Learn or Languish: Creating a Culture That Learns Faster Than It Fails

In fifteen separate interviews with employees (from executives to trades) and consultants who specialize in structured problem-solving regarding what is required to achieve and maintain a high level of safety in a work environment, developing a learning culture was something that each interviewee said was crucial. But what is a learning culture – and how does an organization develop one?

A human resources expert once told me during a root cause investigation that culture = behavior. This isn’t entirely true – behavior is the outcome of culture plus the work environment. Still, I thought it made a lot of sense because it helped pin the often nebulous term “culture” to something much more specific. Individuals learn from experiences – and they have new experiences every single day. Most of the time, the process of learning is relatively passive. We don’t go through our days actively looking for learning opportunities – they just seem to find us. The hope is that the “lessons” our work life teaches us aren’t the result of significant negative impact. But we can do better than that. A learning culture actively seeks opportunities to grow and improve. It encourages active learning on the individual level. And it identifies and propagates learning at the organizational level. And when successful, a culture learns faster than it fails. This results in greater safety, adaptability, higher quality, and maximizes profitability.

This presentation will describe the process and pitfalls of cultivating a culture that learns and adapts over time. What are the key ingredients? Who needs to be involved, and how? How can the culture be sustained even in the face of individual turnover and advancement?

The information presented will be based upon detailed interviews with industry leaders from many different companies as well as from our own experience as leading root cause investigators.

Learning Outcomes (3):

• Define the term “learning culture” as it relates to an organization in a specific and meaningful way.
• Identify how a culture learns from its collective experiences over time.
• Know the roles and responsibilities at each level of the organization in developing a learning culture.