More than ever before in human history, our work habits, production models, and even people’s relationships are evolving at a very fast pace. To excel in this ever-changing world, lifelong learning, or the ability to be constantly learning throughout one’s life becomes key.
This concept, which has gained strength in recent years, is a reflection of how dynamic the current world has become, where professionals need to be always willing to learn something new, keeping up with the intense pace of the market.
Although continuous learning is mainly self-motivated, there are ways the organization can build a culture around learning, attracting people that are motivated by learning and implementing. In this context, companies can actually become active partners in their employees’ learning journey.
Find out more about the concept of lifelong learning, why it’s important to invest in this habit, and how to put it into practice within your organization.
What is lifelong learning?
Lifelong learning is about continuous learning and ongoing education throughout one’s life, emphasizing the need for individuals to constantly educate and develop themselves.
Beyond the educational field, in the corporate sector the concept has been adopted to encourage the strengthening of an organizational culture that values agile learners and the learning process among employees.
The benefits of investing in lifelong learning
The lack of learning opportunities are among the top reasons why people leave jobs, so investing in lifelong learning means keeping people engaged at work and building teams capable of standing out among other competitors, and solidifying the company’s position in the market.
Therefore, promoting continuing-education initiatives, such as training and personal development activities for employees, is a strategy that can translate into several benefits for companies, namely:
- Increased ability to solve day-to-day problems
- Fast adaptation to changes, such as rapid AI advancement
- Teams that have a holistic view of the business
- Valuing employees boosts their engagement, which, according to a Gallup report, has been shown to contribute to a 21% increase in profitability
- More and more opportunities to build a culture of innovation
15 Effective Strategies for Building a Lifelong Learning Culture
Despite being a widespread concept, lifelong learning is still not too widely applied by organizations in their day-to-day operations, at least not in a coordinated and strategic way. Hence, it is worth pointing out a few effective strategies to put continuous learning into practice.
Here are some strategies to turn lifelong learning into part of an organizations’ core:
#1 Go for a skills-based approach
Skills-based resume, skills-based hiring, skills-based learning, skills-based everything! The dynamics of talent management are changing, and college pedigree is no longer the primary focus of hires in many organizations.
With the skills needed to keep a business competitive changing so quickly, it makes sense to catalog the skills needed into smaller units of learning, which gives people access to a wider range of applicable knowledge.
#2 Add personalization
When people have access to learning opportunities that speak to their personal preferences, they are more likely to stay engaged and bring learning into their daily work activities.
How can you ensure personalized experiences for training programs that involve large teams? How can you reach individuals at their level?
The answer is in personalization, such as offering training that uses technologies like AI to “calibrate” the experience according to the demands and preferences of each learner.
#3 Foster collaborative groups
Create opportunities for people to collaborate to solve complex challenges enhanced by the power of the group, intercalated with OKRs that will keep established processes running.
For example, people from the sales and marketing team can come together to take a deep dive analyzing the buying experience customers are having, from the first impact in a marketing material until the sale is closed, to map and implement improvements.
These initiatives will be great opportunities for knowledge sharing and for an innovative culture to take place.
#4 Give people learning goals, focusing on process goals
Are you serious about lifelong learning? Then make sure that people have learning goals. Since lifelong learning is about the journey rather than the destination, focus on process goals instead of achievement goals.
For example, instead of stating a goal of reaching a certain level of proficiency, ask people to establish a goal related to the process of continuously learning, like taking one half-hour class with a tutor per week.
#5 Offer ways to document knowledge
In addition to hiring people with the profile of agile learners and promoting continuous learning practices, it is important to provide teams with technology and processes to document the tests, successes and errors that are part of the day-to-day business, so that they can be discussed and analyzed. Here are some examples:
- Recording sales calls with tools that allow insights in numbers, so others in onboarding or training can learn
- Software development documentation
- A/B test logs for sales funnel improvements
At Voxy, in addition to a tool for recording meetings and sales calls, we also use Guru to provide relevant information to teams.
