Most companies say they value learning. But do they really? Too often, learning is reduced to courses, workshops, and compliance training. Real learning cultures? Those are rare.

A true learning culture isn’t about ticking off training requirements. It’s about how people think, interact, and solve problems together every day. It’s about curiosity, reflection, and growth embedded into the way work happens.

This article is for L&D Professionals, People Leaders, and anyone who wants to build a workplace where learning is a natural, everyday part of how people work and grow.

We’ll break down what a real learning culture looks like, the strategies that work, the pitfalls to avoid, and how to go beyond L&D as the sole driver of learning. 

What Is a Learning Culture?

To define a learning culture, we go back to a very popular resource—Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.

In The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge introduced the idea of a learning organization, where learning isn’t confined to individuals but happens at a systemic level. Organizations that truly embrace learning don’t just train employees—they build structures that allow learning to happen everywhere, at every level. Senge outlined five core disciplines that drive learning in organizations:

• Personal Mastery. This is about constantly growing and improving—not because someone tells you to, but because you’re genuinely curious and want to get better. When individuals commit to learning, it creates a ripple effect that influences the whole organization.
• Mental Models. We all have ways of thinking that shape how we see the world. Organizations that foster learning encourage people to challenge their own assumptions and rethink old ways of working, making room for fresh ideas and real growth.
• Shared Vision. When teams share a common purpose and understand why their work matters, they naturally support each other’s learning. A strong vision creates alignment, making learning a team effort rather than an individual task.
• Team Learning. The best learning happens together. When teams communicate openly, share knowledge, and learn from each other’s experiences, they solve problems faster and improve continuously.
• Systems Thinking. Everything in an organization is connected. Instead of focusing on isolated problems, a learning culture encourages people to step back and see the bigger picture—understanding how different actions influence each other and how learning can drive meaningful change.

Understanding these principles provides a strong foundation for embedding learning at every level of an organization. But a learning culture isn’t something you set up once—it’s a system that continuously evolves, adapting to new challenges, insights, and ways of working.

The Iceberg Model of Learning Cultures

Talking about Systems Thinking, one of Senge’s five disciplines, means recognizing that the visible aspects of an organization—policies, programs, and formal training—are just the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface lies a deeper set of values, assumptions, and behaviors that shape how learning truly happens (or doesn’t) within a company.

The Iceberg Model of Culture helps illustrate this. What we see on the surface—things like leadership development programs, onboarding sessions, or e-learning platforms—only represents a small fraction of what actually drives learning in an organization. Below the waterline, the unspoken norms, everyday habits, and deeply ingrained beliefs about learning play a far more significant role in shaping a true learning culture.

• Above the surface (Formal Learning Initiatives) – This includes structured learning experiences like training programs, workshops, and compliance courses. These are easy to measure but don’t tell the full story.
• Just below the surface (Behaviors and Norms) – This is where real learning culture begins to take shape. Do employees feel safe admitting they don’t know something? Are people encouraged to experiment, ask questions, and learn from failures?
• Deep below the surface (Mindsets and Beliefs) – The most powerful but hardest-to-see layer. Do people believe learning is a lifelong process, or is it seen as something you "complete"? Does leadership truly model and reward continuous growth, or is learning seen as a distraction from "real work"?

Understanding the iceberg of learning culture means shifting focus away from just adding more courses and toward shaping the hidden forces that determine how people actually learn, share knowledge, and grow together.

So, how do we build a learning culture?

I’m not a fan of bullet point lists that just throw ideas on the wall. Cultures aren’t one-size-fits-all—they are as unique as the organizations they belong to. What matters more than a generic playbook is following a process that helps you understand your specific context and identify what needs to change to truly embed learning in the way people work.

A learning culture isn’t something you “launch”—it’s something that evolves over time. It’s a system, and like any good system, it needs feedback loops, continuous adjustments, and input from the people inside it.

That said, if you’re dealing with leaders who are too stubborn to go through this process, I’ll provide a few quick fixes later. But for now, let’s focus on the right way to do it—by following a structured approach:

Run a culture audit

Before making any changes, you need to understand where your organization stands. This means going beyond surface-level perceptions and taking a deep dive into how learning actually happens (or doesn’t) inside your company.

