Organizational Learning 101: Top 10 Learning Science Tips

Written by: Florence Randari and Katherine Haugh

As evaluation and learning professionals, our job is to help teams learn and make evidence-informed decisions together. Right?

But, as an evaluation field, we have very few resources and training on facilitating learning that are rooted in tested and proven techniques from the learning sciences. We think that sending people reports, infographics or two-pagers is enough to help them learn. But we know from the learning sciences that this simply isn’t true.

So, for us professionals who are trying to build organizational learning cultures and practices rooted in iterative evaluation and research, we’ve got to ask ourselves: how do people actually learn? And how can we use these learning sciences principles to design organizational processes that actually work?

At The Convive Collective, we’ve been on a quest to dive into the literature on the learning sciences to get a better understanding of this question. We connected with the brilliant Florence Randari to do a mini-book club on How People Learn by Nick Shaleton-Jones.

Based on this book and others we’ve read, we’ve organized our top 10 takeaways about how people actually learn below: 

1. Being able to remember something and truly having learned something are not the same thing.

You can remember the recipe (memory), or you can bake the cake (application of knowledge = true learning!). 

2. Learning is defined by actions taken.

Simply measuring knowledge acquisition is insufficient. If someone has truly learned something, we know that they have because they have been able to do something different as a result. Therefore, all learning experiences should be defined around tasks and actions that people need to perform in order to carry out their job or mission. This is the same on the organizational level. 

3. So how do you help people learn, then? They must learn by doing.

To help people learn, you have to create environments where they can get practice on the task at hand and get feedback immediately. Then, you’ll need to include mentoring/coaching in the workplace where they can apply what they’ve learned with support. This shouldn’t be easy. They must put in some effort. That is required. Because learning new things is challenging. It’s fulfilling, but it is challenging by design. 

4. To really create a learning culture, you need learning champions. And learning champions need training.

We often say that “learning is everyone’s job” in a learning organization and that’s true. But what do we actually mean by that? In terms of tasks (which we mention above is crucial to be clear on for learning!), learning champions are individuals who are exceptionally talented in facilitation, synthesizing, and understanding and visualizing evidence. We also got inspired imagining different “learning archetypes.” For example; learning champions may be exceptionally strong in observation or demonstrate exemplary self awareness. We’ll be following up with a separate blog on this topic in the future since it’s worthy of further exploration!

5. For people to learn about anything, they have to care about what they are learning about.

Exams, in a way, work because people generally tend to care about doing well on them. We loved reading Data is Personal, which came to the same conclusion: if someone really cares about something, they will learn about it (no matter the format it comes in!)

6. How do you get them to care if they don’t? Use “push” tactics!

• Start with yourself. If you see value in it and are excited about the topic, your colleagues might be as well. Being with your personal story. Why does this matter to you as a person? 

• Make evidence look nice! When people see the quality of the visualization, on some level, they say: “this took someone a long time. It must be valuable. I should consider caring.” 

• When other people of organizational influence see value in something. People mirror their leaders. When leaders are doing something, people think: a) this is how we do it here and b) if they think this is valuable, I should read it if I want to be part of this organization. 
  

7. What to do if they do already care? Use “pull” tactics!

• Make a brief and immediately useful resource: A resource is anything or anyone effective in helping people tackle the task at hand. Keep it short! 

• Talk like a friend: Avoid the temptation or expectation to slip into a “teacherly” tone with products. Keep it informal and straightforward. 

• Make it accessible: Good resources will fail if you can’t find them when you need them. Find out where your audiences go when they need help and meet them there with resources. 

8. When working with an entire team or organization, you’ll always have to combine push and pull tactics to bring the entire group along.

No matter your mix of audiences, a mix of pull tactics and push tactics will be needed. Together, they create the foundation for a truly effective learning plan. 

9. How do you know what people care about and what they don’t? You need to ask them regularly.

It is imperative to have a living organizational learning plan. That means constantly asking questions of your team about what they care about and don’t. This influences their willingness to engage, and also significantly increases their ability to learn. This is a constant process. You can either host bi-monthly listening sessions with teams or send out a survey. Even better, we recommend having embedded learning champions across your team or organization who keep the pulse on what matters most to their teammates and design learning experiences with those preferences front and center. 

10. We are constantly eliminating the need for learning, which helps us open up more space for learning about more meaningful things. This is where AI comes into the picture.

One of the best ways to eliminate the need for learning is by creating good resources. For example, a shopping list eliminates the need for people to learn and remember the items on the list. Repeatedly creating resources and processes builds organizational capacity to facilitate high-value learning. And high-value learning is learning that helps the organization improve. 

Which of the ten is your favorite? Did you learn something new that you can put into practice? Message us for a virtual coffee if you’d like to learn more about how we can support your organization on your learning journey.