5 Reasons Why Creating a Culture of Learning Will Increase Motivation

Does your company operate from a culture of learning mentality?

Creating a culture of learning in your organization is crucial for collaboration, adaptability, curiosity, and dynamism. Investing in the knowledge of your employees is the best way to not only grow your revenue, but to see innovation and progress within your company.

So what about motivation?

The word on everyone's mind these days is burnout. Companies are seeing their employees feeling tired, unmotivated, and overwhelmed. After a tumultuous year, it's understandable that people are experiencing buildups of stress.

In this resource, we unpack specifically how a culture of learning can improve motivation and even inspire positivity.

Creating a Culture of Learning

1. Increased Employee Satisfaction and Decreased Turnover:

A culture of learning implies that new things are abound. When employees are working in a highly-engaged, learning environment, there is likely to be a decrease in turnover.

Whether that be concepts, technologies, products, events, strategies, interesting conversations, or whatever else depends on the organization. But if you are able to successfully create a culture of learning, your employees will be less likely to feel stagnant in their careers and day-to-day work. And if employees are satisfied, they won’t leave their jobs.

Salespeople are taught to provide value to their customers. But who provides value to salespeople? The learning culture! In a learning environment, there is unlimited value.

2. Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration:

At CFS we believe in the power of the team; that when top performers share, the whole team wins. If a learning culture is established, then employees at all ranks will be encouraged to communicate and take what they can from the experience of others.

This then promotes teamwork, cross-department collaboration, and an open-door policy, which could yield trust within an organization.

For example: if an employee made a mistake in a culture that is negative or punitive, they will likely do whatever they can to keep it from getting out, which could cause more damage. But if they made this mistake in a learning culture, they might be more open to flagging their own error and taking responsibility. They could take it to their manager directly, who could offer a solution or have advice on how to avoid future mishaps.

In other words, a learning culture not only promotes trust, but accountability.

3. Sense of Ownership and Accountability:

When you're working to build a culture of learning, holding each member accountable creates long term success. Accountability refers to being honest with yourself and others, especially in a way that encourages progress.

For example, it's important to encourage your team to share their best practices and recognize them for what they share.

As the team begins sharing best practices, the door to feeling a sense of ownership opens. People will want the recognition that comes from their ideas and thus they will be more willing to share them in the first place.

Recognizing the achievements of your sales team is vital for motivation.

Recognition means acknowledging your team and their work. Be sure to do this more than just at an annual review! Praise goes a long way for motivation, especially if it's on the terms of the employee. (If someone is especially shy, maybe send them a nice email. If you know someone would like more attention, maybe give them a shout out on a meeting.)

4. Constant Innovation:

A culture of learning means an openness to new ideas and to asking questions. There will be greater leaps and bounds towards innovation.

Mental models will begin to change as people see things differently. A dynamic learning culture and new ideas will start to come along more naturally.

Ideally, this culture trickles all the way down to the products, services, or offerings of the business. The more innovative a team is encouraged to be, the more their offerings will improve, progress, and expand.

5. Better Relationships and Teamwork:

Lastly, knowledge-sharing is one of the best ways to build and nurture relationships. When people realize that they are all working towards the same big picture, there will be less competition and more teamwork.

The best way to launch a culture of learning in any organization is from the top down. When senior management is promoting idea-sharing and question-asking, lower-level employees will follow suit.

Set time aside to share best practices and get employees talking. After over a year of being so separated, coming together for honest conversations about lessons learned or past experiences might just be what the team needs to feel motivated: a sense of connection.

What is your key to creating a culture of learning? Why do you believe having a culture of learning is crucial for the success of any business? We'd love to hear from you. Comment below!