Why learning is essential

In the course of our lives, the first 20ish years are dedicated to school. We might attend university and get a degree, but eventually, the learning period ends, and we enter the world of work. We will work for the next 40 years. As we face new activities and responsibilities in this journey, our attention is drawn away, draining our energy; the time we allocate for studying shrinks and eventually gets neglected. We learn primarily by doing and by mimicking the behavior of others. Work is designed to be the place for doing things, not the place for studying.

Unfortunately, the world around us doesn't stand still. Technology is evolving in a way never seen before; competition is global and fierce, and the requested quality is getting higher and higher. How can we stay relevant without learning new things?

If we agree on the importance of continuous learning, the challenge is how to put this idea into practice. Specifically, how can we create spaces and reserve time in our organization to foster a learning mentality? Let's dive into the topic.

The Flaws in Traditional Learning Method.

Learning by doing and learning by others propagates an established way of working. Still, it is ineffective when we need to learn something new, something outside the company's knowledge base. As managers, when we sense a knowledge gap, we often decide to organize training to fill the gap. We might have an annual budget dedicated to training or ask for additional funding and then send people to training, and we expect the gap to be filled. In another scenario, HR has planned the training. Like in the previous situation, we send people to training, and it's considered done.

At best, the impact of these initiatives is lackluster.

The main reason is the training is disconnected from the day-to-day work. When people come back from training, they are overwhelmed by the work left behind during their time away. They don't have space to experiment and put into practice the new notions learned. Without the opportunity to sediment the knowledge and practice it, the positive effect of training evaporates quickly. Sharing the acquired knowledge with other colleagues is also impossible in this situation.

Everyone involved in this process is acting with the best possible intentions; it's not the fault of who organizes the training, the people who attend, or the trainer's expertise. To make an analogy, the training done this way is like sowing a seed without providing water and maintenance at the soil afterward. It's a systemic problem; the only solution is to intervene in the system.

Making Learning a Habit

Let's try a different approach: What if we turn learning from a once-in-a-while activity separated from day-to-day work into a recurring habit practiced daily during regular working hours?

By habit, I mean that everyone in the company should be able to cultivate a learning routine. However, learning alone could be daunting in the long run, so we should also encourage a group habit of sharing and co-learning. The opportunity to discuss new concepts with peers not only keeps the motivation up but also clarifies the concepts.

"If you want to master something, teach it. The more you teach, the better you learn." Richard Feynman.

How to create a habit

Unfortunately, creating a habit is not trivial, even if everyone involved perceives it as positive and essential.

Take regular physical activity. Although it's commonly accepted that it has a positive effect on health, we find it difficult to practice it regularly.

First, we cannot force people to adopt a habit, even a healthy one. Second, we need to find the time to exercise (not having time is the greatest excuse), and third, we must keep our motivation up (that's why people sign up for the gym and then give up after a couple of weeks).

I can share my personal experience as an example. I love to run, and I always loved to do sports. To keep up the running habit, I schedule my runs weekly and reserve the time on the calendar; to keep the motivation up, I regularly exercise with others.

We cannot force someone to do physical exercise regularly, and we cannot force someone to study and learn. However, as I do with my running, we could follow a similar approach and set up the environment to create favorable conditions for people to learn.

We'll do this by working on processes and leading by example.

Personal Budget & Corporate Budget

First, a dedicated budget is needed for each employee. People should be free to choose books, online courses, or subscriptions to digital content. I prefer to let people choose unsupervised, so they don't need anyone's approval to complete the transaction, adhering to only two constraints:

• Topics must be work-related, meaning you are not allowed to spend on a cuisine course, but you can study a technology or a method not currently used in the company.
• The person must spend the money wisely and with care as if it were their personal pocket money.

The budget could range from a few hundred euros per year up to a thousand. At Nebulab, we also experimented with no-fixed budget allocation for personal studying, and we found that people spent less, not more, than when we had a fixed budget.

We could then maintain a budget for company initiatives and fund strategic training. The typical training mechanism introduced at the beginning of this post falls into this category.

For example, we decided that deepening our knowledge of Shopify was strategic, so we promoted a company-wide initiative without questioning the personal budget.

It is essential to treat these budgets as investments, not expenses. They are a sort of CAPEX on people.

I use the term CAPEX in a figurative way; I'm not suggesting that those expenses can be accounted for as CAPEX.

Reserve Time

Reserving time is crucial to any learning activity. The pressure from day-to-day activities and deadlines is strong, and deliberate practices must continuously balance this pressure to safeguard the learning time.

