Creating a Learning Culture Is Fundamental To Nurturing Your Start-up

Creating a Learning Culture Is Fundamental To Nurturing Your Start-up There is a maxim that is popular in learning circles, ‘Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning.’ This maxim sounds instinctively accurate. Right?Any organization is only as good as its people and this makes it a compelling reason not just for startups but also for established business/organizations to create a learning culture.Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comBut what is a learning culture?evalWell, there are several elements that can be used to describe it. For example; a hunger for improvement, effective teams, transparency, mutual respect, organizational values and so on.However, a simple definition is a culture where creating, obtaining and transferring knowledge is a part of the norm. More importantly, this new knowledge and insight need to reflect the organization’s improved approach to things.In essence, learning new things should become tangible, bring about positive change and improve the organization as a whole. Learning should not just be for the sake of l earning.What’s more is that this change doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. The learning culture or continuous improvement needs to be cultivated in an environment where there are competing forces including; competing businesses or organizations and competition for finite attractive job positions.How to develop a learning cultureevalSo, how do you develop a learning culture?Here is a useful example that we can all learn from.Go-Jek, a transport and logistics company and the first Indonesian startup to be classified as a unicorn after closing a round of funding in August 2016, has come up with innovative solutions to problems that Indonesians have had to deal with under the reign of Giants like Uber.evalIn Go-Jeks short history, employees at Go-Jek have learned how:1. To systematically solve problems that existed in the marketâ€" By introducing Go-Pay service as an additional option for customers who prefer to pay by cash instead of just digitally through their mobile app Go-Jek. Th is has increased flexibility of payment terms, as well as increased privacy of financial information by offering an alternative.2. They have experimented with new approaches â€"Go Pay users can actually give the driver extra cash and it is then automatically credited for their next trip. Therefore no bank details or credit card information is required to top up digital payments.3. They have learned from others experiencesâ€" They have learned a lot from Uber’s experiences in Indonesia of not satisfying the need for more diversity in; flexibility and privacy, in transportation services.eval4. They have learned from their history or past experiencesâ€" That their customers prefer to have a unified app to take care of all their needs instead of having to use several apps. Go-Jek and Go-Pay have been consolidated.5. They have managed to transfer knowledge rapidly and proficiently throughout the organization. Go Jek is no longer just a ride hailing app. It’s an on-demand empire with; Go-Pulsa for mobile phone top-up and Go-Med for medicine delivery within an hour and so on.All this rapid changes and transformations that Go-Jek is going through are powered by a learning culture. This learning culture has put them at a tipping point where practical application of everything that employees have learned Instead of relying on happenstance to ensure the success of your start-up, putting a clear policy and procedure in place to develop a learning culture is fundamental to nurturing the start-up.As such, a learning culture needs to be integrated into the day to day operations of the start-up, so that the learning culture is not seen to be a discrete process but rather an integral part of the startup’s productivity fabric. This way, learning becomes more manageable and growth of the startup is all but guaranteed.