Transcript
00:00:00:00 – 00:01:12:15
Regina Brayboy
Hello and thank you for joining today’s special webcast: How to Build a Learning Culture That Makes a Business Impact. I’m Regina Brayboy, senior fellow and head of the Health Care Forum of the Human Capital Center with the Conference Board. After viewing today’s program, you will understand the why, what and how behind learning cultures. The “why: why this is so important right now.
00:01:12:18 – 00:01:40:03
Why you cannot afford to wait. The “what”: what we mean by learning culture is and what the link is between learning cultures and business goals. The “how”: the actionable steps you as leaders need to take to build a learning culture. If you need an attendance certificate for this webcast click the icon shown to download your certificate at the end of the program.
00:01:40:05 – 00:02:02:21
You can use that to claim continuing education credits if you hold a certification. To get the most out of this webcast, make sure to utilize the engagement tools located at the bottom of your screen. Using these, you can ask questions to the presenters and download available resources.
00:02:02:23 – 00:02:32:05
Please join me in welcoming our guests from Daggerwing group Henrietta Bennett, Principal and Imogen Yates, Associate Principal. Imogen, take it away.
Henrietta Bennett
I’m actually going to kick off. It’s Henrietta here. I’m actually known as Hen. As you can probably tell from my accent I am based out of Daggerwing’s London office. I live on the south coast of England, so not far from London.
00:02:32:07 – 00:02:57:03
One thing that I wanted to share before we start is more of a personal reflection on learning cultures. Because I can as an individual, I can remember the point in my career when I embodied what it was to be a true learner. And it wasn’t something I always had. Although some people do. It was something I learned from a leader role modeling this within the organization I worked for at the time.
00:02:57:05 – 00:03:13:04
And when Imogen talks to you later about what a learning culture looks like in action, I feel a real strong connection between the behaviors she’s going to be touching on. But I’m not going to do a spoiler alert and go into what those are, so we’ll wait for Imogen, but I hand over to you Imogen.
Imogen Yates
Perfect. Yes. Thanks.
00:03:13:04 – 00:03:45:00
I’m so excited to be here with everyone today. My name’s Imogen. As Regina mentioned, I’m an Associate Principal with a Daggerwing Group based in New York and wanted to share a similar reflection as Hen did. For me, this topic of learning culture is really personal. It’s so important because I’ve always found the idea of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset and the link between those things and performance just to be really interesting.
00:03:45:02 – 00:04:22:01
And that idea that you can really break down lofty, large goals into smaller, actionable steps, that’s just been so critical for my personal growth. So, with that, we can jump in. So, before we dig into the meat of our presentation, I’ll tell you just a little bit about Daggerwing Group just for some grounding here. So, we are a global change consultancy and we’re working with our clients on the people side of change management.
00:04:22:03 – 00:04:54:04
Our methods are rooted in psychology and really tap into behavior change and understand why people do and don’t want to change. And we use that human insight to design custom approaches. Custom plans for our clients that really help make change stick. And you know, it’s usually the hardest part of change management. So, focusing on that really helps make change happen and makes it last.
00:04:54:06 – 00:05:25:10
And that’s why our clients really look to us as trust partners. One stat here on the slide that you’ll see, we were actually named a top ten global leader in Communications and Change Management Consulting. And as you can imagine, the bulk of our work is rooted in change and transformations, whether that’s digital marketing or customer experience. So we’ll jump in now.
00:05:25:12 – 00:05:54:24
Henrietta Bennett
Thanks, Imogen. So as Regina said, the first thing that we’re going to talk to you about today is why this matters. Why now? Well, the honest answer is it’s that the time is crucial now. I don’t know if many of you knew, but in 2022, the word of the year was actually “permacrisis”, which is defined as a period of extreme instability and insecurity; especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.
00:05:55:01 – 00:06:19:18
And I don’t think anybody on this webinar would dispute that, over the last few years, a lot has happened. However, the bizarre thing is that with hindsight, the pandemic created a period of relative stability after the initial shock and upheaval. And this is all now been turned on its head. And it’s been turned on its head by a series of macro shifts, which many of you will be familiar with.
00:06:19:18 – 00:06:43:19
But I’m just going to touch on a few. And we’re all aware that we’re living in this time of huge change and upheaval with there’s very high geopolitical tensions from the war ongoing war in Ukraine to tensions with China, and closer to home. I know for some of you over the pond, you’ve got the U.S. elections ramping up again.
