Creating a learning culture in your organization is one thing, but maintaining it may be even more difficult. Keeping people excited about learning takes time, thoughtfulness, and energy. It’s an investment, but it will yield huge returns. Learners are leaders, and who would not love another strong leader or two in their organization? Ok so you are sold on the important, but you need a plan of action. We can help!
Here are 4 Ways to Maintain a Learning Culture for your Company.
- Be a good example. You have to be a learner first. The more you read, and the more skills you learn, despite how busy you are….the more inspired your team will be to follow suit. Regularly share what you are learning so that your team benefits from it.
- Make it an ongoing priority. Tell your team about the benefits of lifelong learning, and how it can benefit them in their roles. Don’t require additional learning that doesn’t have to do with their roles. That’s the first way to make sure they aren’t interested. Create opportunities for them to get ahead with learning.
- Give your team access to new skills. Make every Friday morning a skill sharing session. Bring in the bagels and coffee, share a new skill or two, and let the team ponder how great it felt to learn something new. This may require having a secretary or desk clerk covering the phones for a few minutes while you meet with the team, but it’s totally worth the investment. Bring in a special treat for the one who didn’t get to learn this time, and make sure they get to join in next time.
- Create an office library. Books are such an easy source of information. They can also be calming and the experience of reading can lower stress. They do cost money, though, and some people aren’t quite sold on the investment (yet). So, make it for them! Create a bookcase in a spare office and call it the library. Put books in the library that can help your sales team close sales faster and create deeper relationships with customers. You may even already have all the books you need. Put books in the library to inspire the personal success, productivity and career development of the administrative team. Do you have a hungry sales team? Add books about creating deeper relationships and providing excellent customer service. Make sure they know the books are there, and bookmark the paragraph you loved about closing sales. They will go right to it, and then they may not stop there!
Maintaining a learning culture is a process. It takes time, but it’s not hard to do. You will figure out what works best for your team, and you’ll have a lot of fun implementing new ideas. Learning exposes our own minds to the rest of the world, and opens new doors in every area of life. Whichever bumps in the road your team is hitting, learning new skills or opening a book could be just the thing they need to create a breakthrough and experience huge success. It’s your responsibility to encourage them towards this life skill and give them a few good ideas. You can do it!