The pressure is increasing in today’s pandemic-affected world. The future of L&D means delivering learning remotely, personalized, and cheaper. At the same time, expectations that were once HR’s responsibility have now landed squarely on the modern CEO’s agenda.

Traditionally, L&D teams have been responsible for the workers’ performance, legal compliance requirements, and general workforce readiness to meet business needs. These old expectations remain and are joined by new initiatives. L&D is now increasingly responsible for making the workforce more agile, innovative, healthy, inclusive, and more—often amid talent shortages. The emerging playbook guiding the future of L&D demands a bigger approach.

“Executing the CEO’s agenda almost always requires people within the organization to adopt new ways of seeing, thinking, and acting,” according to the recent report Executing the CEO’s Agenda Through Targeted Learning by MIT Sloan Management Review. “Success requires learning at scale, with speed, in the places where it will matter most. This is easier said than done.”

The most innovative L&D teams see all this as an opportunity. They’re shifting their focus from creating learning content to creating the conditions for learning. The right conditions for learning are the foundation of a positive learning culture. And a positive learning culture is the key to meeting L&D expectations at scale.

What Is Learning Culture?

It’s the attitudes, values, and behaviors (about learning) of a particular group (your workers).

Switching your mindset to focus on culture means flipping your learning strategy on its head. We’ve seen the most agile companies create strategies that empower workers to learn proactively. Do this successfully, and you’ll always stay a step ahead of disruption.

Developing your people will always be necessary, and there are two main ways to engage them. These approaches can work together as two halves of an impactful and scalable learning strategy.

Providing training is a top-down approach. It starts with administrators and is directed toward individuals.

Empowering people to learn is a bottom-up approach. Workers learn on their own, increasing the agility and scalability of your strategy. It starts with the attitudes, values, and behaviors of your people toward learning (the definition of culture).

Individual Learning Is More Scalable

Degreed research found that people in a positive learning culture engage in independent learning much more frequently than learning events curated by L&D teams. Learning is reinforced by forward-looking opportunities to practice and apply new skills, not just by requests to grasp something new that are mostly about meeting the moment. People are motivated by purpose—to build their futures. And they collaborate to help each other grow.

What Does All This Mean for the Future of L&D?

It means that the most innovative learning professionals are changing the way they view their jobs. It means that they:

• See themselves as not only content providers but enablers who help workers take control of their own careers.

• Assist managers in finding new ways to help their people develop.

• Use data-driven insights to reimagine learning programs.

This all means that providing people with tools and resources they can use organically, throughout the day, will develop them in ways that are more dynamic than simply completing assigned classes and courses.