Building a Learning Culture - Step 4: Creating a Community
Intro | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Step 5
In our 5-part series about building a learning culture, Step 4 is to create a community — specifically a learning-focused community. We love this step because there is so much opportunity to draw people in and not only help them focus on their own learning and development but also increase your reach and presence in your organization. Building a learning community is also an uplifting and fun project for your team to work on together.
So how do you create a community? Let’s explore some ideas.
1. Brainstorm ways you can be more involved in your organization.
via Unsplash
Your community can be whatever you want it to be — you just need a central focus and purpose. Maybe that purpose is learning something new each month that helps you in your personal development or career growth. Maybe as a group you want to build knowledge around a specific topic or discipline and use that knowledge to contribute in new ways to your organization. Maybe you want to do something service-focused that is in some way connected to learning. Get creative and decide what your unique purpose and contribution could be. You might send out a survey asking people to indicate their interest in participating in a learning-focused community and see what the response is like. You could also pull some of those early adopters together to brainstorm what your focus should be.
People like to gather together, especially when opportunities to be social in the workplace are limited as they are right now. They crave community. They also love to feel a sense of purpose, whether it’s an opportunity to improve themselves or contribute to a shared purpose.
2. Design your first event to bring people together.
Once you decide your purpose, then you need to plan your first community event. If your purpose is learning something new each month, you could try a book club format. But feel free to get creative — for example, it doesn’t have to be a book. You could watch or listen to something instead. Maybe you could choose a topic that you want to explore but each person chooses how they want to learn and what they want to learn specifically. Your event could be your chance to share what you learned from your different sources with the group. There are lots of different approaches in terms of format.
For many organizations this event will need to be virtual, which is something everyone is getting much more adept at and more comfortable with. That said, it takes planning and careful calibration to make any meeting — live or virtual — special and memorable. Discuss how you want your community members to feel. Consider icebreakers you can do to get to know each other better. Plan creative activities you can do so your event doesn’t turn into a regular work meeting.
3. Develop a communication plan about your new community.
Now you’re ready to let your organization know about your new community — and announce your first event! Who can help you get the word out? What communication channels can you use? Also, when it comes to growing your community, especially at the beginning, you’ll want to brainstorm ways to clearly communicate the purpose you’ve identified and attract people who may be interested. Perhaps there is a leader in your organization who embodies your purpose who can sponsor the first event. You can also issue a special invitation to your survey respondents and ask them to help recruit people from their networks.
As your community grows, it will likely adapt and adjust to interests of the members and the needs of your organization, but always stay very clear as a group about your purpose, ways to keep your community special and impactful, and ways to grow your membership. As always, we’d love to hear from you — feel free to share your learning community stories below or contact us for additional information or ideas.