"In a world that is becoming increasingly connected and complex, the only source of sustainable competitive advantage is an organization's ability to collectively learn, unlearn and relearn faster than the competition. Learning therefore, needs to be woven into the cultural fabric of every organization to ensure that it can maintain a perpetual state of readiness to respond to the unexpected."
This can be read in the introduction of the book "Workplace Learning", by Nigel Paine. He is a specialist on the subject of developing a Learning Culture.
Learning Journey
This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on how to develop, implement and maintain a Learning Culture, is developed by international team members of the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL). We challenge you to start your own learning journey. This online travel guide is the result of our own learning journey. With the remarkable insight that creating a Learning Culture really is magical!
In this MOOC you find a lot of inspiration, methods and tools to develop, implement and maintain a Learning Culture in your organization. Models and inspiration from specialists but also from best practices. Because we know realizing a Learning Culture in practice is ultimately the final game changer!
The Magic of a Learning Culture can be found in its simplicity. Create the right foundation for learning, and learning takes off, just by itself! It's magical!
The Problem:
How do we create meaningful learning and working environments in which participants acquire skills "on the job" with which they can participate sustainably in new (working) situations, in order to solve challenging issues in a continuously changing society?
The SOLUTION:
With a Learning Culture everything falls into place. With effects that reinforce each other. Working on your fundamental LEARNING CAPACITY that empowers staff, teams and organization to constantly improve, innovate, adapt and learn from it.
We all want agile organizations, happy staff and more sustainable solutions. For this to realize, learning is essential. Build organizations that thrive on change. At SOL we call these LIVING ORGANIZATIONS!
The foundation for developing these living organizations is the creation of a Learning Culture. When you create such a Learning Culture the magic happens! Structural improvement on every level of the organization.
Ultimately, changing a culture means changing people's behavior. Not once or twice, but indefinitely! The development of a Learning Culture requires (systemic) changes on three levels at the same time.
- Organization (as SOL we developed "Learning leadership"),
- Team (as SOL we developed "Learning Practice Teams") and
- Individual (as SOL we developed "Ppersonal mastery").
With the ultimate result that working and learning in organizations become one!
This Learning Journey "The magic of a Learning Culture" is organized in the following way:
- Introduction: We start the MOOC with sharing our SOL-vision on why we think it is important to create a Learning Culture for our focus group (the Learning & Development professional). We challenge every participant to do the Learning Culture test (baseline measurement / reality versus aspirations) and to write an Action Plan along the way.
- WHY?: We continuously discussing the question why it is important to create a Learning Culture for your own organization.
- HOW?: In this module we start giving answers to the question of how to realize, implement and maintain such a Learning Culture in practice.
- WHAT?: In this module we present and discuss good practices of Learning Cultures in organizations located in several countries around the world.
- Results: We conclude this Learning Journey with a reflection. What did you learn? What are you going to do with the results? Start putting theory into action and share your vision with colleagues and management and/or fire up one or more experiments.
We focus ourselves in this MOOC on the learning team within organizations (Learning & Development / Human Resources / Talent Management). If you follow all the steps, you automatically create an Action Plan to create a (more) learning culture in your organization. If you share your inspiration, vision plan and/or learning story with the SOL Community you receive the SOL Learning Culture Certificate.
No time to start your own learning journey? Read the executive summary and think again!
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