Culture of Learning

For years, the momentum around creating a learning culture has been steadily building for CPA firms. I spent several years asking an organization that I worked for “how can we create a learning culture?” Along the way I concluded that I was asking the wrong question. The organization already had a learning culture. In fact, every organization has a learning culture. Better questions would have been “What kind of a learning culture do we have? Is it the one we want?”

Learning culture can be defined as how the organization prioritizes learning and growth, and in turn, how its team members respond to how it is prioritized. The learning culture of an organization is a composite of the attitudes and behavior characteristics on display as the team engages (or doesn’t engage) in learning activities.

Here are 3 key considerations when assessing your learning culture, and a sample question to go with each concept.

The Driving Force

Is your learning culture compliance-driven or growth-driven? You can achieve compliance with a learning and growth driven culture. But how often do you achieve learning and growth with a compliance driven culture? Compliance metrics tell us how many courses and how much time people spend in formal learning settings. It’s an ideal place to start. However, it doesn’t tell us if they acquired new skills, refined skills they already had, or increased their efficiency when applying those skills.

How does your organization measure learning and growth?

a. Application of skills learned

b. Achievement of course learning objectives

c. Compliance/Hours of learning

d. both b&c

e. All the above

f. We don’t

Technical Skills & Success Skills

For years, the field of public accounting was widely associated with the big-ticket compliance areas of Audit and Tax. As the industry continues to progress toward a pie that is more evenly distributed between those services and consulting practice areas, the learning programs provided should mirror that expansion.

The need for technical proficiency has not declined. But, recognizing that the development of success skills (we use this term in lieu of soft skills at Spiirall) are also critical to high performance is now widely accepted. Have your organization’s learning programs started to put additional emphasis on success skills?

What percentage of your learning programs deal with technical skills and what percentage deal with success skills?

a. 100% technical

b. 90% technical, 10% success

c. 80% technical, 20% success

d. 70% technical, 30% success

e. 60% technical, 40% success

f. 50% technical, 50% success

Learning in a box.

Thriving learning cultures are agile. They are focused on delivering the best solutions to the right people at the time they need them most. Using that definition, it begs the question does it make sense to cease and desist with learning programs for significant periods of time each year?

Today, most CPA firms have significant client deadlines all year round. I’m not suggesting that it’s a good idea to increase the burden on team members by planning learning programs that press up against significant client deadlines. But I am pushing back on the notion that learning programs should be restricted to small windows of dedicated time each year. Isn’t a team member working in a tax department more likely to run into problems they’ve never seen before during busy season? If learning is the solution, then providing the solution when it’s most needed might warrant consideration.

When a pervasive learning need is identified, what response is most typical?

a. How quickly can we put together a learning solution to deal with that?

b. Our next training day is in 4 months. We can deal with it then.

c. I’ll do it myself. We don’t have time to teach them right now.

d. They should already know that. We covered it in the training we did last November.

Conclusion

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve raised more questions than I’ve answered. That’s because you already have a learning culture. Is it the one you want?