84% of employees in top-performing companies receive regular training. These organisations don’t just provide learning—they prioritise it, resulting in increased productivity, profitability, and employee satisfaction.
But let’s go further. Skilled learners are better innovators. A person focused on continuous improvement rarely settles for “we’ve always done it this way.” Expert learners identify emerging knowledge and skills to generate new solutions.
And there’s more. Learning fuels employee engagement. 94% of employees say that upskilling is one of the most significant factors when deciding whether to stay with a company. According to LinkedIn, employees who spend time learning on the job are:
That’s not too shabby for HR!
Furthermore, Gen Z is entering the job market, and they know what they want. Learning and upward mobility are vital motivators when they choose job opportunities. A visible emphasis on learning can be a magnet for attracting highly skilled candidates.
Finally, investing in learning is just that—an investment. According to Gallup, companies that invest in employee development increase profitability by 11%.
While listing all the benefits of creating a learning culture is easy, there’s no magic spell—no “revelio” to make it suddenly appear. Creating a learning culture is challenging for several reasons:
1. Personalisation: Learning is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each employee has unique strengths, experiences, and learning preferences. So, in an organisation with dozens of departments and hundreds of employees with thousands of responsibilities… you can see where this gets tricky.
2. Application: It’s not enough to talk the talk—you’ve got to walk the walk. Simply pushing out content doesn’t create effective learning. Employees need coaching, reinforcement, and opportunities to apply what they’ve learned in a safe environment.
3. Cultural Disconnect: Leaders may say they value learning, but, according to Deloitte, employees only have about 1% of their time available for it. If my calculation is correct, that means leaders will have about 22 minutes a week to learn something new. My lunch break alone outweighs that time! Mistakes are inevitable in learning, and if organisations penalise people for them, learning will stall.
Here are my thoughts on how you can overcome these barriers and build a learning culture:
Learning agility is critical. Employees who demonstrate curiosity and a willingness to challenge their own assumptions are better equipped to adapt to new challenges. When hiring new talent, seek out team members who learn from experience and challenge perspectives. Ask your interviewees about how they’ve approached difficult situations in the past, how they’ve learned from mistakes, and how they prepare themselves for new challenges.
Psychological safety means creating a space where employees feel comfortable taking risks and admitting mistakes. Learning requires risk-taking, and sharing new ideas won’t happen if there’s fear of ridicule or punishment.
You need to encourage team members (especially senior leaders) to admit mistakes openly and share stories of “failing forward”. Leaders must encourage openness and make it clear that failure is a learning opportunity.
To signal that learning is a priority, embed it into your organisation’s daily activities. Host lunch-and-learns, hold after-action reviews, workshops and development days and create learning communities where employees can share what they’ve learned.
Encourage leaders to allocate time for themselves and their employees to focus on learning.
At NaviMinds, for example, we host early workshop days, where each employee gives a short presentation about something new or interesting information that could be useful or simply interesting to share. Personally, I take two “learning days”, where I deep dive into whatever topic I want to know more about.
When employees are encouraged to learn what they actually want, they’re more engaged.
Impending deadlines, ongoing projects, endless back-to-back meetings – finding time to learn is hard. If you’re part of an organisation that is developing a learning culture, you have to be an advocate for learning time. Your employees need to know they’re not only allowed but encouraged to take time to brush up on their skills.
Some businesses implement a company-wide rule that team members can have 2+ hours of training a week.
Learning needs to be a habit, not an occasional event. Businesses decide to invest in learning but only offer a course or mentoring session once every six months. Or they roll out a couple of courses, but the wheel sort of stops spinning after that. That’s not going to cut it.
Establishing a learning culture isn’t a sprint but rather the world’s slowest marathon. Imagine your grandma on wheels, with bathroom breaks… kind of slow.
It needs to be continuously and constantly worked on, with new courses and resources being handed out so that it becomes a habit in your organisation. Don’t let training become a one-off standalone practice.
The easiest way to do just that?
Accessibility.
Integrate learning into the flow of work, provide on-demand courses, and ensure employees can access materials easily.
Allow people to see what their peers are learning and recommend and set goals and deadlines for training. Provide employees with relevant, well-curated materials. Support them by ensuring that training aligns with their specific skills gap, create systems that can help them see the time investment required and allow them to track what they’ve learned.
I get it, “let’s do some training session” doesn’t have the same zing* to it as “Let’s everybody get one extra day off” or “We’re going to book “The Boss” for the Christmas party”.
When learning starts to feel like laundry duty, information is less likely to be retained by your employees. Make training enjoyable by integrating social aspects and gamifying the experience to keep engagement high.
Not only do most employees expect to be provided with professional development opportunities, but they also want something for their time and effort.
A tit-for-tat philosophy.
Take the case of Kiehl’s, which found engagement in their training sessions improved significantly when they created their advanced certification course for skincare expertise. This allowed the employees to have the cake and eat it, too.
Some of the best examples of thriving learning cultures come from Silicon Valley:
Google has pioneered learning with its G2G (Googler-to-Googler) programme, where employees volunteer to teach their peers. Employees are also encouraged to spend 20% of their time on learning or passion projects, which has led to innovative products like Google Maps and AdSense.
They also have something called “whisper courses”. This entails that Google’s people managers receive a weekly email series called whisper courses that break up larger ideas and concepts into 10-plus-week email drip campaigns. Allowing Google to break up complex lessons into easily digestible, short lessons that allow employees to develop new skills by dedicating only a few minutes a week to learning.
Google also values employee contributions and risk-taking.
Failing?
Part of the deal.
Last year, in 2023, Google had a revenue of 305.63 billion U.S. dollars; needless to say, they’re doing pretty well for themselves.
Microsoft is another company doing not so bad; with a market cap of 2.367 U.S trillion as of March 2022, they are the second most valuable company in the world.
They have embraced a growth mindset under CEO Satya Nadella, fostering a collaborative culture.
How?
By conducting anonymous, individual or focus group interviews with employees at all levels of the organisation to learn about:
Nadella also made it one of the company’s priorities to ensure managers spend time coaching their employees, helping build a culture that emphasises learning and development.
In safety-critical industries like aviation, healthcare, or energy, a strong learning culture isn’t just nice to have – it’s essential. When lives are on the line, staying on top of the latest knowledge, techniques, and safety practices can make all the difference. It’s about more than just training; it’s about creating an environment where people feel safe to share experiences, talk about near-misses, and continuously improve how things are done.
When teams are open to learning from mistakes and successes, they’re better equipped to handle challenges, adapt to new risks, and keep up with ever-changing technology and regulations. Ultimately, it’s all about keeping everyone safer and ensuring that no one’s resting on their laurels in a high-stakes environment. Learning keeps everyone sharp, prepared, and ready for whatever comes next.
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