Building Agility Through A Culture Of Continuous Learning

Ann Blakely is the managing principal of Baker Tilly's digital solutions practice, with a focus on modernizing legacy business models.

With the pace of technological advancements growing exponentially, organizations are feeling the pressure to continuously adapt or be left behind. Agility in the face of change is the key to achieving successful digital transformation. In fact, in 2018, agile companies were shown to achieve 60% higher revenue and profit growth than their less agile counterparts.

Although transparent communication, a collaborative environment and a culture of project management are critical elements of a strong organizational culture, there's another vital component that enhances resilience and fosters agility to support digital transformation: continuous learning.

The Importance Of Continuous Learning

Continuous learning is the process of nurturing a culture of learning and professional growth within an organization by supporting employees in regularly acquiring new knowledge and skills to stay competitive and relevant in their market or industry. Threats to current business models from ever-changing market dynamics impel organizations to invest in a culture of continuous learning to ensure employees can tackle incoming changes with confidence and agility.

Successful digital transformation necessitates employees with up-to-date skills, adaptability to a changing work routine and an innovative mindset. A culture of continuous learning supports employees in bridging skills gaps and can attract top talent to fill new roles. With 86% of employees saying, "They would change jobs if a new company offered them more opportunities for professional development," it’s clear individuals prioritize organizations that invest in their growth.

Employees accustomed to learning and evolving are better equipped to embrace new tools and methodologies, a necessity for handling the significant disruptions in technology, processes and workflows that come with digital transformation. Additionally, a continuous learning environment encourages employees to think creatively when developing new solutions. The ability to rethink traditional business processes and derive new ways of delivering value to customers is crucial to the success of your digital transformation efforts.

Organizations that fail to embrace a culture of continuous learning face significant risks to the success of their digital transformation initiatives, market relevance and employee retention. Resistance to change can be a significant barrier to success, often leading to operational inefficiencies, low-quality customer experiences and large investments that see little ROI. An organization that can't innovate risks becoming a competitive laggard, missing out on revenue opportunities. By taking a proactive approach to learning and professional development, organizations position themselves to stay ahead of the curve.

Strategies For Fostering A Culture Of Learning

Developing a culture of continuous learning requires clear strategic alignment, strong leadership commitment and consistent communication to generate buy-in across the organization. A few key strategies that organizations can employ to begin fostering a learning culture include the following:

1. Provide access to training resources.

Providing a variety of learning opportunities and resources ensures employees have easy access to professional development opportunities. Organizations can do this in a multitude of ways, such as building in-house learning programs, partnering with online learning platforms or offering financial support for external training programs to provide employees with discounted or free access to relevant courses. The more easily employees can access and enroll in courses and the more frequently they're encouraged to take advantage of these resources, the more learning engagement will increase across the organization.

2. Integrate learning into everyday tasks.

Integrating learning into daily work routines helps employees stay current on industry trends and technological advancements while feeling more engaged and valued by the organization. Incorporating learning goals into performance reviews, providing opportunities to apply new skills and allocating time each week for learning opportunities are all avenues an organization can take to ensure learning is ingrained into daily work.

3. Encourage knowledge sharing.

A collaborative environment where new and valuable information is disseminated across an organization ensures professional development isn't siloed in a particular department or workstream. Providing mentorship opportunities or creating regular “innovation hour” team meetings where employees can share new skills or technology tips creates a structured forum for information and expertise to be shared.

The Key To Thriving In A Changing Market

Fostering agility in your workforce through the development of a culture of continuous learning isn't just a strategy—it’s a necessity. Fostering this culture creates an agile, adaptable and innovative workforce that’s prepared and supportive of changes resulting from the necessity to grow and adapt to market changes. By providing easy and integrated access to skills development and knowledge dissemination, organizations not only empower their workforce to tackle changes head-on but also invest in both their individual and collective future successes.

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