00:06:43:21 – 00:07:22:24
And as a Brit, I’m even going to throw in Brexit in there for good measure, because we’re definitely still feeling this side of the pond, the aftershocks of our exit from the European Union. There’s also significant supply and demand imbalances from everything from short term items. We hear in the news that, you know, one day cucumbers have run out, one day, one of my favorites, Siracha, is difficult to buy, but also longer-term items like computer chips. These type of items obviously really impact both ourselves as individuals, but more importantly, our organizations as well.
00:07:23:01 – 00:07:48:01
Not on this list, but it’s one that I want to touch on, is also the rising necessity and organizational focus on sustainability. Often without a real idea of where to begin. And this in part has been driven by a series of continuing extreme weather events. A Gartner survey actually revealed that for the first time ever, CEOs are now placing environmental sustainability in their top ten business priorities.
00:07:48:03 – 00:08:13:05
That was in 2022. In 2023, it’s in their top eight. So, it’s going higher and higher up the list of C-suite priorities. We also, in a massive peak period of technological change from the growth of Web Three and the expansion of the Metaverse to increased reliance on AI. I’ve actually just come back from a workshop in the U.S. I flew in overnight last night.
00:08:13:07 – 00:08:41:16
So, if I end up not being able to speak, that’s probably why. But I can’t count the number of times in that workshop that ChatGPT was either mentioned or used when we were brainstorming, and people were looking up things on ChatGPT. So, it’s becoming embedded very, very fast into our lives, some of these technological advances. But, some of these big shifts are alongside things that we’re seeing at the moment, like interest rates, rate hikes and a rise in redundancies.
00:08:41:21 – 00:09:01:01
And we can all see that this is quite a storm that’s going on at the moment. I could go on but I’m sure you aware of all of these. But one thing I just think we need to note and think about as we go through this presentation is it’s very unlikely that this is going to let up any time soon.
00:09:01:03 – 00:09:27:00
So, the question is, how can organizations not just survive in these turbulent times but thrive as well? In order to do that, organizations are going to need to be agile, innovative and adaptable. They’re going to need to find ways to challenge the status quo and think differently. We need this in our organizations, but this is a strong belief
00:09:27:00 – 00:09:51:03
We have at Daggerwing; that organizations themselves do not change. It’s the people within them that do, and that’s what creates the shift. And if people within your organization are agile, innovative and adaptable, then your organization is going to be to. And the way to ensure this is to create and embed a learning culture, which is the topic that you’ve all signed up to listen to about today.
00:09:51:05 – 00:10:17:07
And as I just mentioned, the key for us all as leaders in times like this is to find ways to ensure our organizations don’t just, as I said, survive, but can thrive through turbulent times as well as those of relative stability as well. So, I’m just going to ask you all to, if possible, keep this global context in mind during this webinar, and I’ll hand over to Imogen to talk about what a learning culture means.
00:10:17:13 – 00:10:50:19
Imogen Yates
Yes. So, Hen shared some great context in terms of why it’s so, so critical to build a learning culture now and let’s unpack what that looks like. What does it really mean when we say learning culture? So, we’ll start to define it here. In learning cultures, employees really see learning as an always on mindset, a forever long journey.
00:10:50:21 – 00:11:20:13
And this is really what we mean by having a culture of learning. It’s how employees within an organization show up to work each and every day. They really view it as an essential part of their day-to-day success and also key to longer-term success as well. In learning cultures, people are actively seeking out new information.
00:11:20:13 – 00:11:59:12
They’re watching out for new concepts, they’re looking out for growth opportunity, for challenges. And it’s really this active mindset versus a passive or stagnant one. When learning is seen as a way of life, it’s hugely tied to having a growth mindset. And that’s really the belief tha capabilities, talent, skills, all of those things can be strengthened through effort, hard work, experience.
00:11:59:12 – 00:12:29:04
Employees with this mindset, they really believe that their capabilities and skill. They act like a muscle, that can be built up and strengthened over time. And employees with this mindset, they are a learner for life and they grow accordingly. Okay, so now you’ll see on the slide when learning is seen as a way of life, this is really what it looks like in terms of day-to-day behaviors.
00:12:29:04 – 00:13:00:01
And you’ll see five listed on the slide here. And as Hen chatted about earlier, we know that we’re living in times of massive change and we’re not living in times where people blindly follow decisions coming from the top. We’re in a time where people have a ton of data and information at their fingertips, and they act on it and they make their own decisions, and they choose to pivot when they feel it’s needed.
