Tool 4 – Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities

The fourth tool in the Emerging Stronger toolkit helps us get out more!

Too often L&D operate in our own spaces created by our classrooms, programmes, LMS’s and libraries. But our people are gathering and working in completely different spaces and communities. Spaces where they are learning, growing and practising new things.

Principle: work within the business!

People are increasingly using online collaboration tools like MS Teams or Slack to work together. We can use these tools for learning, sharing and growing.  Communities dedicated to learning can be set up, but existing communities and teams can also provide fertile ground for growth.

Getting started

The whole of the Emerging Stronger team had great fun working on this tool. We explored the evidence  with a horticultural lens to help you ensure learning thrives in your online communities.

Follow the steps to help you:

Prepare – understand  which workplace communities create the best growing conditions

Sow – what seeds do you need to sow to support learning and performance

Nurture – how do you water, fertilise, weed and prune for learning to thrive

Harvest – how to recognise and gather the fruits of your labour!

A tool to help!

Use an existing workplace community to

• share relevant content to seed learning
• build and strengthen skills
• troubleshoot problems
• improve processes
• strengthen workplace practices or performance

* The Cultivating Learning in the Workplace Tool was co-created by Michelle Ockers, Laura Overton and Shannon Tipton as part of the Emerging Stronger toolkit to help L&D professionals thrive in the ever changing world of work. It was initially published in conjunction with our publishing partner Go1.