First, we must adopt the idea that learning time is not optional; it's working time and must be scheduled and preserved like any other work-related activity.

For example, at XPeppers, we had the "Pomodoro of Study" scheduled for 30 minutes daily after lunch. During that time, no meetings or customer activities were planned. It was not always possible, but we treated the exceptions as exceptions, something that happens rarely. I'm aware of companies reserving Friday afternoons for learning activities, while others simply declare the amount of hours per week dedicated to learning and leave people or teams to decide the schedule.

We can discuss the pros and cons of any proposed solution; however, what is essential is to have an explicit policy.

Having reserved time allows people returning from training to consolidate their knowledge, experiment, and practice what they learned during the course.

Some people will dedicate personal time, outside of working hours, to individual study (myself included). However, it is a personal choice and cannot be enforced at the company level. If it happens, that would be great, but it must not be counted in your learning policy.

Sustain Learning

Having resources to fund the learning, reserve the time to study, and clearly communicate the policies company-wide is necessary but not sufficient to create the learning habit. We need to enforce this policy by adopting a few strategies:

• Lead by example: Engage with recognized figures in the company to set an example and lead the initiative. I'm not referring to people with a specific leadership role but people perceived as leaders by peers in a specific topic, someone who is heard by others.
• Regular Check-ins: Discuss learning during one-on-one or even more casual conversations with employees. You can ask, "Were you able to study during this period?" "Is there something I could do to preserve your time?"
• Encourage Sharing: Enforce the idea of sharing what was learned. Suggest running an informal presentation to the team or a group of people, writing an internal or public blog post, or giving a company presentation. This practice has the double benefit of sharing the acquired knowledge and motivating people. The only caution to apply is that only some people are willing to present in public; if you notice this situation, suggest keeping the audience small, even down to one colleague.
• Performance Reviews: In performance reviews, evaluate professional growth rather than the study per se ("How many books have you read in the last six months" is not a relevant metric). For senior roles, evaluate how they have supported the more junior colleagues in their learning. Make this policy explicit.
• Visibility: In general, make the learning activities as visible as possible. It is crucial in a remote setting where we don't have the information radiator of someone having a book on their desk or studying at their desk. Have a dedicated Slack channel to share links, articles, books, or even this blog post 😊 with colleagues.
• Internal Training and Conferences: Organize internal training sessions and use company retreats as internal conferences to promote learning and knowledge sharing.
• Lead by example, part 2: As managers, we must set an example. We need to study and make it visible. For example, book a learning slot in your public calendar. When the opportunity arises, mention what you are studying and have a conversation on the topic.

Constantly keep the lights on regarding learning. Remember that we need to counterbalance the pressure from day-to-day and stressful periods constantly.

Community of Practice (COPs)

What about the Community of Practice (COPs), made famous by various organizational frameworks? I'm skeptical about them. It's tough for a COP created top-down to last. Just as you can't impose physical activity on someone, you cannot mandate that a predetermined set of people who have in common a function must meet every week to discuss something related to their function. It might work for the first few months, but it will likely disappear under the pressure of day-to-day work. However, if a COP emerges organically from the employees who gather around a shared purpose, it can be a different story.

Beyond Tech: Learning for All Departments

It is a fact that technology is evolving vigorously, and we need to learn to keep up. However, learning must be broader than just ICT and technical roles. Departments like marketing, people management, and finance are also affected by rapid changes and need continuous learning. For instance, marketing teams can benefit from learning about the latest digital marketing strategies and tools, while people departments can stay updated on remote working trends.

There are cross-department themes we need to address and train for. These include themes related to diversity, such as gender parity, ethnicity, and generational diversity, as well as sustainability and the opportunities and challenges of a green economy.

In a previous article, I stated that management is a multidisciplinary role. This means we also need to study to gain knowledge in different disciplines and be an active part of continuous learning.

Final thoughts

Continuous learning is essential for staying relevant in a rapidly evolving world. We can see it as a risk management activity: we invest now to build an adaptive, resilient, and knowledgeable workforce better equipped to handle the unknown changes of tomorrow.

Integrating learning into daily routines makes traditional sporadic training more effective, providing space and time for practice and consolidation of new skills.

Extending this approach beyond technical roles to encompass all departments to address broader themes ensures our teams remain motivated and up-to-date. Only through learning can we effectively navigate the complexity and uncertainty of the modern world.

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