“Learning sits at the heart of it”, “learning is the key”, “what we do is unpinned by our learning”, “learning from our learning is fundamental to our impact”.

Read any place-based evaluation, community change impact report, systems leadership programme or public services reform paper and you’ll more than likely to read a similar message.  As a Leadership and Learning Consultant, you’d think this would be music to my ears alongside a triumphant cry of ‘By George they’ve got it’!

And yes. To hear the groundswell of thinking, conversations, and reflections across our partnerships, networks, sector and systems, placing learning at the centre of all that we do, is a real step change.  Seeing agendas, strategy reviews and events reflecting on the value of learning is a very welcome swing. We are, together, across partners, funders and our teams collectively starting to pinpoint the power of learning.  I’m hearing more loudly that measurement is really about learning, impact is really about learning, learning isn’t an event and could actually unlock future strategy, team engagement, partners and funding.  Strategically we’re embracing that critically, learning IS the job.

Yet.  We have a way to go. Because having that ‘aha… its learning’ moment isn’t enough. Now comes arguably the tougher work.  Evolution can be harder than revolution – as the saying goes ‘Change is inevitable… growth is optional’. So to safeguard learning against becoming the next overused buzzword, we have to take it further.  And ensure learning means we take action, it means we connect the dots, we test, we adapt. And use our learning to frame the difference being made by our work.

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So let’s start with the why?

Framing learning as a vehicle for change is not news.

At an individual level, trends show that employees have been making clear over the past ten years the greater currency placed on purpose, development and fulfilment at work over financial benefits. As the CIPD noted in a recent employment trends review “time and again studies have shown if employees aren’t learning, they’re leaving”.

On an organisational level, the famous quote attributed to Peter Drucker, Management Theorist, in 2005 contending that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’, reflected that leaders recognised on-paper plans meant little without their people’s ability and willingness to make them happen. Culture became a metric for high performing teams and organisational effectiveness… and probably started weaning out those with the ability to maintain long term sustained competitive advantage.

And more recently the shift in focus on the power of learning in systemic working has reflected much of this wider learning.

Sense-making and distilling what collaborative leadership looks like, how we work across organisational boundaries to create shared purpose, how we can measure the unmeasurable and how we collectively impact on societal challenges, are all pushing us to use strategic learning to effect change.

But human behaviour tells us that you cannot either force or mandate learning, or even a commitment to it.  As any teacher will evidence, if someone doesn’t want to learn, they won’t.

Nevertheless, there are patterns of practice, ideas, ways of working and tools, which have been shown to improve the likelihood of success through building a strong learning culture.

So how?

A further step change comes in recognising that learning is a verb as well as a noun!

Yes, critical thinking and reflecting is vital. As is collectively drawing together our knowledge and skills. But it’s also, fundamentally about taking action.  And how we feel about what we are doing – is it important to us?

Proven learning cultures reflect a recognition that they are seeking to continually build their future – improving not just preserving.

In these environments, leadership embrace the need for all to be learning leaders across the organisation. Leaders who are prepared to be vulnerable and admit they don’t know all the answers recognise that the experts in addressing the issues are usually those who are on the front line dealing with them everyday.

But tellingly they also acknowledge that ‘bottom up’ approaches don’t happen by chance. and cannot happen in a vacuum or in silos.   They take designing, framing and shaping.  It requires leaders AND leadership. It needs ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ approaches, working side by side for it to thrive.  And then together, to nudge, connect and galvanise all through their collective purpose.

So it’s a holistic whole system approach which is needed.  Not just learning officers, teams or clusters.  And it isn’t a HR, corporate, insight or workforce function accountability.

It’s a way of being which is embedded across everything and everyone – organisationally and systemically.

It’s how you create core strategy. How you debate your why. How you seek, develop, review and reward your people.  How you set up your structures, ways of coming together and places of work.  How you create your team purpose, values and behaviours.  How you embrace and work with change.  How you innovate. How you harness diverse thinking. How you consider risk. How you build trust.  How you interact with each other.  How you share stories.  How you design the work being done.

Organisations are living systems in themselves and thrive best when valued as that – for organisations don’t change.  People do.

So what next?

Connecting the blurry bit in the middle between strategic intent and evaluation can seem too intangible.  What is our learning? What do we do with it when we have it? How do we apply it?

But there are tools which can support. Applying systematic, tried and tested simple practices.  Helping you evaluate what learning you have.  How you can build a framework to connect it.  Helping you identify what your learning culture is.  What you need it to be. And how you share with others why it works.

A great nugget of advice I learnt often rings true – ‘Change your mindset. Act like an organisation but think like a movement’.  And as we all know, in any sphere of life, success breeds success. Building a true learning culture can attract those who want to be part of it with you… as team members, collaborators, partners and funders.

For if you build it, they will come.