Key Points

• Any modern organization should foster a learning culture.
• Six Sigma gives quite a few tools for establishing a lasting learning culture.
• Any change to the organizational makeup of a business is best modeled from the top down.

How do you create a learning organization with Six Sigma and organizational culture? A learning organization is a valuable means of fostering a culture centered around education. This can take several forms, but the overall intent is the same. Ultimately, you’re after a culture of improvement, self-reliance, and agility.

So, with that in mind, let’s explore further how Six Sigma and organizational culture can be leveraged to create an organization that relishes learning. We’ll highlight some of the strategies you can use, and hopefully, you’ll have everything you need to get your organization up and running and on the path to continual education. Lifelong students have more fun anyway, so let’s dive in.

What Is a Learning Culture?

A learning culture encourages the development and further education of the individual alongside the organization itself. Knowledge is an important commodity, especially in our data-driven modern world. As such, it becomes paramount to create a lasting culture that fosters an environment where learning is incentivized and is part of the makeup of the very institution.

Now, this isn’t an overnight process by any means. It is going to take some hard work to cultivate a corporate culture geared toward learning. Older organizations that are stuck in their ways are going to struggle at first to institute these changes. However, once these changes are in place, you’re setting the groundwork for an adaptable and agile work environment.

Further, this lets you set the tempo for new hires. If they understand what is expected from them as they navigate their duties, then that is a lifelong habit you’re building alongside the onboarding process. A learning culture isn’t just a good idea, it is a necessity for the way things operate right now. So, making the shift isn’t just about gaining agility but also about bettering your odds against the competition.

Components for Building a Lasting Learning Culture

There are a few components that are crucial for establishing a long-lasting learning culture at your organization. Yes, you can use Six Sigma and organizational culture to accomplish these goals. However, before we start discussing the tools at your disposal with that approach, let’s set the foundation for what you can expect when constructing your learning culture.

The components are as follows:

• Agility: Learning is one thing, but you have to be able to adapt that knowledge to the current inner workings of your organization. As such, you’ll want to target workers and leaders who are quick to adapt and can roll with the punches. Further, you can foster this by encouraging your employees to remain open to learning more and opening the avenues for feedback.
• Safety: A learning organization is built upon trust and mental safety. With that in mind, that is exactly the sort of institutional change you’ll want to create. Learning isn’t always going to be smooth sailing. When applying knowledge to existing workflows, there is an inherent risk. However, by creating a safe environment where mistakes are expected, you’re increasing the chances of your learning organization becoming a lasting initiative.
• Communication: Ultimately, learning is fruitless without communication. You’ll want to encourage teams and leadership alike to talk with one another, give feedback, and ultimately collaborate. Six Sigma is an open approach, and it certainly fosters a culture centered around communication. It isn’t a massive stretch to apply that to your organization at the cultural level.
• Policies: If you want learning to stick, it helps to have it woven into the corporate culture from the start. This is an area where you can develop standard operational procedures, incentives for sticking with goals, and arrange social events where employees are encouraged to learn and grow.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to implementing a learning culture, so expect some teething pains. However, this provides a solid bedrock to build your learning culture.

Six Sigma and Organizational Culture: Creating a Rock-Solid Foundation

How do you approach a learning culture with Six Sigma and organizational culture in mind? Well, it can seem a bit of a reach, but Six Sigma does provide tools of the trade to get everyone on the same page. Further, as we’ve discussed time and time again, Six Sigma isn’t just about accomplishing projects, but is an organizational transformation. This isn’t solely devoted to improving processes and upping quality, but you can certainly use similar approaches for your learning culture initiatives.

Organizational culture changes with Six Sigma, and that’s to be expected. Anytime you’re taking on elements of an approach or methodology, you have to adopt the logical processes and tools that permit these approaches to succeed in the first place.

As such, rather than point to specific tools, we’re going to highlight some of the organizational changes Six Sigma creates and how this fosters an environment centered around learning. With any luck, if you’re already a Six Sigma-heavy organization, this should be a rather swift change. However, there is no time like the present to start using Six Sigma at your organization if you’re still on the fence.

Leadership

Traditional business structures don’t truly allow for outside-of-the-box thinking. Six Sigma can seem somewhat nebulous at first glance, provided you aren’t familiar with the inner workings. However, as we’ve discussed in the past, it is an approach that favors expertise and collaboration alike. Leadership is one area where you can see an organizational shift in how we approach business using Six Sigma.

Sure, you’ll still have the typical managers and the like. You’re also gaining leadership roles like improvement specialists and champions. The traditional leadership structure is enhanced, and that brings a shift in the organizational knowledge you can employ.

As with any organizational shift, fostering a learning culture starts from the top and works its way down. You’ll want your champions, improvement specialists, managers, and other leadership positions to embody the spirit of learning. If it helps, you can even set this institutional change up as a DMAIC project to get things rolling in the Six Sigma spirit.

Approach

How you approach any organizational change is what dictates the success of your initiative. Thankfully, as previously mentioned, Six Sigma and organizational change come with some handy tools at the ready. I mentioned DMAIC in my last point, and that is one of your best bets when it comes to instituting such a broad organizational change.

DMAIC, or Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control, is a process improvement framework typically used when looking at the workings of certain processes. However, it provides plenty of flexibility when applied to other aspects of your organization.

If establishing a learning culture is a struggle, approach it like a process. Take the time to gather up the data and analyze it as needed. Lasting organizational change is a struggle no matter how cutting-edge your business is, however, there are additional tools at your disposal.

Change Management

How do you get past employees and leadership who resist change? Well, I suppose the easiest method would be to seek out other talent. However, I’m a big advocate of working with your team to make changes where necessary. Change management is employed all the time when it comes to creating lasting organizational changes.

Chances are, you’ll want to have a solid change manager on your team before you start working toward a learning organization. Six Sigma and organizational culture benefit quite heavily from the use of change management when making changes both big and small. If you’re looking for a way to get everyone on board with making learning an organizational tenet, then a solid change management strategy might be what you need.

Agility

Think about your average Six Sigma project for a moment. What do you do when experiencing setbacks? Sure, you could push through and try to keep things going as you normally do. However, that isn’t the best solution for the problem at hand. Chances are, you’ll adapt with what you have present, whether that’s securing raw materials from an alternative vendor or changing workflows to accommodate a broken machine.

When fostering a learning culture, this is one area where agility in Six Sigma and organizational culture has a chance to shine. You’ll want to be agile. You’ll want to be ready to counteract the negative influences that are outside your control. We have discussed variation at length and how to reduce it.

This requires a certain amount of agility in and of itself to make the changes. You can apply the same approach to creating a lasting learning culture in your organization. It will take time and energy to determine what does and doesn’t work when looking at any major organizational changes. Stay open and adapt as necessary, and you’ve got the recipe for success.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

Ready to learn some more? Of course you are, at least given today’s topic. You might want to take a closer look at Six Sigma for supply chain management. Six Sigma isn’t just a great approach for manufacturing. It can be used across just about any industry you can imagine.

Additionally, you might want to take a closer look at pivoting from your startup strategy. Startups have to be nimble, as staying static can result in crashing and burning. Our guide covers some of the ins and outs of navigating the next step when the funding is coming from your business.

Conclusion

Six Sigma and organizational culture give you everything you need to create a learning culture. It isn’t always a straightforward process, but with the right tools and open communication, you’re on the way to making lasting changes.

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