Everything must lend itself to creating a learning culture where individuals are given the opportunity to upskill and reskill.
By Janet Rae-Dupree, Workflow contributor
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the Unleashing Digital Value issue of Workflow Quarterly.
More than five decades ago, management guru Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” to describe people who work primarily with their minds instead of their muscles. He argued that the information revolution would help knowledge workers drive productivity for organizations.
Drucker revisited this idea at the turn of the century, writing: “The most valuable asset of the 21st-century institution will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.” A key part of boosting that productivity, he noted, would be encouraging knowledge workers to learn continuously throughout their careers.
Most companies want to build organizational cultures that foster innovation, but that’s easier said than done, according to a recent ServiceNow/ThoughtLab survey of 1,000 executives worldwide.
The study found innovation is as much about people as it is about technology, and that cultivating innovation requires organizations to foster new skills and new ways of thinking in the workforce.
There’s work to be done in this regard. More than one-third of respondents said their organizations struggle to provide sufficient training for workers. LinkedIn’s annual Workplace Learning Report found similar concerns: Almost half of executives polled said their employees don’t have the right skills to execute their business strategy, a figure that jumped nine points from 2021.
The good news: Companies that weave continual learning into every aspect of their organizational culture are inherently more adaptable and innovative. These companies adapt well to change because they tend to see change as an opportunity, and can navigate crises because the tools needed to evolve are already stitched into the organizational fabric.
Everything must lend itself to creating a learning culture where individuals are given the opportunity to upskill and reskill.
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