Start by asking key questions:

• How do people solve problems? Do they rely on past experience, or do they seek new knowledge?
• What happens when someone fails? Is failure a learning opportunity or a career risk?
• How do leaders model learning? Do they share what they’re learning and encourage others to do the same?
• What informal learning behaviors exist? Are people sharing insights, collaborating, and coaching each other?

Gather insights through surveys, focus groups, and interviews across all levels of the organization. Look at data from performance reviews, internal mobility trends, and engagement surveys to spot patterns. A true culture audit isn’t just about what people say—it’s about observing what actually happens.

Create a prioritized list of your weakest to strongest attributes

Once you’ve gathered insights, the next step is to make sense of them. Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, rank your findings from biggest gaps to strongest assets.

• What’s currently enabling learning in your organization?
• What’s blocking it?
• Where is the misalignment between what the company says it values versus what actually happens?

For example, your company might claim to value innovation, but if no one has time to experiment, learning is being stifled. Or maybe there’s a lot of peer learning happening informally, but no structured way to share that knowledge across teams.

This prioritization step ensures that you don’t waste energy fixing things that aren’t broken and instead focus on the areas that will make the biggest impact.

Co-create an action plan with as many people as you can

A learning culture isn’t built from the top down—it’s shaped by the people who live it every day. That’s why co-creation is critical. Instead of leadership deciding on a “learning strategy” in isolation, involve employees at all levels.

This could look like:

• Workshops where employees define what a learning culture means to them
• Cross-functional teams identifying blockers and brainstorming solutions
• Leader roundtables to align expectations and gain buy-in
• Public commitments where teams set learning goals and share them

By bringing people into the process, you don’t just get better ideas—you create ownership. And ownership is what transforms an initiative into a lasting shift in behavior.

Treat your plan with the care that change management requires

If there’s one thing we know about culture change, it’s that announcing a new initiative isn’t enough. Change isn’t adopted overnight—it’s absorbed over time.

To make your learning culture efforts stick, think like a change manager:

• Communicate the ‘why’ clearly and often – People need to understand why this shift matters, not just what’s changing.
• Start small and prove impact – Pilots and quick wins help build momentum.
• Leverage influencers inside your company – Find people who already embody a learning mindset and let them lead by example.
• Remove friction – If learning feels like extra work, it won’t happen. Make it seamless by integrating it into existing workflows.

Culture shifts don’t happen just because leadership decides they should. They happen because people see value in the change and feel supported in making it happen.

Measure, measure, measure progress

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. But when it comes to learning cultures, traditional L&D metrics (like course completions) don’t tell the full story.

Instead, track leading indicators that signal whether learning is becoming embedded in the way people work:

• Psychological safety scores – Do people feel safe to ask questions and admit they don’t know something?
• Collaboration and knowledge-sharing trends – Are employees proactively helping each other learn?
• Experimentation rates – Are teams running more pilots and testing new ideas?
• Internal mobility data – Are employees moving into new roles because they’ve developed new skills?

Regularly review these signals and adjust your approach. A learning culture isn’t a one-time initiative—it’s an ongoing evolution.

7 actions you might want to consider when modeling a learning culture

Building a learning culture isn’t just about what you say—it’s about what you model every day. If leaders treat learning as an afterthought, so will everyone else. But if learning is woven into daily work, decision-making, and team dynamics, it becomes a natural part of how the organization operates.

Here are seven key actions that can make a tangible difference.

Make Psychological Safety Non-Negotiable

Without psychological safety, learning stops before it even starts. If people fear looking incompetent, they won’t ask questions, admit mistakes, or experiment with new ideas.

To make psychological safety a core part of your culture:

• Model vulnerability – Leaders should openly share what they’re learning, where they’ve failed, and what they’re uncertain about.
• Normalize questions – Instead of valuing speed and decisiveness at all costs, encourage curiosity and thoughtful reflection.
• Make feedback a two-way street – Employees should feel safe giving and receiving constructive feedback without fear of punishment.
• Reward learning behaviors, not just outcomes – Praise people for taking risks, iterating, and adapting, not just for getting things right the first time.

Psychological safety isn’t about comfort—it’s about confidence in speaking up and taking risks without fear of embarrassment or retaliation. Once that foundation is in place, learning can truly take root.

Set High Standards

Psychological safety alone can work wonders. When people feel safe to ask questions, admit mistakes, and experiment without fear of punishment, learning naturally thrives. But safety without challenge can lead to comfort—maybe even complacency.

That’s where high standards come in.