00:13:00:03 – 00:13:29:24
So, we as leaders really need to deliberately try to cultivate an environment where employees can exhibit these five behaviors that you see on the slide. And a quick reminder, culture at Daggerwing, we really think about that as how employees approach their work and these behaviors that you see here. This is how employees within the learning culture show up each and every day.
00:13:30:01 – 00:13:57:07
And I’ll give a quick voiceover of each behavior. So, curiosity, it’s all about asking questions, seeking out new information, watching out for new concepts, and of course, challenging the status quo. Doing things differently. We have risk taking there as well. So, this is all around actively pushing yourself outside of your comfort zones, leaving that safety blanket, if you will.
00:13:57:09 – 00:14:33:01
And employees are deliberately taking on new and challenging things that they’ve never done before. They’re open to those experiences in terms of bringing outside thinking. And so, this is all about bringing inspiration and information from outside a company’s walls within that organization. So, employees might be taking ideas from industries outside of their own, and they basically look at those ideas and ask themselves, “How do I apply this internally?”.
00:14:33:03 – 00:15:06:19
We have resilient there as well, and that concept today is so, so critical, and it’s really the ability to adapt and thrive when faced with challenges or setbacks. Lastly, acting fast without all of the information. As Hen talked about before, we’re living in a time of a ton of information. Many would say information overload. But we still are dealing with a ton of ambiguity and change.
00:15:06:21 – 00:15:50:16
So, employees and learning cultures, they’re okay, making decisions without all of the perfect information in front of them. They’re able to lead through ambiguity and make decisions, even if it makes them feel uncomfortable. All right.
Henrietta Bennett
Thanks Imogen. SSo, we’re going to have a chat. We’re going to have a chat now about the business impacts. And this is something that we see, both through our work, but it’s also backed up by numerous studies that are embedded and active learning culture. It’s really the trigger or the catalyst for significant positive impacts to your business.
00:15:50:22 – 00:16:25:21
And we’re going to focus on some of these now. So on the screen here, we’re going to go through all these, so don’t worry about taking in all the information straight off. You can see the main business impacts here and whilst these can all be taken as individual and on their own merits, what I want to do with you today is take you through a view of how they will naturally build as you adopt an embedded learning culture within your organization and how you will achieve wins all the way along to gaining competitive advantage and successful realization of your business strategies.
00:16:25:23 – 00:16:50:22
And this is also creates a cycle which is self-sustaining. So we’ll touch on that as well. But to start with, let’s start with where all organizations begin, which is with the people that make up those organizations. We’ve talked about how organizations don’t change. People do. And with constant fluctuations in the talent markets. Think of headlines from the past couple of years.
00:16:50:22 – 00:17:20:06
We’ve gone from “the Great resignation”, “war on Talent”, to seeing more headlines around redundancies, sometimes mass redundancies and an economic downturn. And there’s no doubt that the majority of C-suite leaders agree that people are key to that organization’s success. For this reason, we’re constantly trying to find ways both to keep the best people, but also attract the right new hires.
00:17:20:08 – 00:17:50:16
And it’s a time consuming and expensive business, therefore providing the best environment, an environment of a learning culture for your employees is one where they can thrive and grow in the same ways you want your company to. So, it becomes a bit of a no brainer, and organizations with an embedded and well-known learning culture have a great track record here, both in attracting and in attracting new talent and retaining existence.
00:17:50:18 – 00:18:14:07
They tend to have above average employee engagement statistics and a bigger than average response to open posts, not just a bigger than average response, but with a higher quality of applications too. Now we’re going to get into a bit of a magic formula. You’ve got your learning culture, the environment that people are in, and you’ve got the right people.
00:18:14:13 – 00:18:43:09
This is a super powerful combination that enables people to think in a way you need them to in order to meet your business aims. And your business aims can be anything from trying to do something cheaper and faster or improve processes. Or it could be that you need as an organization to challenge the status quo in an industry that needs to be always one step ahead of the new next thing in order to remain the market leader.
00:18:43:11 – 00:19:14:02
But put simply, having the right environment and the right people enables innovation and high performing learning organizations are 92% more likely to innovate, which for me is quite a powerful stat. So, imagine now that you have that you have all this in place and the unpredictable happens and you have to pivot. We’ve talked about some of the factors making our world and then as a knock on our business environment, a very volatile place.
