Lifelong learning: The solution for employee stagnation, innovation challenges and a lack of motivation?
Absolutely.
Although organisations and leaders who encourage lifelong learning will be more able to adapt, innovate and stay competitive, not everyone is on board yet. But continuous personal and professional growth, especially when it’s self-directed and personalised, keeps us relevant, confident and current.
Lifelong learning at work is as much about developing purpose-led ‘whole self’ interests as it is about practical upskilling for our current or next role.
Whether through formal or informal means (be it courses, workshops, talks or bite-sized learning chunks), non-mandatory continuous learning makes us more employable. It might be functional, technical/digital, interpersonal, academic or social.
The LinkedIn Learning 2024 Workplace Learning Report highlights just how much learning amplifies connection and purpose. It describes learning as a ‘secret sauce’ for camaraderie and meaning. As organisations grapple with how best to engage dispersed and diverse teams, learning enhances people’s sense of connection and significance in their work. The report shows that 7 in 10 people say learning improves their sense of connection to their organisation and 8 in 10 say it adds purpose.
What’s not to like? Surely it makes sense for organisations to build a culture of (and clear strategy for) continuous learning that all employees can benefit from, no matter what stage they’re at in their careers, from entry level to CEO.
What does it take to build a lifelong learning culture?
Ingredient No.1: Open mindset
Embracing the idea of lifelong learning is to embrace an open, growth mindset, and an interest in improving the whole self.
We’re not just talking about completing a bunch of job-specific training programmes to get to the next level.
Continuous learning at work is wider than that. Valued employees improving themselves and reaching their career aspirations and professional goals isn’t a perk of the job. It’s about vital self-discovery and is fundamental to their ability to collaborate with others and feel confident about how they contribute.
Change is good!
Scaling curiosity, empathy and adaptability will help employees and organisations thrive. Learning new methods and techniques often leads to resistance, stress and burnout. But given that change is here to stay, the conversation needs to progress to how to be build a workforce so used to change and so flexible, adaptable and agile that they don’t associate it with stress or negativity.
But wait: what if your team isn’t against change, but isn’t keen on self-improvement?
Not everyone has a desire to keep learning new things or improve themselves intellectually. Some people fear new ways of doing things will expose weaknesses and invite unnecessary stress and self-doubt. They may feel perfectly equipped to do their current job.
This type of entrenched thinking, as written about by organisational psychologist Adam Grant, isn’t helpful in changing times.
Often, we think we know the right way to do something. The reality is that we know ONE way to do something and there is always more to learn. Sometimes we can have so much knowledge in an area that we start to take for granted assumptions that need to be questioned. But once we understand that different perspectives exist, it can help to revisit concepts from those new perspectives.
We can and should help less curious employees develop themselves and their ability to collaborate effectively. If they’re not open to updating their skills, knowledge and interpersonal skills either through lack of confidence or entrenched thinking, we must strive to understand what’s holding them back.
CHROs, HR and L&D teams must include everyone in the learning journey because it’s crucial for future-proofing. All generations, perspectives and personalities in any one workplace need to become adaptable on an organisational scale. To be able to continually adapt and reskill - and to share that new knowledge with colleagues - is a clear advantage.
Want to find out why a growth mindset is so important? Check out our blog here.
Ingredient No.2: Self-Awareness – and a desire to improve it
If ingredient number one to embracing lifelong learning is an open mindset, then in equal first place is self-awareness.
At Insights, we see lifelong learning as much about improving interpersonal skills and the understanding of self and others, as it is about learning practical, functional skills designed to achieve organisational goals.
In our decades of work with company leaders and employees, we’ve focused on helping people understand their motivations and behavioural preferences better and the impact of these on how they interact with others. Through this work, we know that being better at interpersonal skills is as important as any other kind of job-related ‘upskilling’.
The most switched-on leaders in HR strive to understand how their employees’ personal values affect their sense of self, their communication style and the way they choose to problem-solve and collaborate on projects. They help people develop a stronger sense of self and bring a proactive energy to their work.
We know through our work with leaders, managers and employees that the self-awareness-led ‘power skills’ such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving and leadership are easily as important as acquiring new digital skills or learning to work with AI.
People’s varied reactions to AI are a great example. Comfort with AI often reflects a person’s mindset and openness to learning. As economist Richard Baldwin implied at the 2023 World Economic Forum's Growth Summit, it’s not about whether AI will take your job, it’s about whether the person comfortable with using AI will take your job!
Looking to find out more about what self-awareness actually mean? Download our whitepaper here.
Ingredient No.3: Psychological safety
Psychological safety means lowering the stakes around speaking up. People need to feel free to express new ideas and concerns without fear of retribution. When people DO start to embrace change and take on new skills, organisational leaders must prioritise building psychological safety. Encouraging this kind of dialogue – and protecting it – is as critical to future success as the ability to ‘rethink’. People need to believe that they have a real opportunity to learn and grow and be fully supported in that.
At Insights we’ve helped countless leaders lay the cornerstone for psychological safety in their organisations. We help teams adopt a common language to embrace differences. This includes valuing diversity and recognising various ways of doing things.
To find out more, download our psychological safety eBook here.
What stops organisations embracing the concept?
Resisters might cite lack of time, lack of budget, lack of resources, lack of leadership support or lack of confidence. We know that leaders and their teams may simply be afraid of failure or be anxious about being able to cope with unfamiliar concepts or tools.
But…if the whole culture shifts to help employees grow their skills and impact, it will benefit them long-term. This change will also boost engagement and retention.
The risks of not investing time, money and effort into continuous learning is that workforce development and attitudes become stagnant. Individuals secure in their comfort zones become slow to generate new ideas, and organisations lose their competitive edge. Additionally, there is the very real danger of not being able to attract proactive self-developers, and that will slow companies down.
Brandon Busteed (former Executive Director at Gallup of Education & Workforce Development) wrote in Forbes as far back as 2020:
“Employers can no longer assume that a sprinkling of compliance training, some occasional professional development and some sporadic technical re-skilling will turn their human capital into lifelong learners. It will require them to transform everything from how hours are spent during the workday to how continual learning and education will be financed. What every CEO will soon realise is that business transformations require human capital transformations. And once that realisation sinks in, we will all become lifelong learners – whether we like it or not.”
Lifelong learning: Helpful reminders
A closing thought...
Given that our flagship self-awareness programme, Insights Discovery, is often integrated into ongoing personal and professional development plans, we care deeply about lifelong learning!
In our case we focus on an individual’s lead colour energies, their communication and collaboration style, and how that affects team dynamics.
Feedback sessions conducted by a professionally accredited Insights Discovery practitioner enable participants to interpret their profiles and use the insights to improve their interactions with others. It helps with self-awareness, team collaboration, leadership training, conflict resolution and employee engagement.
Insights Discovery is an L&D training system that creates high-performing teams by enhancing awareness and workplace relationships. Using a memorable four-colour model to illustrate different behavioural styles, it creates a common language that connects colleagues across geographical and cultural boundaries, fostering collaboration, driving productivity and transforming workplaces.
