Learning culture as a basis for empowerment? Or vice versa?

Actively disengaged

Last month it happened again. American research, but I see similar examples in the somewhat larger organizations in the Netherlands. Whether these are commercial companies or organizations in healthcare, education or (semi) government. Invariably with a limited number of employees who are 'engaged' and who go all out. A large intermediate group that 'just does its job'. The work hardly inspires, if at all, but there must still be bread on the table. And a minority that is 'actively disengaged' and regularly deliberately puts a stick in the radar. A common pattern.

The alternative

But it can also be different. Research by Bersin & associates shows that there is a strong relationship between employee engagement and a learning culture. If you succeed in developing a learning culture, six out of eight rowers will row in the right direction! It will come as no surprise that this leads to (much) better results.

For example, a growth of:

• 37% in labor productivity
• 17% in profitability and
• 46% in innovative power (first to market).

Those are numbers! You can come home with that.

How do you develop a learning culture?

Then comes the big question. How do you do that, develop a learning culture? Especially in an existing large organization?

There is no unequivocal answer to this.

But within the Society for Organizational learning we have experienced in (international) practice that this is only possible:

• If there is an integrated approach, with attention to changes at organizational, team and individual level;
• if you organize this based on the intrinsic need that every person has to learn (change from within);
• if you succeed in converting informal learning into concrete behavioral change (based on the 70:20:10 principle);
• where you use practical, simple and long-lasting tools and techniques and
• if you, as management, continuously work on the creation of a familiar environment in which there is room for initiatives, experiments and (learning) mistakes.

Of  SOL Support we offer a community of practice for everyone who is actively involved (or wants to be) involved in a learning culture. We use an internationally developed Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) "The magic of a Learning Culture".

Would you also like to share your knowledge in this area? Then look further on this site.

We focus on companies/organizations (demand side) as well as consultants, trainers, coaches and researchers (supply side).

Patrick Bijman | Chairman Organization Learning Foundation | April 27, 2019