For your startup company to grow, it isn’t enough to just invest on the infrastructure. You would also want to invest in the growth of your team. Here, employee education becomes an essential component.
But for your team to really get more out of the education, they need to be more receptive to it. Developing a strong culture of learning in the company is essential for making that happen. Let’s explore how you can better incorporate it into your overall company culture.
Why A Culture Of Learning Matters For Your Startup Company
Simply put, a culture of learning is one where your team actively strives to learn more about their work. Here, curiosity becomes a defining trait as they seek to better understand not just the tasks but the business as a whole. There is also a strong emphasis on knowledge sharing between members of the stream.
Introducing that culture can benefit both your startup business and employees greatly. Here are some of the important benefits that such a culture brings.
Providing A Competitive Edge
As we have mentioned earlier, good business infrastructure isn’t the only thing that can propel your business over competitors. With a culture of learning, your team becomes your greatest asset. After all, they are prepared to learn more about your business, and that knowledge can help them perform better. With that, you know you can provide quality service for your customers.
Driving Innovation For Your Business
A learning culture also drives innovation within your startup company. Here, your employees become more invested in improving the business. In particular, they become more open to learning from their mistakes. There is also a strong sense of experimentation that will help you discover new ways to develop your services.
Better Organizational Strategy
As your startup business grows, its organizational structure also becomes more complex. A learning culture will help your team become more prepared in transitioning to these more complex organizations. The culture will also help you determine which people are best suited for specific roles.
Better Talent Retention
Developing a culture of learning also helps you retain the best talents. Here, you need to be aware that employees are now looking for a different relationship with management. One thing they want is a company that will help them advance their career. By building a culture of learning, you show them that you are that company.
What Makes Up A Culture Of Learning
Building a culture of learning within your startup business requires a lot of planning and patience. After all, you are introducing a significant amount of change in the way your team does its work. There are three different facets you want to explore when introducing this culture into your team.
Psychological
You want the people within your company to have a change in understanding of their work. The learning culture should help them get a better idea of why their work matters. The new knowledge they gain should also help them get a better perspective of where they go on their personal growth.
Behavioral
A change in mindset should also result in a change in behavior. The learner discovers how they can do things differently to achieve their desired results. They get to understand what mistakes they made before and how to correct them. Experimentation also becomes an essential part, helping your team see new ways of doing things.
Convictional
The last part that you have to consider is how to get that change in mindset and behavior to become your team’s new norm. Your goal here is to spark that “aha!” moment that makes them realize this is the way to go. This requires a bit of nudging to help your team come to that conclusion.
All of these aspects come together to create a more transformative learning culture. This approach lets everyone get a much broader perspective of what they are doing. You also integrate learning as a natural process in their daily work.
How Your Startup Company Should Develop A Culture Of Learning
Trying to enforce such a culture is not the way to go here. Instead, you want it to be something that your team can more intuitively adapt to. To achieve it, you need to be more strategic in your approach.
Making Learning As A Core Startup Company Value
The process begins by incorporating learning as an essential company value. During orientation, you need to emphasize how the organization and the workers themselves benefit from it. You can also help them see where the culture can bring them in their career.
Of course, you also need to show that management is ready to support the culture. Show them that you yourself value learning from them. This orientation encourages them to further their studies so that they can share something with you.
Creating Personalized Learning Strategies
One thing you need to understand when building this culture is that each person learns in a different way. Thus, you want to provide a more personalized approach for each member of your team. For that, you should know the specific learning goals each employee wants to achieve. You can then group together the ones that have similar goals and provide a more unified learning experience for them.
Pay attention as well to personalized coaching. Letting your team members access one to one sessions gives them more freedom to talk about their career goals. Coaches can also help guide your employees towards the right direction.
Making Learning Enjoyable For Your Startup Company
Your employees will not get into the habit of learning if they find it too cumbersome to do so. As such, you want to make it more accessible for them. The trick here is to ensure that all the learning resources they need are within their grasp. Take advantage of online connectivity to let them study wherever they might be.
On the other hand, you would also want to encourage group learning sessions as much as possible. These sessions allow your team members to get useful information from their peers. You will also find that they will be able to learn faster when they are with others. But do remember that not everyone might be into this, so give them the freedom of options.
It is also essential that you don’t forget the fun factor. Startup company employees will see it as a chore if the experience itself is very dull. Look for various ways to inject that fun into the experience. Rewards programs are a popular strategy, as your team has more incentives to participate.
Move Your Startup Company Forward Through A Love For learning
Integrating a culture of learning into the professional environment of your startup company takes time. But once you have it in place, you will marvel at what it can do for your team and business. So, get started today and instill the love of learning in everyone.