00:19:14:04 – 00:19:52:08
And so a change in strategy or direction is pretty inevitable at some point and requires a fast response. What we find is that the organizations that foster strong learning cultures are not only more innovative, but more likely to be adaptable and flexible, too. They’re also more likely to embrace change and less likely to be risk averse. So, as you can imagine that the role that Imogen and I play as change management consultants, we’re often helping organizations respond to the unpredictable, and quite often we’re trying to do that yesterday.
00:19:52:10 – 00:20:13:20
Everything needs to happen yesterday. But what we’ve noticed is that where people are invested in the organization and feel they can make or are making a contribution towards that organization, vision and purpose, they’re less likely to resist change and far more likely to be the ones that come up with those solutions that you need in the first place.
00:20:13:22 – 00:20:43:09
This is what happens in a true learning culture within the organization. Now we get to a stage where the magic is intensifying even more. I feel like I need a Harry Potter wand. No matter what situation you’re in, whether it’s relatively stable or whether it’s a time of lots of change, you have those people that are thinking the right way, they’re innovating, but can also adapt to different situations and timeframes more easily.
00:20:43:11 – 00:21:17:24
This gives your organization a real edge, that much needed agility to be productive and increase productivity at all times. And businesses with a learning culture see organizational high performance, and individual too, with high performers far more likely to credit an extensive learning culture with helping them achieve organizational business goals. I also just want to touch here on skills because 80% of CEOs recently cited the need for new skills as their biggest business challenge.
00:21:18:01 – 00:21:44:13
And in a learning culture that’s gaining new skills is a constant, that is embedded. It means no matter what comes down the line, you’re more likely to build to remain productive whilst keeping that performance at a high level. So, what does this all add up to? It adds up to competitive advantage. Organizations with a strong learning culture are 46% more likely to be first to market.
00:21:44:15 – 00:22:12:15
They tend to lead in revenue growth, profitability, and market share. They have above average levels of customer satisfaction and, as we heard, also more high performing individuals and teams. And that neatly leads us back to the beginning of this cycle. If organizations are doing this well and continuing to invest in learning being central to what they do, they’re going to naturally attract the right new people and retain the best existing people.
00:22:12:17 – 00:22:40:03
And that’s where we get this beautiful cycle that continues and become sustainable. So now I’m going to hand you back to Imogen to have a look at how you as leaders can make this happen for your organization.
Imogen Yates
Great, thanks Hen. Yes. So having just set up such a clear “what’s in it for me”. The business impact is so, so strong.
00:22:40:03 – 00:23:11:18
That magic formula that’s really self sustaining, that Hen talked about. So now that you have that information, let’s talk about how you all as leaders can make this happen. So we’ll start off with a “from to” here. So, in most organization friends, the left-hand side is what typical L&D looks like. It’s what people usually think of when they hear that term “learning”.
00:23:11:20 – 00:23:55:09
And then we have on the right side, that’s our “to” state. That’s really our ideal state, our sweet spot that we all as leaders need to be driving toward. So I’ll touch on just a few of these leaders really need to move from, again, thinking about L&D to this concept of embedding a living learning culture that drives true behavior change. Instead of learning being driven by a single function, usually H.R., as it’s thought of today, it really needs to shift to be seen as the responsibility of all leaders in an organization.
00:23:55:11 – 00:24:22:23
And when most people here hear L&D today they might think, Oh, that’s not for me, that’s more relevant to someone who’s earlier in their career. Instead, we need to shift this mindset and have people embrace that learning is applicable and absolutely essential at all levels, no matter where you sit in the organization. And overall, it’s not just a moment in time, it’s not just an initiative.
00:24:23:00 – 00:24:54:06
It’s this always on mindset that we’ve talked about. It’s really a lifelong journey, a lifetime approach. Now we have our truths. So, based on our work with clients, we know that five things are true of leaders in learning cultures. And if you live these truths out, learning really becomes a way of life and a mindset shift and a way that all employees show up every day.
00:24:54:08 – 00:25:27:12
It’s not just a moment in time or something driven by HR. Companies with a learning culture do these five things that you see on the slide here. So, first they share a clear vision of the learning culture and they talk about it often. I t becomes part of the day-to-day language across the organization. They also link it to the business strategy and really view learning as a critical, essential investment in the future.
