Continuous learning is the key for success in any organization, no matter how many “expert” employees the organization has. I wholeheartedly agree with this. For me, the word “expert” implies someone who understands the need to continue learning.
You can’t be an expert at anything if you shut down and stop learning. So if a company has an expert employee, that employee is likely to be someone who exhibits behaviors revealing their desire to ingest as much information as they can.
Learning, for me, is a catalyst for new things. Introducing new ideas into how we think forces us to look at our current processes in a fresh way. We can then keep doing things that are working, but at the same time, discontinue some of the things that aren’t working for us.
I think oftentimes that companies only look at their successes, but forget to also look at their failures. Successes are great; they teach you how to continually improve a process or a technique, which translates into being a better company over time.
But overlooking failures is not an option either. Failures can be a stepping stone to learning about your company’s weaknesses and finding ways to overcome and improve them.
Continuous learning is a combination of both successes and failures.
A Common Mistake Employers Make
I think the biggest mistake companies make is not recognizing the kind of continuous learning they need and the kind of continuous learning the employees need.
Often, employers are out of touch with what’s going on within the organization, and that can be scary because it puts them in a position to be reactive rather than proactive. Typically what happens is, employers don’t know what’s really going on inside their company and they don’t recognize early signs of problems before the problems become too big to handle.
There are usually three major groups within an organization:
- The Successful—These are the employees who are really successful at what they do. A common factor you’ll find in this group is they’re focused on continuous learning and knowledge. They want to get all the information possible so they can experience continuous improvement.
- The Intermittent Successful—These employees usually don’t go above-and-beyond what’s expected of them. They are happy with the status quo. They think, “I’ll hit one out-of-the-park every now and then, but mostly I’m just going to function day-by-day doing the minimum amount required.
- The “Dead Weights”—These employees are basically “dead weight” to a company because they’re all about just collecting a paycheck. They’re not really concerned with growth or their future at the company.
So employers really need to get their finger on-the-pulse of what’s going on within their organization. Once they have a good idea of who works for them and what employees need, then continuous learning opportunities can be implemented.
In my next Insight, I’ll give you steps to take if your company is interested in offering continuous learning opportunities to employees.