Yesterday I talked about the need for leaders to be learners. Research indicates companies in which leaders are learners do much better financially. But learning can’t stop there. In reality, learning needs to permeate an organization. The rate of change in business today mandates it— as it now takes less than two years for the world’s knowledge base to double.

One tech told me that rather than ask people what kind of technology they’ve learned lately, he asks which ones they’ve been keeping up with! And yes, sometimes it seems that ‘just keeping up’ is all we can do.

Still, we have to keep learning or we will fall behind. Like Tom Peters says, “the only thing that counts is your quality getting better at a more rapid rate than your principal competitors.”

Learning should be an ongoing activity

With this in mind, it only makes sense that every employee makes learning an ongoing activity.

Managers and HR leaders, try this: Personally challenge each employee to become an active learner. In his book New Work Habits for a Radically Changing World, Price Pritchett says “every single employee should assume personal responsibility in for upgrading his or her job performance.” He goes on to say that each employee is skills should be in a state of constant renewal.

I am a firm believer that a habit of learning will become the norm when managers and leaders work to infuse it within the culture. It can’t be pooh-poohed, scoffed at, or ignored. People need to be encouraged on a daily basis.

Sure, you can put up posters and write articles for the company newsletter. Those are good things to do, but by themselves they won’t spark an excitement for learning. That has to come from everyday conversation among coworkers.

Managers? Human Resource leaders? It’s a pretty safe bet these conversation must start with you. But don’t do it alone. Identify others with a passion for learning and enlist them in the effort. Might I suggest you don’t even bother making this into a program? Just make it a passion that catches on throughout the workplace culture.

PS: Help others out here, too. What’s working for you?

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Filed in Work, Training, Management, Leadership, Workplace, Corporate Culture