00:25:27:14 – 00:25:57:17
It is also embedded across all stages of the employee lifecycle, not just applicable for new joiners. And then leaders, probably most importantly, they walk the walk. They embrace that learning and growth mindset themselves and they encourage their teams to do the same. So now we’ll dive into an overview of each.
Henrietta Bennett
So, the first one that we’re going to talk about is sharing that clear vision.
00:25:57:19 – 00:26:27:06
And often and as as I’m sure many of you are aware, that there are many leadership styles and we all know that we have to bring different leadership styles forward for different situations. But being a visionary leader is going to be really important to embedding a learning culture. You’ll need to ensure that you’re clear on the vision and purpose of your organization and how your learning culture is central to that vision, not something separate, how it’s central to that vision.
00:26:27:08 – 00:26:54:02
You’ll also need to take people with you on the journey of embedding a growth mindset and culture shift and reiterate the message on a regular basis of how this is integral to your business. Shifting mindsets tends to be a more gradual process with people coming on that journey at different at different speeds. As I spoke about from the beginning, it wasn’t something that was naturally mine,
00:26:54:02 – 00:27:24:12
and it’s about how you learn over time. And so, this message will need to be communicated often as well.
Imogen Yates
Our second truth here again for grounding and as a reminder, organizations with learning cultures, they don’t have a learning approach for the sake of checking a box. Again, for grounding, we all know this, but the business strategy is what we do every day.
00:27:24:12 – 00:28:02:14
It determines our work and the learning culture is really how we do it. It’s how employees behave and the mindset that they embrace every day. So, the learning approach really needs to solve for true needs based on the business strategy. The learning approach needs to drive the business forward. Organizations with learning cultures, they’re constantly evaluating the capabilities of their people against the business strategy, and those gaps determine what we’re solving for through learning.
00:28:02:16 – 00:28:31:06
And it’s important to caveat when we say learning this does not mean mandated trainings. It’s really more of a holistic learning approach through on-the-job experiences, learning and coaching from others, and learning from training is really just a piece of the broader puzzle.
Henrietta Bennett
Thanks, Imogen. The third truth that we want to talk about is investing in the future.
00:28:31:08 – 00:28:58:03
So, what we tend to find is that a large number of organizations view learning, as Imogen just touched on, more about training. And then it’s viewed as a cost when it’s thought of as training over learning. But in organizations with learning cultures, it’s viewed as a deliberate choice. It’s an integral part of your strategy, as you’ve just heard, and an investment for the future.
00:28:58:03 – 00:29:29:12
And it has that support from from the C-suite as well. So this investment is in both your organization but also in the growth of the individuals within it and should be viewed against the business impacts and the return on investment that we spoke about earlier. We’d also recommend that learning is tied to measurable impacts, whether that’s quantitative and qualitative metrics, things like, you know, better employee retention.
00:29:29:14 – 00:29:49:16
As we spoke about, we all know that it’s both very disruptive and costs a lot when somebody leaves their job both in terms of you know, the time then to find new people, to find the right replacement, getting them on board, ready to do the job. And that can also be very disruptive for for the teams as well.
00:29:49:18 – 00:30:22:12
And I think with lots of people and talent leaders in the room today, hopefully you can see the benefits of investing from a retention perspective and the potential savings to be had as well. Certainly in terms of your time. We also talked earlier about learning organizations having increased employee satisfaction scores, and this is also a great metric that can be used as well to see the investment, to see a return on your investment in learning cultures.
00:30:22:14 – 00:30:51:10
Imogen Yates
Great. So now for our fourth truth: learning is not a chore. It’s not a check the box exercise. Instead, it’s this key ingredient that really spans all stages of the employee lifecycle. It’s part of the employee value proposition, and attracting talent, Hen touched on that as we were going through the business impact cycle.
00:30:51:12 – 00:31:32:14
It’s also a key part, as we’re all aware, of onboarding and ramping up in the role when hired. But it’s also this essential part of further developing in the role and getting to the next level. We know it’s part of talent retention. We just talked about that. And so, in each stage of the employee lifecycle is a really, really clear what’s in it for me in learning. Employees view it as an essential tool in feeling more confident in their role, and it’s really seen as a necessary thing to be doing to navigate a changing landscape,
00:31:32:14 – 00:32:03:15
As we talked about at the beginning of this session, as well as implications and changes within their role.
Henrietta Bennett
So, a final and fifth truth is around walking the talk. And the bottom line is that to embed a learning culture within your organization, you will need to, as leaders, role model and lead whilst being truly committed to developing not just others but yourself as well.