A strong learning culture isn’t just about creating a space where people feel safe to learn—it’s about making sure they feel compelled to grow. It’s the balance between support and challenge that drives real development.

Think of it like this:

• Psychological safety says, "It’s okay to get it wrong, as long as we learn from it."
• High standards say, "But let’s push ourselves to get better every time."

When these two forces work together, they create a culture where:

• People stretch beyond their comfort zones because they know growth is expected.
• Feedback isn’t just accepted—it’s actively sought after.
• Learning isn’t just something we do—it’s something we hold ourselves accountable for.

Leaders play a crucial role in setting this balance. They need to model both encouragement and expectation—celebrating effort while also challenging teams to raise the bar.

A learning culture isn’t just about removing fear—it’s about fueling ambition. And that only happens when people know that learning isn’t just welcomed—it’s expected.

Prioritize building trust among individuals & teams

Trust is the glue of a learning culture. When trust is high, people collaborate, share knowledge, and challenge each other’s thinking without hesitation.

To build real trust:

• Create shared experiences – Team-based learning, collaborative problem-solving, and peer coaching build stronger relationships.
• Recognize contributions publicly – Acknowledging people for their insights and contributions fosters an environment of mutual respect.
• Be consistent – Trust erodes when leaders say one thing and do another. If learning is encouraged, make sure there’s time and space for it in real work.
• Foster cross-functional learning – Breaking silos and encouraging teams to learn from each other strengthens trust across the entire organization.

When people trust that their voices matter and their colleagues have their backs, learning accelerates naturally.

Invest in team development

Too often, learning is treated as an individual responsibility—but the most transformative learning happens in teams.

To strengthen team-based learning:

• Integrate learning into team goals – Make learning a team KPI just like performance metrics. If teams are expected to innovate, learning should be part of how they do it.
• Use retrospectives as learning moments – Regularly reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and what can be improved.
• Encourage peer coaching and mentoring – Learning doesn’t have to come from formal programs. Teams should be teaching each other constantly.
• Give teams autonomy to experiment – Instead of waiting for training, let teams run small, low-risk experiments and share what they learn.

When teams are learning units, organizations grow exponentially faster.

Shift Learning from an Event to a Habit

Most organizations still treat learning as something you “attend”—a workshop, a webinar, an annual training. But true learning cultures build learning into the daily rhythm of work.

To shift learning into a habit:

• Embed learning into workflows – Microlearning, bite-sized content, and real-time coaching should be accessible inside the tools people already use.
• Encourage daily reflection – Simple practices like “What did I learn today?” at stand-ups or “Friday learning wins” in team meetings build consistency.
• Make learning flexible – Not everyone learns in the same way or at the same pace. Offer multiple ways to learn—reading, listening, discussing, practicing.
• Redefine leadership behaviors – Leaders should model continuous learning by asking for feedback, trying new skills, and sharing what they’re learning.

When learning is small, frequent, and connected to real work, it stops being an event—and becomes an ongoing habit.

Help everyone become a leader

One of the biggest learning culture shifts is moving away from the idea that only managers lead learning. Instead, everyone should have a role in helping others grow.

To create leadership at every level:

• Give people ownership over their learning paths – Let employees decide what they need to learn based on their goals and challenges.
• Encourage peer-to-peer learning – Learning communities, shadowing, and internal coaching programs help distribute leadership.
• Recognize and develop informal leaders – Some of the best learning champions aren’t in management. Find and elevate the people already driving learning.
• Remove hierarchy from learning – New hires can teach experienced employees. Junior employees can challenge assumptions. Expertise should flow in all directions.

When everyone is responsible for learning, learning becomes unstoppable.

Remove the biggest blockers

Even the best-intentioned learning initiatives fail when structural barriers stand in the way. Before launching any new effort, remove what’s stopping people from learning in the first place.

Common blockers include:

• Lack of time – If employees are too busy to learn, no initiative will work. Learning time should be protected and prioritized.
• Fear of failure – If mistakes are punished, no one will experiment. A culture of iterative learning is key.
• Lack of leadership buy-in – If leaders don’t model learning, employees won’t prioritize it either.
• Overcomplicated systems – If accessing learning resources is hard, people won’t use them. Learning should be frictionless and embedded into work.

Start by removing friction, and you’ll see learning take off naturally.

