Building Learning into the System

Creating an infrastructure to support ongoing learning by having rules, regulations, processes and procedures (ie systems) that integrate learning with other work practices and make it a 'way of life'.

Things that depend solely on enthusiasm and will-power are rarely as robust as things that are driven by a 'system'. This is not to decry the importance of enthusiasm; merely to be realistic and to concede that it is unlikely that everyone in an organisation will share an equivalent passion for learning and development. Even if they did, it would be necessary to support it with an infrastructure to ensure some standardisation and sustainability.

Many ideas would benefit from being 'institutionalised' so that they happen 'automatically', because the system demands it, rather than being left to the discretion of individuals.

Ideas are more likely to be sustained if they are built into the system so that no-one has to remember to do them. An example of this approach would be to instigate a system where expense claims would only be eligible for payment if they were accompanied by a description of a recent lesson learned. The expense claim form could actually incorporate a perforated learning form and the process would dictate that expenses would only be reimbursed if the learning section had been completed.

Ideas such as these may be condemned for being unduly rule-bound and bureaucratic. The idea is to find ways to get learning and development to become a 'way of life'. The trick, of course, is to strike a balance between what is and what is not discretionary. The best rules:

• are enforceable
• succeed in getting people to behave in the required way
• become (eventually) accepted as beneficial
• are regularly challenged to check their continued appropriateness and usefulness (see Challenging).

Creating a learning regime with a solid bedrock of rules that meet these criteria would not only compliment individual enthusiasms, they might even prove inspirational.