Learning cultures and personal responsibility

To nurture a learning culture - watch where your rewards go
We are (sadly) obsessed with certificates but we also know they can be grossly misleading on a person’s actual abilities and skills. We reward credentials more than products of those credentials and a large part of overturning this habit in our workplaces requires reevaluation of what we reward. Where we put our resources in terms of rewards implicitly communicates what the organization cares about and redirecting these resources to reward tangible outcomes and not just papers is a good place to start. The benefits of this are two-fold: you are encouraging behavior that has direct effect to the bottom line and you are actively fostering a learning culture that cares about learning transfer, not just learning completion.



Cultivate excellence at a personal level
A bitter pill to swallow, but a commitment to make ourselves proud can transcend difficult work dynamics. We should promise ourselves to produce quality - whether or not we're excited or passionate about our work. We should let our commitment to leave a brand of excellence to every project we take on and that commitment to excellence be the source of satisfaction. I think this to be a timely reminder especially in times of the pandemic where dynamics at work are changing and sometimes not in ways we like.