Common pitfalls to avoid

Even with the best intentions, many organizations fall into common traps when trying to build a learning culture. Recognizing and avoiding these pitfalls can save time, resources, and frustration.

Believing the L&D team can do anything about it without everyone else

L&D is often tasked with “creating a learning culture,” but the truth is—they can’t do it alone. A learning culture isn’t built by launching more courses or rolling out a new LMS. It’s shaped by how people work, interact, and solve problems daily, and that goes far beyond the L&D function.

If leaders don’t model learning, if teams don’t share knowledge, and if managers don’t encourage growth, no amount of training programs will change behavior. Learning culture is an organization-wide effort, not an L&D initiative.

What to do instead: Involve leaders, managers, and employees in shaping the learning culture. Make it clear that everyone has a role to play.

Considering It a One and Done

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is treating learning culture as a one-time initiative rather than an ongoing process. Learning cultures aren’t something you “set and forget.” Without continuous reflection and improvement, any initial momentum will fade, and old habits will creep back in.

The key to sustaining a learning culture is building feedback loops. Organizations need regular mechanisms to gather insights from employees, measure learning effectiveness, and adjust strategies accordingly. This could mean pulse surveys, retrospective meetings, or simply fostering a habit of reflecting on what’s working and what’s not.

A learning culture is only as strong as its ability to evolve. Without built-in opportunities to assess progress and course-correct, even the best-designed initiatives will stagnate.

Ignoring the voices in the crowd

It’s easy to assume we know what employees need to learn. But when learning initiatives are designed in isolation—without listening to the people they’re meant to serve—they often fail to gain traction.

The people doing the work every day know best what challenges they face, what skills they need, and what learning formats work for them. Yet, too many organizations overlook this insight.

What to do instead: Run culture audits, host listening sessions, and co-create learning initiatives with employees at all levels. When people feel heard, they engage more fully in learning.

Ignoring blockers

If employees aren’t engaging with learning, it’s not because they don’t care about development—it’s because something is getting in their way.

Some common blockers include:

• Time constraints – If workloads are overwhelming, learning gets deprioritized.
• Lack of relevance – If learning feels disconnected from real work, it won’t stick.
• Fear of failure – If mistakes are punished, people avoid the discomfort of learning.

Organizations often focus on adding more learning opportunities without addressing the things that make learning difficult in the first place.

What to do instead: Identify and remove barriers before launching new initiatives. If time is a blocker, integrate learning into daily work. If relevance is a problem, personalize learning paths.

Failing to measure

A learning culture isn’t just about making learning available—it’s about making sure it actually happens and drives impact. Yet, many organizations roll out programs without clear measures of success.

Tracking course completions is not enough. A true learning culture should be measured by:

• Psychological safety levels (Do people feel safe to ask questions and experiment?)
• Collaboration trends (Are teams sharing knowledge and learning from each other?)
• Internal mobility rates (Are employees developing and growing into new roles?)
• Experimentation & innovation data (Are teams applying what they learn?)

Without measurement, learning culture becomes just another buzzword—not a tangible business driver.

What to do instead: Set clear, meaningful learning culture metrics and track progress over time. Adjust strategies based on real data, not assumptions.

Purchasing tools as a solution

A new LMS, AI-powered learning platform, or knowledge-sharing tool won’t fix a broken learning culture. Tools are enablers, not solutions. If the underlying culture doesn’t support learning, technology will sit unused.

Companies often fall into the trap of investing in software before addressing:

• Whether people actually have time to learn
• Whether managers and leaders support learning
• Whether employees feel comfortable asking for help or admitting they don’t know something

Without these foundations, no tool can make learning happen.

What to do instead: Focus on behavior and mindset shifts first. When the right culture is in place, the right tools will amplify it.

Conclusion

Building a learning culture isn’t about offering more training—it’s about shaping how people think, collaborate, and grow together.

It requires:

• Psychological safety and high standards to balance support with challenge
• Collective effort—L&D can’t do it alone
• Listening to employees and addressing their blockers
• Embedding learning into the way work happens, not treating it as an extra task
• Feedback loops to ensure the learning culture adapts and evolves over time

Most importantly, it’s an ongoing journey, not a one-time initiative. Organizations that embed learning into their systems are better equipped to navigate uncertainty, evolve their business models, and stay ahead in competitive markets. When learning is treated as part of the company’s DNA—not just an HR function—it becomes a natural, everyday force that fuels both people and business success.