Organizational culture has always fascinated me. From fertile ground in which everyone blooms and grows, to scrubland in which only the weeds succeed, organizational culture determines what grows and what withers.
In the era of the employer brand, many organizations claim to have a “learning culture.” These claims with their promise of advancement and continued development to meet a new recruit’s ambitions and aspirations are easily made, but what does having a learning culture actually mean? Is there a culture in which learning doesn’t happen?
As attention increasingly is turned to informal learning and learning through work, it is appropriate to consider the impact of culture not only on how and when people learn, but what they learn, as well.
The truth is that all cultures are learning cultures because people continually learn. In a nurturing and positive culture, people learn the right things and adopt behaviors that are positive. However, not all cultures are positive. In glib terms, organizational culture often is reduced to “the way we do things around here.” And while that is a perfectly valid definition, it contains no promise of doing the right things or doing things right.
Whenever a scandal comes to light perpetrated by banks, sports governing bodies, care homes, detention centers, or police services, eventually a commentator will describe the culture as “toxic.” Senior managers will claim they didn’t know anything about what was going on, and the deputy heads of rogue departments will roll. These examples suggest that culture, far from being created by board dictate or HR strategy, grows independently of organizational intent.
In those situations when a culture is less than positive, what do people learn? People at work are natural survivors and “the way we do things around here” is part of the survival strategy. Fitting in quickly becomes joining in. Learning how corners are cut and procedures can be circumvented is common when the alternative is the uncertainty of whistleblowing.
Just to create more concern for culture, my research has shown that the culture and practice surrounding an individual will have more impact on how he or she works and performs than anything promoted through the formal interventions of the Learning & Development (L&D) team. It would seem that informal learning plays a role in every work environment. If that work environment is high performing and focused on organizational strategy and mission, then what is learned informally should promote the positive performance required. When team culture is focused on internal competition, bending the rules, or fiddling the figures, guess what people learn?
The real lesson from looking at culture is that informal learning generally will reinforce and perpetuate the existing culture of the organization in which employees work. It is vital, therefore, that L&D teams investigate and address organizational and team culture. As professionals concerned with organizational performance, we need to align formal and informal learning approaches and work to support, recognize, and celebrate positive cultures. We need to change culture from “how we do things around here” to “how we do things right around here.”
There are three things that need to be in place to create positive learning cultures:
- Standards (including what I describe as “role clarity”): This includes a deep understanding of each individual’s purpose and how that supports the organization’s strategy and goals. Everyone should be able to describe what good looks like for their job and their team.
- Structures: These extend to having role models as coaches or buddies and regular interventions to identify cultural issues, both good and bad. These structures work best when L&D people have time to develop in-depth knowledge of each team and department and to have regular engagement where work happens, not just in the training center.
- Collaborative groups: These go beyond silos and departments, working collectively on significant issues, sharing good practices, and removing damaging internal competition.
Once there is some transparency about team and departmental ways of working, then the shady, disreputable, or downright criminal has less space to succeed. What’s more, the formal training inputs, which take up a relatively small amount of each individual’s working life, will have a chance of success.
We know that formal training and its various components—courses, e-learning programmes, internal communications and performance support—have much more chance of impact when there is consistency between what is learned in class and what happens in the workplace. Think of your formal inputs as seeds you sow. Creating learning opportunities in tune with a positive culture is like sowing seeds on fertile ground where they will grow and thrive. Sowing the seeds is only part of the job. Everything you plant will need watering, weeding, and the occasional bout of pruning to deliver the blossoms we seek.
Excerpt from “Informal Learning in Organizations: How to Create a Continuous Learning Culture” by Robin Hoyle (Kogan Page, September 2015). For more information, visit: www.koganpage.com/INFORMAL
Robin Hoyle is a writer, trainer, and senior consultant with Learnworks Ltd. He is author of two books: “Informal Learning in Organizations: How to Create a Continuous Learning Culture” and “Complete Training: From Recruitment to Retirement” (both published by Kogan Page). He is the chair of the World of Learning conference and a fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute.
