As we discussed in our previous post, an organization’s ability to learn continuously is more than just a nice thing to have—it’s a critical competitive advantage.
As Mark Schwartz argues in The (Delicate) Art of Bureaucracy, successful organizations don’t just encourage learning—they systematically embed it into their operational fabric through what he calls “learning bureaucracy.”
As Gene Kim and Dr. Steven J. Spear note in their award-winning book Wiring the Winning Organization, the most successful organizations create the conditions in which people can solve difficult problems and bring new insights into practice quickly and effectively. That is, leaders can wire their organization for success by not just encouraging but enabling continuous learning.
Let’s dive into some tips on how to enable continuous learning in your organization.
Building the Right Environment
1. Protected Time and Space
According to research presented in the guidance paper “How to Thrive (or Fail) in Building a Learning Culture,” leaders must provide both time and physical space for learning to occur. This means:
- Dedicated time blocks for learning activities (like Google’s famous 20% time).
- Physical or virtual spaces conducive to collaboration and experimentation.
- Clear signals that using this time/space for learning is encouraged, not penalized.
A cautionary tale from the guidance paper describes an organization that invested heavily in innovation centers with design-thinking tools and collaboration areas. Despite the investment, employees avoided using these spaces because taking time for learning was politically seen as not doing “real work.” The lesson? Both space and cultural permission are essential.
2. Effective Knowledge-Sharing Systems
In Sooner Safer Happier, Jonathan Smart and his coauthors warn against creating “learning bubbles” or silos where knowledge gets trapped within teams or departments. To prevent this, organizations need robust systems for sharing learning:
- Shared documentation platforms that are easily searchable.
- Regular cross-team learning sessions.
- Communities of practice around specific domains.
- Mechanisms for capturing and sharing lessons learned.
- Clear processes for transferring knowledge when team members change roles.
Toyota, as described in Wiring the Winning Organization, provides an excellent example through their systematic approach to sharing learning across teams. When one team discovers a better way of working, they have specific processes to ensure that learning spreads throughout the organization.
Making Learning Systematic
Mark Schwartz argues in The (Delicate) Art of Bureaucracy that organizations need to go beyond just encouraging learning—they need to systematically embed it into their operational fabric. Here are practical approaches:
Build Learning Checkpoints Into Regular Work
- Brief retrospectives after each significant piece of work
- Regular team learning reviews
- “Pre-mortems” before starting new initiatives
- Structured debriefs after incidents or failures
Create Learning Feedback Loops
- Automated testing that provides immediate feedback
- Monitoring systems that highlight areas for improvement
- Regular customer feedback sessions
- Metrics that show the impact of learning initiatives
Enable Cross-Pollination
- Rotate team members across different projects
- Create cross-functional teams
- Hold regular knowledge-sharing sessions
- Build mentorship programs
Several tools can help enable continuous learning:
Documentation and Knowledge Sharing
- Wiki platforms
- Internal blogs
- Video sharing platforms
- Collaborative documentation tools
Communication and Collaboration
- Chat platforms with good search capabilities
- Virtual whiteboarding tools
- Screen sharing and recording tools
- Project management platforms with good visibility
Learning Management
- Learning management systems
- Skills tracking tools
- Certification platforms
- Mentorship matching systems
Measuring Learning Impact
Traditional metrics like training hours completed don’t capture real learning impact. As demonstrated in Sooner Safer Happier, organizations should focus on outcome-based measures. As stated in the book:
“A focus on output, rather than outcomes, guides behavior away from continuous learning, reflection, and adaptation…In a learning organization, continuous learning happens at the individual level, the team level, and the organizational level at the same time. The absence of any of these layers prevents the creation of a learning organization and keeps knowledge siloed inside learning bubbles. Focusing on outcomes with nested learning loops promotes organization learning and continuous improvement.”
Barclays provides a compelling example. As documented in Sooner Safer Happier, when they shifted focus to measuring actual business outcomes, they saw dramatic improvements: lead times decreased by two-thirds, throughput tripled, and incident rates fell by a factor of twenty.
Getting Started
Begin with these concrete steps:
1. Audit your current learning environment
- Where does knowledge sharing happen now?
- What barriers exist to learning?
- What tools are already available?
2. Start small
- Choose one team as a pilot
- Implement basic learning practices
- Measure results
- Use lessons learned to expand to other teams
3. Build momentum
- Share early successes
- Celebrate learning moments
- Address barriers as they arise
- Continuously gather feedback and adjust
The key is moving beyond just encouraging learning to actually enabling it through concrete systems, tools, and practices. As Kim and Spear emphasize in Wiring the Winning Organization, leaders must create the conditions where continuous learning becomes a natural part of how work gets done.
Remember: the goal isn’t to create perfect learning systems from the start, but to begin building the infrastructure that makes continuous learning possible and practical.
Next week, we’ll explore how leaders can model and encourage these learning behaviors throughout their organizations.
– About The Authors
Leah Brown
Managing Editor at IT Revolution working on publishing books and guidance papers for the modern business leader. I also oversee the production of the IT Revolution blog, combining the best of responsible, human-centered content with the assistance of AI tools.
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