Tired of the usual end-of-year reflections?
Alongside the new year, you may be looking for a new practice to improve your organization’s competitiveness, talent, staying power, and smarts.
Conduct a learning culture audit to speed your organization along the learning culture continuum and to help you get stronger now.
A simple diagnostic can help you assess your organization and your leadership team’s orientation to learning. Examine characteristics of cultures that encourage or block learning to see how well you’re fostering an environment where everyone continuously learns and applies what they learn faster.
Consider each question carefully and think about your behavior and that of your colleagues. You might also want employees to complete such a survey to get a sense of how they feel you and the entire organization are doing.
By taking organizations through this audit, you demonstrate your willingness to ask tough questions and hear answers which are honest rather than reassuring. The self-assessment should take no more than 10 minutes and the lessons learned can focus your organization for at least the next year.
Instructions: Rank your organization on each characteristic on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being always no and 5 being always yes. At the bottom, tally your numbers to determine if your organization has more of a pro-learning or an anti-learning culture. Circle the items in each category that require special attention from you in the coming days, weeks, and year.
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Pro-learning culture |
1 – 5 |
Anti-learning culture |
1 – 5 |
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People at all levels ask questions and share stories about |
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Managers share information on a need-to-know basis. People keep secrets |
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Everyone creates, keeps, and propagates stories of |
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Everyone believes they know what to do, and they proceed on that |
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People take at least some time to reflect on what has |
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Little time or attention is given to understanding lessons learned from |
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People are treated as complex individuals. |
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People are treated like objects or resources without attention to their |
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Managers encourage continuous experimentation. |
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Employees proceed with work only when they feel certain of the outcome. |
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People are hired and promoted on the basis of their capacity |
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People are hired and promoted on the basis of their technical expertise |
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Performance reviews include and pay attention to what people |
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Performance reviews focus almost exclusively on what people have done. |
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Senior managers participate in training programs designed for |
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Senior managers appear only to “kick off” management training programs. |
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Senior managers are willing to explore their underlying |
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Senior managers are defensive and unwilling to explore their underlying |
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Conversations in management meetings constantly explore the |
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Conversations tend to move quickly to blaming and scapegoating with |
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Customer feedback is solicited, actively examined, and |
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Customer feedback is not solicited and is often ignored when it comes in |
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Managers presume that energy comes in large part from |
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Managers presume that energy comes from corporate success, meaning |
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Managers think about their learning quotient, that is, their |
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Managers think that they know all they need to know and that their |
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Total for pro-learning culture
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Total for anti-learning culture |
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The column with the highest total represents the type of culture you have today.
If you’re interested in handing out a copy of this assessment to the people you work with, download a copy. More, much more, on creating a learning culture can be found in
Creating a Learning Culture: Strategy, Technology, and Practice (Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press, 2004) and in the article Create a Learning Culture (Fast Company online resource center).
Happy New Year.
——–
Marcia Conner > www.marciaconner.com