#6 Open space for uncommon gatherings
Especially in remote teams, it’s important to open spaces for those unlikely spontaneous meetings that can result in professional growth and great ideas for the organization.
One example of this in action could be using a tool like Donut, which is an Slack extension that randomly connects people from time to time to a quick coffee and chat to talk freely.
#7 Embrace LIFOW
For the learning process to be meaningful and promote improvements in the way people do their work in the face of rapid market changes, embrace one of the hottest trends in the L&D market: LIFOW, or Learning in the Flow of Work.
That means upskilling in real-time, like training how to deliver a presentation in another language using the presentation itself, or learning a new skill by doing job shadowing or role playing with an experienced instructor.
#8 Set up a mentoring program
Mentoring programs are a great initiative for organizations that strive to excel in learning, because they provide the people with opportunity to grow and learn from people that are a few steps away from where they want to be, and the organization with ways to identify people that will step up to solve more business challenges in the future.
#9 Choose learning solutions that fit people’s hectic schedules
In many situations, the biggest impediment to people staying engaged with their training programs is the lack of time to fit active learning opportunities into their busy weeks.
To increase engagement with continuous learning, make learning more accessible and pervasive, which you can do in a few ways:
- Adoption of online training with short classes
- Training that can be done from any device
- Wide availability of schedules so that everyone can choose what fits into their routine
#10 Foster lifelong teachers
“Happy is the person who transfers what they know and learns what they teach” Cora Coralina
People love to have opportunities to learn and develop, and teaching is an awesome way to learn! From time to time, organize skill sharing and mentoring opportunities that will give people recognition as an authority in a given field or skill.
#11 Reflect it in the company values
How about reflecting lifelong learning in the company culture and values?
At Voxy, we relentlessly communicate a set of values to the team at every possible opportunity, and some of them are deeply related to continuous learning, like “ask why”, “dig deeper” and “communicate courageously”.
#12 Make space for lightness and fun
Many times people may have gone through experiences where learning was restricted to the school environment, without opportunities to be guided by the demands of curiosity, just to fulfill goals.
Therefore, offer opportunities in the L&D plan that combine the development of work skills with more personal agendas, such as wellness training, personal development or English for vacation trips, for example.
#13 Add future-proofing skills to the L&D Plan
While it’s important to quickly upskill the team to solve current business problems, make sure to add initiatives to the plan that will future-proof the organization.
And we’re not talking only about skills that will build a more data driven and tech savvy team, but skill sets that interconnect, like for example:
- C-levels getting training to communicate better on video
- Building remote teamwork skills for companies that plan to transition positions to hybrid or remote
- Training on ESG principles
- Training on how to leverage AI at work
- Training on effective communication
#14 Be time sensitive and attached to reality
Lower attention spans, the forgetting curve, hectic routines, the next big project to tackle… Everything conspires for corporate learners to forget what they learn before having the chance to put it into practice.
So in addition to offering future-proofing skills, make sure to offer corporate education that fulfills acute business needs, understanding the realities of daily work for people, and ensuring that training is fully aligned with the business context, beginning with professionals or teams that are underperforming.
One example of this could be a salesperson that needs to reach out to people from many different nationalities doing language training using previous sales calls and training role playing with people from different cultural backgrounds.
#15 Create themed channels
If the team makes daily use of communication tools such as Slack or Teams, create channels focused on learning, for example:
- A channel for a team of developers to exchange ideas about artificial intelligence and machine learning
- A channel for growth initiatives bringing sales and marketing teams together
- A channel for exchanging ideas on ESG initiatives
Final thoughts
In conclusion, building a learning culture at work through lifelong learning is crucial in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world.
Investing in continuous learning not only keeps employees engaged and motivated but also enables organizations to stand out and thrive in the market.
By implementing these strategies and fostering a learning culture, organizations can equip their employees with the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate a rapidly changing landscape, drive innovation, and achieve long-term success.
Lifelong learning becomes a shared endeavor between individuals and the organization, leading to continuous growth, improved performance, and a competitive edge in the market.
