Asahi Europe and International Limited

Geraldine Percival

“We need to be a Learning Organisation,” I hear many people say this (me included) and then we talk about what it means, often using concepts such as learn, unlearn, or relearn, or learning ecosystem. All great ideas that sound right but no one in the business really understands. The now famous quote by Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella’s,“As a culture, we are moving from a group of people who know it all to a group of people who want to learn it all,” became our North Star - we all wanted some of that but got stuck in the how and reached out if anyone could help with the recipe of the ‘secret sauce’ to make it happen.

The concept of a learning organisation is very much “on trend” but it’s not new and it’s been around for 50 years, boosted in the 1990s by Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. It’s common knowledge that employees and organisations must be continuously learning, adapting, or improving in order to avoid obsolescence. However, most people think that they don’t have the time to learn. According to them, the biggest barrier to learning is not knowing when or what to learn to avoid becoming obsolete. Some are even afraid of being replaced by robots (because the machines are learning too!)

We started our learning journey with our most senior leaders to help them look up and be more open and curious to the external environment. It was about building a new way of learning. We also offered the ‘next gen’ of learning−the digital learning experience (the more gamified, the better)− which meant we could offer on-demand, anytime, anywhere, ‘Netflix’- style learning solutions for every conceivable topic (of course, this was part of a broader development offering). This gave us the sense of learning progression by highlighting learning hours and numbers of course completed. We all felt like we were learning but it was difficult to determine if day-to-day behaviours actually changed or if learning was applied in work to improve practice (the golden return of investment). We also encouraged the adoption of Carol Dweck’s growth mindset which focuses on mastery and believing that one can grow from challenge and by making mistakes. We wanted learning to become self-directed. Employees remained firmly in the driving seat of their development (and career) but we, as an organisation, would nurture it somehow and often did.

“In a true learning organization, learning just happens regardless of the individual’s mindset or available learning solutions. It happens within the ‘flow of work’ and is therefore not a place, or a course, or a programme – it is a way of being and living“

In a true learning organization, learning just happens regardless of the individual’s mindset or available learning solutions. It happens within the ‘flow of work’ and is therefore not a place, or a course, or a programme – it is a way of being and living. Learning happens because people are willing to admit mistakes, to challenge assumptions, to think critically, to deliberately look at new ways to combine things (re-connecting the dots), or noticing differences (contradictions, anomalies, or inconsistences), and openly share these insights. How well an organisation learns ultimately boils down to a shared sense of psychological safety. It is all about the ‘permission’to speak-up, the freedom to disclose weaknesses, and to trusting each other. It feels safe to do so and there are no negative consequences whatsoever. This tells us, if there was a blueprint in enabling a learning organisation, it must start with the leaders because the quality of learning is impacted by their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours.

For leaders to truly enable learning, they need to be acutely self-aware of their inner dialogue and the actions that subsequently follow. Mahatma Gandhi reminds us that our beliefs become our thoughts, our thoughts become our words and our words become our actions. Leaders impact learning but their effect is much more subtle and complex than that. It is more than simply supporting an employee attending a programme or coaching them. It is how the leader positions learning, that is, learning is important and part of work (something we all do and make time for it), or something that happens after work in your own time, or as a reward. Everything must work together to make learning happen. That is, the right mindset must be supported with HR policies, reward systems, and company leadership behaviours to enable a culture.

For Asahi, there were indications that were very much at the beginning of our journey towards being a learning organisation. Our engagement survey told us that people felt that we are too slow from the idea to the implementation which is further impeded by the frustration of too many controls and approvals. Also, short-term urgent work took priority over important work that requires deep thinking and reflection. Development programme drop-out rates and declining wellbeing scores indicated that it’s high time we needed to act. We started by driving a campaign of #letitgo to push leaders to focus on what really matters and what work contributes to strategy. Also, in the literal sense, to stop projects, approvals, or anything that was not a priority. This helped to free up time (and energy) to focus on what was important, to slow down, and to learn.

In conclusion, to become a learning organisation takes time and constant work and reflection. A learning organisation is a not a place or a thing; it is a feeling, a perception that you can explore, experiment, make mistakes, question, speak-up, get it wrong, receive feedback, and feel supported and safe! We all need to contribute to it by being curious, reflecting, and pursuing continuous improvement. It is about growing, being your best, and helping others get there. Our journey to becoming a learning organisation is just that – a journey, and this is where our focus is rather than on a destination that we cannot quite describe.