So what exactly is a culture of learning?
A learning culture is one that has organized systems and practices in place that encourage individuals to increase their knowledge. This, in turn, promotes competence and performance levels that continue to rise. These systems and programs promote continuous improvement and support the achievement of your business’s goals are always a win-win for the employees, business, and others in the community.
Organizations that create these learning cultures not only succeed but thrive. They cultivate people’s potential through continued learning opportunities.
The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead. – Jack Nicholson
How are others doing this?
Allstate Insurance is focused on creating a culture of learning. They have created Project Lightbulb where team members are encouraged to spend half a day every week learning new things, testing new theories, exploring new data sets, or solving a new problem. And each week, they hold a meeting where a selected employee presents on a topic of his or her choice. Allstate also has the Center for Excellence that identifies new technologies and techniques and then partners with work teams to implement them.
At Whole Foods, they are focused on building their leadership roles. Their program is called Academy for Conscious Leadership. It’s a four-day course offering interactive presentations by both internal and external thought leaders. The goal is to challenge leaders’ perspectives, creating a new generation of leadership for Whole Foods.
Hyatt Hotels believes that listening is at the heart of their learning culture. They created the Changing the Conversation training initiative to offer more everyday opportunities for their employee’s growth. The initiative is already producing results. The average tenure of Hyatt hotel housekeepers is more than 12 years. The national average for all workers in the accommodation industry is 3.8 years.
LEAP’s dedication to education
Here at LEAP, we believe that creating a culture of learning is critical to our success. Not only for us, but also for our customers and colleagues. That’s why we regularly are updating our blog with current topics we feel are important for you to be familiar with.
We also are holding monthly webinars to give you a deeper understanding of topics affecting the IT world today.
We have started holding bi-annual talks and virtual classrooms where we hear from LEAP’s approachable IT geniuses about the latest trends in technology that you need to know to keep your business going. And even more exciting, PIVOT 2016 is coming this November! (Details coming soon!)
We use all of these things as an opportunity to connect and educate internally with our employees, but just as important, externally to the community. For more information on our next event, check out our events page. If you’re curious about what else LEAP does to promote a culture of leadership, check out this blog.
