Two Roadblocks to Creating a Learning Culture

While there are a lot of good things happening at my organization during the widespread roll-out of agile work to areas that never practiced anything even close to the concept, in my opinion, there are also snags and traps we have to work through.

That's not to say that most of what we're attempting within our current Agile transformation isn't for the best; I'm extremely happy to see it happening, and it will certainly improve the health of the broader company. At the same time, I see things that fundamentally concern me.

Oh Boy, This "Creating a Learning Culture" Thing...

The concept is simple, but like many simple things, it is often completely flubbed over and over and over. There is a reason that management consultants can make a mighty fine living traveling from company-to-company training and attempting to instill a learning culture.

You'll notice that many management consultants - and wannabes - often cite a single piece of a book over and over, or repeat the same general concepts about rewarding teams instead of people, allowing failure, and having leadership buy-in. We don't need to talk about that.

I'm happy to have someone fight me or throw a business school article at me that says I'm a fool, but there are a few things I immediately see happening that will either handicap the transformation or even prevent it. Not surprisingly, it often comes from talking out both sides of the mouth.

1. Not Giving Time to Learn and Innovate. This is probably the most chronic issue I hear people talk about and definitely is not unique to us. You want people to learn, but you don't give time for it. Upon joining my transformation team, management and the lead were OK with cutting the innovation week at the end of the Product Increment to do other tasks they deemed important. This sounds bleak, but I knew then and there that we had issues buried deeper that might be too hard to tackle initially.

   Luckily, we're on track to not see that happen this time around, but even allowing that once sends a strong signal about not actually caring about learning. If anything, it is more proof that big A Agile actually exists for the business bottom line and acts in spite of the concern for people it claims to have.

   In fact, I'd say it's actually another example of how the frameworks created around brilliant ideas like "agile" are abused and enable folly, but that's too broad to talk about in this post.

2. Not Actually Incentivizing Learning. I get really worried when all we do is tell people that we value learning and then say "Well, go learn!". Yes, personal, intrinsic drive exists. This concept is also abused. I don't want to talk about the book "Drive" much because it's overplayed, but it is relevant here to make a point. There is one line in particular that people love to quote:

The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table. - Daniel Pink

Here's the thing: how many people can actually claim that money is not an issue for them and that they are comfortable with their pay? I could post a dozen articles and link them here, but the answer is inherently obvious. Management science loves to pick and choose its data, and that's a part of why these discussions remain so debatable.

Human nature wants more. We just always want more. We want to live on Mars now for some bizarre reason. And people generally always want higher salaries. Most do not live to work; they work to live. When they are not making enough to not worry about money, those issues take up precious brainpower that makes stress and ultimately a need for release.

For a while, everyone was toting the superfluous office perks of lunches and foosball tables thinking this is what people wanted. Not surprisingly more studies have come out saying that people want PTO, healthcare, and money. They want comfort and reward. They want benefits, and if they are expected to work harder and learn more, they generally expect to earn more. And speaking of financial comfort, I needn't post a chart showing the increase in salaries compared to medical, child, and educational costs to make that point.

Additionally, they also really don't have allegiance to you. Even your superstars. See the Waymo team who had a decent number of people leave when they had "**** You" money.

So yes, I fully agree that money is not going to make most people go learn a bunch, become more successful at their job, work harder, or be generally happier. However, working 10 hours, coming home and learning something new while finding time for your kids and anything else going on in your life should be praised. A true learner that brings fresh results even through failure deserves at least a one-time bonus for performance. Even a day off is a reasonable and pleasant reward for many in that situation. Likewise, someone who performed well at work and obtained a Master's degree in a related subject should see a raise. It's common sense.

Remember the People Part of Agile?

Let's bring it back to caring about people. If we don't think of people as resources but as individual human beings, let's make sure we reward them for being stellar when they are stellar. It's not rocket science.

If you're going to unleash the power of a lifelong learner, enable them, stick to it, and make their life a little more comfortable to show you appreciate the effort. People have lives and interests beyond what they do for work, so when they devote even more of their precious time on this planet to an employer, it should be lauded measurably. Anything else is just lip service.