Learning in the flow of work — when learning happens in the moment and as part of the regular working day — is essential for everyone. When teams don’t find ways to learn as they work, they limit their performance. But when they find their learning flow, it becomes so embedded into daily routines and rituals that it’s no longer labeled as “learning,” and instead becomes an integral part of how work happens. Here’s what managers need to know about learning in the flow of work — and how to implement it on their teams.
When we ask teams across different companies and geographies how often they’re learning at work, they typically respond with “occasionally” and “infrequently.” And when we ask what that learning looks like, the answer is often “when I took a course.”
For many people, learning is still seen as something formal, structured, and scheduled — owned by organizations and delivered by experts. But in a work context characterized by complexity and uncertainty, it’s a dangerous strategy to limit learning to something that’s separate from our day jobs.
Failure to incorporate learning into the day-to-day creates challenges at every level in an organization. Learning in the flow of work — when learning happens in the moment and as part of the regular working day — is essential for everyone. For individuals, if learning is always an extracurricular activity, it reduces employability and career resilience. When teams don’t find ways to learn as they work, they limit their performance. And for organizations, an absence of learning in flow reduces their ability to respond to change and compete in the market.
When individuals, teams, and organizations find their learning flow, it becomes so embedded into daily routines and rituals that it’s no longer labelled as “learning,” and instead becomes an integral part of how work happens. Here’s what managers need to know about learning in the flow of work — and how to implement it on their teams.
3 Principles of Learning in Flow
There are three principles to keep in mind when creating a culture of learning in flow:
Learning is integrated.
Whereas we used to go to work to learn to do a job, learning now is the job. It’s not something that should be scheduled for an hour each week or a day each month. The priority is to increase the learning people gain from the meetings, projects, and tasks that are already part of their jobs.
Learning is active.
Waiting or hoping for learning to come our way is the opposite of learning in flow. Instead, a proactive mindset and skillset is a must-have for learning in flow to take place. For learning in flow to become a reality, it requires continual and consistent actions by individuals and teams.
Learning is routine.
When learning in flow is effective, it becomes embedded into the rhythms, routines, and rituals of the way people work. Learning isn’t owned by any one person — it’s a collective responsibility and part of a team’s culture. It shows up in the language that’s used and the way people work together.
How to Help Your Team Learn in Flow
Here are three practices to help your team start learning in the flow of work:
Mistake moments
Everyone makes mistakes. It’s whether people learn from those mistakes that makes the difference to individual and collective performance. When mistakes happen, it’s easy to miss the learning opportunity, as we tend to focus on finding solutions quickly — while simultaneously beating ourselves up for getting something wrong in the first place.
Mistake moments are a simple way of learning in flow when things don’t go to plan. This approach normalizes making mistakes, so employees fear them less and learn from them more. The idea is to quickly share with someone else when a mistake is made. The question to focus on isn’t “What mistake did you make?” but instead “What did you learn from that mistake?”
In our organization, Amazing If, where everyone is based in different places, we’ve made it a team norm to share our mistake moments in a Teams channel the same day they happen. Role modeling is critical. As a manager, you could choose to start a monthly team meeting by sharing an insight you learned from a mistake you made. Normalizing mistake moments can also be as simple as suggesting a phrase that people feel comfortable saying to each other, such as: “I’ve had a mistake moment. Do you have five minutes to chat?”
Strengths spotting
Feedback is a powerful way people can learn at work, but all too often, formality, time, and process become blockers. When we find ways to bring feedback into the meetings and conversations that are already part of our work week, we increase the opportunity for learning in flow.
Consider a meeting or project you’re currently leading. A small change to the format can make feedback a part of the agenda rather than an “add-on.” For example, reducing the number of agenda items to create time for people to share in the moment “what worked well” and what would be “even better if” feedback on presentations is a quick way for people to learn. Or changing an existing meeting agenda once a month to focus on “challenge and build” creates an opportunity for everyone to practice raising concerns, discussing risks, and offering ideas for improvement in a safe way.
As a manager, another simple change you can make is to start one-on-one conversations by sharing some strengths-based feedback. The best managers proactively point out to their teams what they’re doing well, which increases confidence and prompts people to stretch their potential. This could sound like, “I see you at your best when..,” “One of the ways I see you have a positive impact is..,” or “This week I really appreciated how you…”
Pitch, prototype, pilot
Experimenting is a natural opportunity to encourage learning in the flow of work. What often gets in the way of experiments is how to apply the concept practically and usefully as a manager of a team. Managers need to be on the lookout for easy opportunities to encourage everyone to experiment as part of their roles. We’ve found that using a “pitch, prototype, pilot” framework is a good way to get started.
Pitching creates the space for sharing new ideas, prototyping focuses on how ideas might work in practice, and piloting tests an idea in a “live” environment. The manager’s role is to provide prompts and opportunities for team members to use this framework as part of their existing roles, reenforcing its relevance for everyone. Managers can start this process by asking everyone to consider three questions:
Pitch: What is one idea for improvement that would support you to achieve your objectives for this quarter?
Prototype: To make that idea happen, what would need to start, stop, or change?
Pilot: How could you test that idea quickly?
Once teams become familiar with the framework, they often start applying it proactively across different parts of their role. For example, a team member might initiate saying to their manager, “Can I use our catch-up to pitch an idea I’ve got?” and teams will begin to spot opportunities to prototype together.
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Learning at work is fundamental to our roles and our resilience. If learning is always an add-on, the risk is that it never gets done. Learning in the flow of our work means it becomes part of our conversations and our culture, and small changes to how we approach what we’re already doing can make a big difference to our development.