00:32:03:17 – 00:32:30:02
And I talked about as a visionary leadership style earlier, but this requires a more coaching leadership style because in learning cultures, leaders will believe that capabilities can be built over time and through experience. They need to be vulnerable about their own strengths and weaknesses in their own growth journey. This isn’t just about growth for more junior people or learning for the less experienced.
00:32:30:02 – 00:32:58:23
This needs to be throughout your organization and also in learning cultures. Leaders embrace, as Imogen touched on earlier as well, some different learning in different forms, whether that’s stretch opportunities through on the job, your peer-to-peer coaching or through formal training, and encourage our teams to do the same as well. So, we throw in a lot at you today and hopefully you’ve found this interesting and helpful.
00:32:59:04 – 00:33:27:13
We’re just going to finish on a quick summary before going to any questions you have. If you have any questions, please do feel free to put them into the chat. But I’m just going to do a very quick recap on our takeaways from today and why this is so important now, which we touched on at the beginning. The key areas we’ve been through, we’ve looked at ways in which learning cultures show up in organizations.
00:33:27:15 – 00:34:04:07
When you see or hear of employees being curious, being more open to risk, being keen to bring in the outside in thinking, demonstrating resilience and not minding acting in ambiguity, you’ll know that you have a learning culture. We then heard about the big business impacts that a learning culture brings from the perspectives of attracting and retaining the best people, driving innovation, increasing your adaptability to pivot, improving productivity and performance, and ultimately gaining competitive advantage.
00:34:04:09 – 00:34:28:16
I can see that there has been one question about stats on the business impact. Very happy to send these to you as well. There’s so much great research out there, too much to share on the call. A lot of the statistics came from things like the HBR articles from LinkedIn articles, but very happy for the person who asked that to share those as well.
00:34:28:18 – 00:35:02:20
And finally, we just covered our five truths, the things that you as leaders need to think about and do to move your organization from the mindset of training to one of learning. I’m going to pause there and thank you for listening to us and looking forward to hearing any questions you might have.
Regina Brayboy
Thank you ladies. What I’d like to do now is, you know, open up and we do have several questions.
00:35:02:22 – 00:35:34:24
The first one is a really important and key one. Where should I get started? I don’t know who wants to take that?
Imogen Yates
Yeah, can take that one. And it’s a great question. Certainly, need to break it down into actionable steps, but I say the first step would be defining what does a successful learning culture look like within your specific organization? It’s going to be different across different companies.
00:35:35:01 – 00:36:12:11
Link it to your business strategy and specific ROI and capability that’ll make it more convincing. Definitely assess where you are right now. How much of a stretch is developing a learning culture for you and your organization? And I would say also have employee conversations to really understand what are the barriers to achieving and moving towards a learning culture and then of course, getting buy in from leadership, getting by in from the C-suite.
00:36:12:11 – 00:36:39:07
You need those folks on your side so that you can really have those great role models. And then I would say also putting together your strategy and your plan. What are those specific steps that you’re going to take and how is that going to be embedded in the overall employee experience to make the shift happen?
Regina Brayboy
Right. And we have another question.
00:36:39:09 – 00:37:01:15
How do I make this seem important to my employees who are already so burnt out, overwhelmed, and feel as though they can’t take on any more trainings or learnings, etc.
Henrietta Bennett
That’s an interesting one. Would you like me to take that one Imogen? That’s an interesting one.
Imogen Yates
You go ahead Hen.
Henrietta Bennett
It’s a big question and I may regret volunteering myself for this one.
00:37:01:17 – 00:37:24:16
I think it is a really interesting question and I think that ultimately it comes down to the difference between thinking of this as training or L&D and thinking of this as a cultural element of a learning culture. I think there’s three things to keep in mind. As I said, that is this isn’t this isn’t training.
00:37:24:16 – 00:37:47:15
It’s a mindset shift. So, it’s a process rather than a fixed amount of time or modules that need to be completed and ultimately a growth mindset. There’s elements that you can teach through training, but it’s not that it’s something that needs to be adopted in your day-to-day reality, to activate it in your day-to-day reality.
00:37:47:20 – 00:38:23:17
So, second, I think the second point is on that is time. For most people it’s a gradual process, although some will naturally be further along and already naturally there, that growth or think curious mindset is often a learned skill. And given the right environment, I think people start to exhibit some of the behaviors we talked about. I think also this is when we think about people’s time and it being a big change initiative, it’s not necessarily seen as a big change in initiative.
