Organisational Learning as a Metric: Are You Measuring What Matters?

How to build, enable, and measure learning in an organisation

If you, your team or your organisation stopped learning today, how long would it stay relevant?

It’s scary to think about this question in a world that changes rapidly, and is so uncertain.

Continuous learning is the only way to stay adaptable, resilient, and relevant. Learning happens every day. Learning happens at every level in the organisation.

Hence, learning is not a nice-to-have in the organisation. Learning needs to be baked into the way it operates.

Learning Organisation - some context

Peter Senge described it in The Fifth Discipline (1990):

“Learning organisations are organisations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.”

Toyota Way’s 14th Principle:

“Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).”

These practices emerged in 1950s - 1960s and were formalised by Jeffrey Liker in The Toyota Way in 2001.

The Business Agility Institute lists “Cultivate a Learning Organisation” as a core capability in the Engaged Culture domain, with 6 clear supporting behaviours.

In simpler terms, a learning organisation is where:

• The individuals reflect, learn / unlearn and improve as much as they execute

• Teams improve how they work, not just what they deliver

• The organisation learns together, regularly & consistently, and responds to changes faster

  
  

Why is learning important for an organisation?

Because learning creates:

• Better decision making

• Happier, more engaged people

• Faster response to change

• A foundation for innovation and resilience

What does a Learning organisation look like?

A Learning organisation will have

• Optimised conditions for collaboration: Teams and individuals share knowledge across silos

• Data-driven feedback loops: Regular check-ins - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly to inform improvement. Feedback loops exists everywhere - work, people, systems, processes and ways of working

• Learning at all levels: From individuals to teams to the entire organisation, everyone grows

• Learning from both success and failure: Reflection happens not only when things break, but also when things go well.

• Incentivised Learning: Learning is rewarded and celebrated, not treated as a bonus activity

• Psychologically safe-to-fail environment: Mistakes are opportunities to learn, not blame or punish

• Experimentation mindset: Applies to delivery, processes, and ways of working. Creates a foundation for innovation, resilience and faster response to change

• Learning made visible and actionable: Learning goals show up in goals, backlogs, team rituals and behaviours

Checkout patterns 8.1-8.5 in our book Sooner Safer Happier for more on Learning Organisations.

Some real-world examples:

• Toyota runs structured hansei sessions after major events to reflect deeply

• Google’s 20% time encourages people to work on what excites them. Gmail and Google News resulted from 20% time!

  
  

Mindsets that sustain learning

Learning organisations are built on mindsets, not just practices. Here are some helpful mindsets:

• Curiosity over certainty

• Progress over perfection

• Reflection over reaction

• Systems thinking over quick fixes

• Collective responsibility over isolated ownership

• Humility over knowing it all

• Bias for action over theoretical knowledge

• Unlearning over outdated expertise

  
  

Ways to enable learning in an organisation

Here are some actionable ways to create a Learning organisation:

• Listen to the customer feedback: Use insights to improve products and services

• Build a feedback culture: Encourage open, constructive feedback on work, people, processes

• Adopt an experimentation approach to value delivery: Test ideas in small, safe ways for faster learning

• Create time for reflection: Make reflection a routine, not just a ritual. Schedule retrospectives, showcases, and team check-ins to inspect and adapt

• Leaders model curiosity: Show vulnerability and a willingness to learn

• Make learning visible: Add learning goals to backlogs and celebrate progress

• Foster a coaching and mentoring culture: Pair employees with mentors / coaches to support technical and personal growth

• Provide role-specific / Skills-based training: Tailor programs to set people up for success

• Embed Learning in workflows: Integrate learning into daily work, e.g. pair programming, learning sprints, peer reviews

• Run Hackathons / slack time: Allow space for creative exploration

• Build Internal learning platforms: Create an accessible central hub for learning resources to facilitate learning via various mediums. Encourage contributions from everyone

• Encourage cross-functional learning: Encourage rotation of employees across teams. Use secondments or shadowing to learn diverse skills

• Foster peer-to-peer learning forums: Set up Guilds/Communities of Practice, Lunch & Learn sessions

• Leverage AI for learning: Use AI tools to personalise learning paths. Encourage augmenting AI into teams to free up time for learning!

• Remove barriers to learning: Make learning as important as ‘delivery’

How can organisational learning be measured?

• Time invested in learning: Individuals and teams regularly investing time in honing their skills and apply the learning

• Learning participation and engagement: Individuals and teams engaging with learning offerings consistently

• Feedback loop frequency and impact: Measure how often data and feedback are turned into insights and real action, e.g. amount of work stopped/paused based on what’s been learned

• Employee engagement scores: Are people more connected, motivated and valued through learning?

• Time to adapt: How quickly does the organisation respond to change?

• Knowledge sharing activities: Track contributions to learning forums, playbooks, Communities of Practice, and internal showcases

• Learning conversations: Look for evidence that learning happens in day-to-day conversations, not just during performance reviews or training

• Innovation output: Track new ideas, products, or process improvements that emerge from learning initiatives

Not sure where to start?

Here are some questions worth reflecting on:

❓When was the last time you or someone in your team said, “I’ve changed my mind”? And was it celebrated or questioned?

❓How do learning goals show up in your and your team’s work? Or are they limited to performance conversations?

❓How fast does your organisation turn feedback into action - from customers, teams or systems?

❓Is reflection a routine part of how you work? Or something done only when things break?

❓How often do leaders share what they are learning?

Building a Learning organisation is on-going work. It’s a shift in how the organisation operates day-to-day. It’s how we enable a happier workforce and better outcomes.

Happy Learning!

Learning resources:

If you found this article useful, you might be interested in additional Sooner Safer Happier learning resources to enable you to lead with these behaviours:

• Continuous Learning Loop 

• Improving through learning

• Pop the bubbles, creating a learning ecosystem