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A learning organisation is constantly growing and developing. This not only applies to growth in the market, but is also about internal growth. It concerns knowledge and talents of staff and the way they interact with each other. In this article, we look at the characteristics of learning organisations and what enables them to successfully adapt to their environment again and again.
Building a learning culture is complex. Not every organisation can maintain a continuous learning process and identify innovation opportunities that affect performance. A learning culture encourages development and collaboration between employees, teams and the organisation as a whole. Instead, new improved processes need to be integrated into the structure, way of working and organisational culture.
"Adaptability and willingness to change allow you to respond quickly to challenges and developments. In learning organisations, creating an environment in which learning and development are key."
To properly understand what a learning organisation is, we look at its characteristics.
What we mainly see in learning organisations is a so-called learning culture. Within the organisation, employees are constantly encouraged to keep developing and the willingness to adapt is high.
The following characteristics contribute to a learning culture within an organisation:
Open and easy-to-understand communication
There is clear and open communication, between every department and level of the organisation. People are encouraged to contribute ideas and feedback is actively given and received.
Leadership and development are driven
A learning organisation invests in the development of its employees. It provides training and development opportunities so that employees can work on their personal leadership or develop new talents.
High Performing Teams and positive dynamics
A learning organisation is constantly evolving and looking for better ways to work together and achieve goals together or increase dynamics. This is why you often see high performing teams within this type of organisation.
Strong collaborations and good dynamics are also characteristics of such a learning culture. Team members know what they have in common, do what they say and are committed to achieving goals.
Creativity, innovation and experimentation
In a learning organisation, creativity and innovation are encouraged and employees are given ownership of their own tasks. Employees are encouraged to come up with new ideas and take risks. A mistake is therefore not seen as failure, but as a learning opportunity.
Psychological safety and a positive culture
An organisation with a learning culture often has a high level of psychological safety. It is a place where employees are encouraged to contribute ideas for improvement and work together to implement them. The team need not be afraid to be themselves.
High willingness to change and rapid responsiveness
One of the key characteristics of a learning organisation is its high change readiness and ability to respond quickly to changes in the market. They are better able to maintain competitive advantage.
A learning organisation constantly strives to improve employee performance and development. We often see this type of organisation being innovative and creative. There is a high degree of resilience and agility.
Building a learning culture within your organisation can be a complex process. Not every organisation knows how to keep a continuous learning process going. It also happens that due to busyness, priorities shift and therefore the process is not ensured.
A learning culture within organisations aims to increase employee development and growth opportunities, only it is not always clear where innovation opportunities lie that directly impact performance. This complicates the transition to a learning organisation.
So keep in mind that there are a number of challenges involved in growing into learning organisations. First, you need to allocate enough time and draw up a clear plan that can be understood by everyone. Once all noses are in the same direction, then you can start changing and growing.
Make sure the new and improved processes are well integrated into the structure, way of working and the whole organisational culture. Appoint someone to monitor this and ensure periodic measurement moments.
Make sure at all times that you schedule measuring moments and appoint someone to monitor the process.
Do you want to become a learning organisation? Then you first need to look at developing a learning culture.
Here are some tips for working towards a learning culture:
Foster a growth mindset
In a learning organisation, development and growth is number one, which is why a growth mindset is very important, for all employees in the organisation. Encourage employees to develop, discover new talents and teach them that with hard work, you can grow.
For some employees, it is difficult to figure out for themselves how they want to grow. Therefore, offer training courses or workshops, give your team members a training budget and actively look at which talents you can strengthen from your employees to achieve organisational goals.
Open communication and a high level of safety
Encourage open communication and an environment where everyone feels comfortable and can communicate and share ideas freely. Work well on psychological safety within the organisation.
One way you can do this is by setting an example yourself and encouraging dialogues. Hold periodic feedback moments, in which you seek constructive feedback from others to learn from.
The best way to give constructive feedback is by working with 360-degree feedback.
Make room for innovation and experimentation
True innovation does not happen without a good dose of experimentation. Encourage employees to try new ideas and take risks. Do things go wrong once? Then make sure your employees learn from this in a positive way, without feeling punished.
A fun way to actively experiment or be innovative is to organise a hackathon, for example.
Celebrate, acknowledge and reward learning moments
By celebrating development success, you can encourage employees to keep growing and learning.
This can be done by giving recognition during team meetings or offering opportunities to grow within the organisation.
Facilitate and encourage knowledge sharing
To become a learning organisation, you don't need to send your staff directly to external training courses. There is often enough expertise in-house that can also be learned from. You can pair junior staff with senior staff or link people from another field. Everyone can learn something from each other.
One idea to make knowledge sharing within the organisation easier is by using internal blogs or newsletters. Periodic meetings or gatherings for sharing experience can also work well.
Use leaders as role models
Good leaders have a role as role models in addition to leading. Let the leaders of your organisation take the lead and show by example. They are the first to show what and how open communication takes place, and they directly encourage development and growth.
As a leader, while monitoring the process towards learning organisation, be open to suggestions and feedback. Show good example by learning and participating in activities yourself.
By working on the above points, you can lay a good foundation for becoming a learning organisation. Over time, you will see the benefits of constant growth and development for yourself.
A learning organisation is agile and resilient, keeps up with developments and is ahead of challenges. Better performance and happier staff also rank high among the benefits of a learning organisation.
Improved performance
By letting go of old structures and processes and constantly learning and optimising, team performance and organisational performance is kept high. High adaptability also prevails.
High employee satisfaction and low turnover
By involving employees in plans and giving them responsibilities, you ensure happy employees. Ensure sufficient development to bind and retain talents.
Innovative
A learning organisation is innovative and not afraid of change. This ensures that new ideas can be implemented quickly.
Competitive advantage
A key advantage of learning organisations is their competitive edge. By developing quickly and understanding the current stage of growth, future challenges can be addressed early.
Growing into a learning organisation takes time and is a complex process. Want to know how we can support your organisation or team?
Contact us at info@human-insight.com or call +31 (0)85 8229827.
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