00:38:23:19 – 00:38:49:03
I love the fact when Imogen talked earlier about building a muscle. And if we think for anybody that sort of goes to the gym or exercises out, their muscles take time to build up and they also need constant exercise in order to sustain as well. I think it’s a very good way to think about a learning culture is that muscle.
00:38:49:05 – 00:39:17:20
And then I guess the third point to that is we talked about it being linked to business goals and priorities, so that it’s embedded in what you do. This means it’s seen as part of people’s existing priorities and it’s a way to help them deliver and be more productive rather than an add on to what they already have.
00:39:17:22 – 00:39:48:19
So hopefully that makes sense to whoever else asked us the questions.
Regina Brayboy
Yes. And so then another question would be they came in. How do I convince leadership in the suite C-suite that this is a priority?
Imogen Yates
Yeah, and I can start us off there. Hen went through this cycle of excellence, all of the fantastic business impacts that organizations experience when they have that learning culture.
00:39:49:00 – 00:40:31:24
Stats are always convincing and compelling for the C-suite and leadership. And then I would also say really crafting a strong case for change. So, as we did at the beginning of this session, really painting a nice picture of the current times that we’re in and setting that case for urgency and change. And I think also, you know, making the tie in clearer between having a learning mindset and how that helps employees really navigate changes in their role and navigate the changing landscape.
00:40:32:01 – 00:41:01:23
We know that change is a constant. We’re going to have more and more of it. So really making the tie in clear between having that learning mindset and how it makes employees more fluid, nimble and successful in their roles.
Heniretta Bennett
Can I build on that Regina, before we go to the next one? I see somebody is also asking about measurements of success that we found useful.
00:41:02:00 – 00:41:24:19
And I think this is where it is super important to tie it into your business strategy. So what we would suggest is that you look at some baseline metrics that are business critical to improve. So don’t think so much of learning culture and how you’re going to measure that.
00:41:24:24 – 00:41:52:09
What are the baseline metrics for your business priorities such as it might be talent retention or your organization needs to be more innovative and then think around how the learning culture can ramp that up, can really make the difference there. And that’s where both the power of measuring it against your within your business priorities.
00:41:52:11 – 00:42:15:20
But that’s also your you’re sort of selling to the C-suite or to leadership as well that this is a priority because it really will enable you to do some of those things that you will have within your organizational strategies.
Regina Brayboy
Well, this is a really good question that I think we could certainly explore a little bit. How do you hire for curiosity?
00:42:15:20 – 00:42:56:23
I mean, I think that’s an interesting thing.
Imogen Yates
Yeah, it’s a great one, Regina. I would say listen really carefully to the story that your candidate is telling you in the interview process. Look out for indications of that growth mindset. How have they overcome challenges in the past? How have they navigated obstacles? And look for details around the mindset that they were really embracing as they share these anecdotes with you.
00:42:56:23 – 00:43:26:08
And then, of course look out for basic science of curiosity, like asking smart, intelligent questions and being willing to do things differently and really showing a history of that as they’re sharing examples with you and the interview process.
Regina Brayboy
Great. Well, we have another really good question, and thank you for that, Imogen. How do you get buy in from leadership?
00:43:26:10 – 00:43:47:05
And I know we talked a little bit about that, but I think that’s that’s so important. If we can just kind of drill that in because I think that is that is really critical to what we’re talking about here.
Henrietta Bennett
Yeah, it is and I think often some of the business impacts speak for themselves in terms of the return on investment.
00:43:47:07 – 00:44:05:23
Would it be helpful to go back to that? I’ll just click and go back to that. Does that come up, Regina?
Regina Brayboy
You want me to do it? Are you trying to go back to the.
Henrietta Bennett
Yeah, I was going to go back to Slide 18, I think just so that we can see that we can see up there as well.
00:44:05:23 – 00:44:39:01
Regina Brayboy
Let me see if I can get us back to that.
Henrietta Bennett
So I think, when you’re looking at these, these are all business challenges that the majority of organizations will have. You know, and if you’re trying to get buy in from leadership, I would suggest you talk to these priorities because these priorities tend to be more strategic in nature.
00:44:39:03 – 00:45:01:00
And then that also helps show how a learning culture is integral to your strategy is, as I said, it’s not something that’s on the side. But if you can talk to leadership in a way that’s saying, this is going to get us the best and the brightest and the people that we need, it’s going to drive those conversations.
