How L&D teams can build a learning culture that empowers the individual

In my last blog, I discussed why L&D teams need to strike a balance between being too stable and too dynamic. It’s a hard balance to achieve, especially at a time when it feels that the learning industry is changing so rapidly. How are to know the best ways to go about things? Hopefully the tips I offered eased that pain and sparked ideas.

In this post I want to build on that by discussing the importance of building a learning culture that empowers the learners.

The function of L&D teams is changing. Their role is not just to focus on what is learned. Instead, they have to go beyond that and understand how, where and when learning happens in their organisations. As working practices are changing, so is workplace learning. Whilst no one is forecasting the end of formal ‘programme’ based learning, or even more traditional ‘in-person’ events, digitally-enabled informal and social learning is increasing (again) in popularity and use.

My argument is that L&D teams need to recognise this shift in learner behaviour and expectation and start the process of building learning cultures that encourage, enable, and empower their employees. To give them the tools and the trust to build their own learning pathways, set their own goals and learn in a way that works for them (and the organisation).

What can L&D do to make this happen?

Seek to understand their employees

You should seek to understand how your people learn, what they want to learn and why they want to learn (such as to gain better skills, knowledge, and behaviours that help improve performance now AND help them work towards the next job).

Use the 70/0/10 approach

70/20/10 may seem a bit old school, but it’s not dead as a method!

70 - People still like to learn through ‘experience’, so make sure to nurture that and help learners identify and access learning that is taking place ‘on the job’ (or ‘in the flow’). You should be seeking to build empowered learning cultures that encourage and support informal, situational, and experiential learning.

20 - By developing coaching cultures, building workplace mentoring, and supporting managers, you can help your learners make sense of their experiences, which will help them apply what they are learning.

10 – Structured training has a very real place, but you should consider how technology can support its delivery. For example, think about and adopt a ‘digitally blended’ approach, such as using ‘flipped classrooms’ to help learners contextualise and embed what they’ve learned through digital means and elsewhere.