Five Ways to Pursue More Learning Opportunities in the Workplace

Workplace learning and L3 Learning go hand-in-hand, but for on-the-job learning to be life-long, life-wide, and life-deep, it has to be presented in a way win which employees have both a desire and an ability to engage with the content. Learning programs are shown to contribute to positive work culture, which leads to increased productivity and higher rates of engagement. With such a clear positive impact, it’s worth the time and investment it takes to make sure learning programs meet the needs of employees.

And sometimes, that means thinking outside the box. So instead of hosting yet another lunch-and-learn where you ask employees to lean-in during their lunch hours, use these five tips to show your employees how much you’re investing in their development.

Adopt Non-Traditional Seating

The days of a linear, step-by-step corporate ladder are as much in the past as the clunky typewriter and frayed rolodex. Careers today take steps sideways and in-and-out of different disciplines. This means that someone who starts in a marketing role, with the right training and experiences, could land a career leading a team of architects. This can’t happen, however, without a culture that promotes cross-disciplinary learning.

This makes the traditional seating structure—where people with a similar job function sit together, department by department—seem a bit outdated. Learning, at its best, is spontaneous. Seating people away from their functional peers, and instead alongside project team members, mixed-seniority pairings, or other nontraditional seating assignments can foster scenarios where a designer and engineer learn from one another organically. It’s a cross-pollination of skills, strengths and perspectives that can lead to improved outcomes for everyone.

If such a dramatic change sounds daunting, consider other ways to accomplish the same goal. Designate specific days of the week or month when teams work in different locations. Or, build a culture in which company-wide meetings and gatherings pair colleagues who otherwise wouldn’t work closely with one another.

Facilitate Idea Sharing

How many times have you spent valuable minutes—if not hours—trying to figure out a computer program or feature, only to later learn the solution was as easy as a simple two-click command? Or maybe you’ve been in a meeting where a coworker breezes through a program when—out of nowhere—you see them do something you never knew was possible?

It’s commonly accepted that it’s impossible to know what you don’t know, but it’s equally hard to know what knowledge you may have that could greatly benefit others. What may seem like common knowledge to one can be a breakthrough to someone else. Unlock these valuable tips, tricks and “lifehacks” by incorporating opportunities to share informal knowledge throughout your culture.

Doing this can be as simple as having a place on the company server or intranet to informally share these tips, designating brief time slots during meetings for idea-sharing or by creating opportunities for peer-led trainings on programs that are used every day. Steps can even be taken to simultaneously facilitate idea sharing while creating a growth and development opportunity by appointing “leads” for different skills and programs. These designations, because they exist outside a subordinate-superior hierarchy, allow for a more natural opportunity for team members to seek out knowledge they don’t currently have. Let’s be honest, what company couldn’t benefit from having a designated “Excel” lead to help with pivot charting and concatenations?

Involve Leadership

When it comes to leadership, example is the ultimate precedent. The most earnest desire for a learning-first workplace culture is ultimately handicapped when leadership fails to demonstrate buy-in and enthusiasm for the concept. If leaders fail to show a need for continued learning, the concept won’t cascade throughout the organization.

By their very presence, leaders who participate in company-offered learning programs encourage others to attend. But don’t stop there. Allow leaders to feel the role as teachers in a more direct way, outside of project work. Consider that 68 percent of employees report wanting to have more opportunities to learn directly about their CEOs success story, while 73 percent want to hear more about the obstacles they have overcome throughout their career.

Allow Passion to Blossom

Some of Google’s most ubiquitous products—Gmail, Google Maps, AdSense and many others—started as nothing more than passion projects explored by employees as an on-the-side undertaking. It’s a now-famous idea referred to as “20% Time” or “Genius Hour,” where companies designate a specific amount of time for employees to work on projects outside of their day-to-day responsibilities that they believe can help the organization.

The best part of this activity is that it’s much more about the process and mindset than the results. It’s the same idea that has contributed to the popularity of makerspaces: people learn through hands-on experimentation. By not only allowing open experimentation, but by specifically allocating time for it, the precedent for outside-the-box thinking and ongoing learning is clear. What’s more, it doesn’t require employees to sacrifice work-life balance for learning and exploration.

Utilize an Individual Flourishing Plan

In business, if something isn’t put in writing and measured, it often doesn’t happen. While the best opportunities for learning happen spontaneously and informally, the culture of learning deserves formal recognition at both a company-wide and an individual level.

Consider incorporating an Individual Flourishing Plan (IFP) into the overall development planning and goal setting process for every employee. An IFP allows for an employee and manager to discuss their shared commitment to learning, and it indicates one’s learning goals, regardless of current responsibilities at work. In essence, the IFP expresses what one seeks to know in order to accomplish one’s goals and achieve what’s best for both the individual and everyone that person encounters and interacts with.

The IFP also allows leadership to see what their teams desire to learn more about. This can be an invaluable way to determine what learning gaps are most common throughout the organization and how learning resources are allocated.

The Individual Learning Plan is discussed in detail in 9 Billion Schools: Why the World Needs Personalized, Lifelong Learning for All . It’s a new book coauthored by the 9 Billion Schools Institute board members Lauren Della Bella and Dick Thomas that outlines the growing need for reimagining learning. In addition to tips for incorporating ILPs, there’s a focus on real life applications of lifelong learning and the importance it has in creating future-ready individuals and organizations.