00:45:01:02 – 00:45:24:20
And that outside-in thinking that we need to be a market leader is going to mean we’re more adaptable to what’s coming down the line. And all this, no matter what environment we were in or whatever is thrown at the organization or the world, we can still continue to increase productivity and performance.
00:45:24:22 – 00:45:55:21
For me, that’s a very compelling argument for leaders because these are the things that your leadership team will be thinking about and you know, the messaging we gave at the beginning around the environment we’re living in now. This isn’t new messaging and everybody’s aware of this and all the organizations we work with are talking in these terms as well about this is, you know, this is a volatile environment that we’re operating in and what how organizations, some are just trying to survive.
00:45:55:21 – 00:46:18:05
But we’re saying you can still thrive, not just survive, but you can thrive as well.
Regina Brayboy
Very, very good. All right. I think what we might want to do, do you want to give some you know, some just key takeaways and just kind of review those? Again, we’ve covered a lot of questions, and I think that’s really good.
00:46:18:05 – 00:46:51:22
But I love this slide here and I think if we could just drive those points home, I think that would be a great way to think about where folks need to be.
Henrietta Bennett
Yeah, I think that’s a great idea. I mean, I think the five points on the right, maybe we just go through those and then Imogen, if you could just cover again those five, oh I can’t remember how many points you went through, but the points on what you need to do to get started, because I think quite often it’s hard for people to see where to get started.
00:46:51:24 – 00:47:19:23
So, as leaders within your organization, it’s about sharing that clear vision and sharing it often. Ensuring, as we said, we keep talking about this one and it’s so important, but ensuring that a learning culture is linked, but also deeply embedded in your business strategy and your organizational priorities. That it’s seen as that investment for the future.
00:47:19:24 – 00:48:06:01
That learning culture is seen as an investment, not just as a moment in time training. That it’s embedded in that employee lifecycle right through. It’s what is what will attract your talent right through to when people leave and that you as leaders are really walking the talk that you’re demonstrating your commitment to a learning culture, you’re showing your own vulnerabilities as well, talking about your own growth journey as you do it, and therefore role modeling the behaviors that we talked about, those five behaviors on the left there: curious, open to risk, outside-in thinking, resilience, and acting in ambiguity.
00:48:06:06 – 00:48:37:10
That you’re role modeling those as you as you talk to people within your organization. And then maybe Imogen, if you just touch on what you need to do today to get started.
Imogen Yates
Absolutely. These are really kind of five more tactical steps that people can take to get started. So first off, we really recommend defining what a learning culture looks like within your organization.
00:48:37:11 – 00:49:35:03
Again, I mentioned this earlier, but it’s going to look different for every company. Definitely link it to your business strategies so there’s a clear case to be embarking on this journey. We would suggest co-creating the future culture. So, getting employees and leaders involved, the more voices you can get behind it, the better. You’re already starting that movement. Have conversations with people to really understand, what are the major barriers that are in your way to achieving a learning culture and then really thinking through with those barriers in mind and even bright spots, accelerators that might exist to put your plan together in terms of what are those specific areas and specific steps that
00:49:35:03 – 00:50:13:23
you need to take to build a learning culture. So that’s what we would suggest.
Regina Brayboy
Well, thank you, ladies. We have been through our Q and A where this has been a great presentation. Contact information is here on screen for our presenters today. So, if you enjoyed today’s program, please visit conference hyphen board dot org slash Webcasts for a full roster of upcoming Webcasts.
00:50:14:00 – 00:50:47:17
Join us in New York on July 11th and 12th for the 2023 Engaged at Work Conference. This event will focus entirely on engagement and the employee experience, showcasing the latest insights and case studies from leaders across major corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations. As an attendee, you will have access to exclusive research from the Conference Board, insights from C-suite and senior leaders from Fortune 500 companies, as well as exciting innovators.
00:50:47:19 – 00:51:04:11
This event will also provide you the opportunity to take full advantage of the in-person experience. With time to ask questions, join in small group discussions and connect with your fellow attendees.
00:51:04:13 – 00:52:14:08
Finally, we are proud to have recently launched the TCB Insights app. With the app you can easily connect with peers in your community, Register for our events and find the latest research, podcasts and webcast. Download it today. Thanks again, Henrietta and Imogen, and thanks to all of you for joining. Have a great day.
