Do you really have a learning culture?  Ask yourself these questions:

 

• Is it safe to learn in your culture? How are mistakes and failures treated?  Are they just that, mistakes and failures, or are they "inventions?"

• How many situations are you facing where there is no clear answer or solution to a challenge?  If you are like most organizations today, you are facing many.  What do you do?  Rush to fix it or take a step back and invite others to the table to collaborate? What does that collaboration look like? Are your meetings there to "inform" the team or are they designed to gather broader perspectives?

• What constraints are keeping people from reaching their full potential? Are they addressed?

• How does reflection, candor and dissent happen in your organization?

• How is risk taking treated?

• Are you building teams of people that can manage diverse opinions, collaborate through conflict and learn, or are you building individual stars?  

• Are you requiring people to innovate and master new skills?

• Are you rewarding people for the contributions and ideas they give to others, that are then implemented?

• Does your organization walk the talk in promoting a "growth mindset?"

• Does your team practice deliberately, with mastery in mind for the most critical tasks, or do they work on key skills "when they can find the time."

• Do your employees learn in the flow of work, or only when they "take a class?"

 

These are all signs that you don't have the learning culture that you could or should.

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