“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while those that know it all find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” — Eric Hoffer.

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” — John F. Kennedy

These two quotes describe why we all need to be learning leaders.   Being a learning leader is the only way our companies will become learning companies able to move forward successfully whatever the future may hold.  Below are five reminders of how we can build a learning company.

Lead by Example

As leaders, we need to be learners ourselves.  We need to be humble about what we know and always willing to challenge our ideas and assumptions and learn new things.  And we need to be seen as learners.  Two ideas to try: today, we need to be at the front line of artificial intelligence – using it and driving its implementation in our companies; second, when someone refers an article or a book to us, we need to read the article or book and then re-engage with the person about it.

Promote Feedback

We need to work hard to get feedback about how we are working and how the company is doing from employees at all different levels of the company. Feedback provides a double check on whether the strategies and policies we are leading at the executive level are reaching the whole organization.  The best feedback is unfiltered, directly from the front lines (from the people who do the work).

Share Best Practices (and Worst Practices)

We need to create a formal system of sharing Best Practices that allows all parts of our companies to learn from one another, driving continuous improvement.  We also need to share what hasn’t worked so others can learn from mistakes and avoid them in the future.

Promote Contact Between Groups

Most companies have silos – sales, marketing, operations, accounting, finance, IT, project management, R&D… Yes, people in each of these silos are more comfortable interacting with people in their silo as they have (usually) similar personalities and job experiences.  But contact between groups is often where the best learning takes place.  Inter-group interactions are what can best streamline processes, create teamwork, and lead to continually better practices as obvious ideas in one area often can be unfamiliar, yet insightful, in another.  As Peter Cappelli writes in his book, In Praise of the Office: The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work, one of the biggest downsides of the remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic was not interaction amongst teams; it was the contact, interaction, and learning between teams that did not take place as everyone worked remote.

Remind… Don’t Teach

Winston Churchill says it well, “personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”  As learning leaders, we need to be humble to avoid being seen as know-it-alls.  By coaching and humbly reminding the team – “I know you already know this, but you may want to try…” – we don’t put ourselves above our teams.  This allows our employees to learn on their own terms without feeling as if they are being taught or lectured to.

Summary

Following these five ways to build a learning organization will keep our companies on the path to continuous improvement, making our companies better tomorrow than they are today just as our companies are better today than yesterday.