Learning culture: what is it and what are its benefits?

In the business world, a learning culture is when an organization prioritizes and encourages learning within its teams. These organizations understand the importance and benefits of creating and maintaining a learning culture. They are often referred to as learning organizations.

But what exactly is a learning culture and what are the benefits?

What is a culture?

To understand what a learning culture is, it is important to first understand what a culture is. A culture is the confluence of values, beliefs, and behaviours of individuals and their communities. A learning culture is when an organization values, encourages, and fosters learning within its teams.

What are the benefits of creating a learning culture?

Higher engagement

Organizations that maintain a learning culture are able to see the great benefits that it brings them. Indeed, these organizations have a high level of employee engagement. Organizations with a learning culture have a very low turnover rate. When you consider how costly it is for an organization to replace an employee when they leave, you can see that a high level of retention is a great benefit.

Dynamic contribution and improved capacity for innovation

There is also a strong sense of belonging that translates into a strong desire to contribute to the success of the company, as well as the success of their colleagues. It goes without saying that organizations that stand out in terms of learning culture have a remarkable capacity for innovation.

Greater agility and adaptability

A learning culture also fosters the ability of organizations to deal with complex and ambitious challenges, as well as the ease of adapting to destabilizing and ambiguous situations. An excellent example of this is the immense challenge that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to all organizations, and how they had to and continue to be agile in order to adapt to a new reality.

How to transform a culture?

Now that you understand how beneficial it is to establish a learning culture in your organization, you may wonder how you can implement such a culture in your company.

First of all, it is important to know that it is not the organizations that change, it is the people within them that do.

Therefore, to undertake a cultural transformation within an organization, individuals must first adopt new values and beliefs. Integrating these values and beliefs will then have an impact on their behaviour. When enough individuals have assimilated these new behaviours, their influence will be felt in the collective values and beliefs, resulting in a change in behaviour for the entire community.

The good news is that it is never too late to start integrating simple and concrete practices that, little by little, will transform the organization’s culture towards a learning culture. And that’s exactly what we do at Boostalab: accompany organizations in a cultural transformation that will benefit both the individuals and the group!