Fostering a culture of learning goes beyond organizing training events and mentoring. It entails creating an atmosphere where learning is embedded into the fabric of the organization, promoted by leaders, and embraced as a shared value by all employees. It involves providing diverse learning opportunities, encouraging self-directed learning, promoting feedback and reflection, and integrating learning into everyday work processes. By cultivating a learning culture, you can empower associates to take ownership of their development and ultimately contribute to the firm's long-term success.
Here are a few things you can do to promote a culture of learning in your law firm.
(1) Ask associates to teach in your training programs
It’s common for firms to ask their most accomplished senior associates to lead training sessions, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Rather, I suggest asking associates of all levels of seniority – including the most junior associates and even associates who may be struggling performance-wise – to participate in creating and teaching training modules.
This may sound radical, but research suggests that teaching is one of the most effective ways to learn something. When you teach others, you must understand and organize information in a way that makes sense to your audience. The process of organizing information helps you to better retain and understand the material yourself. Additionally, teaching can help you identify misunderstandings or gaps in your knowledge. By filling these gaps, you deepen your understanding of the subject matter, reinforcing your learning. Teaching may be one of the best tools we can use to help our associates invest in and supercharge their learning.
To make this work, for each training session, pair one or two associates with a skilled partner who will have primary responsibility for the training. And don’t just ask the associates to prepare the training materials – let them present, even just a small piece. Have them practice in advance to ensure they deliver the material accurately. The partner will, of course, take the lead on presenting and help answer questions that arise or clear up any misunderstandings.
(2) Ask partners to attend associate trainings – even for junior associates
Associates know that partners value their time, so when partners show up at an associate training, it sends a strong message about the value of these sessions. If you can create a dynamic where multiple partners from the group show up and contribute to the discussion, not only will the training sessions become more interesting and lively (associates love a good “war story”) but associates will come to see the time they spend in training as time well-spent.
(3) Incentivize training
There is a lot to be said for putting your money where your mouth is. I know that giving billable credit for training can be a hard sell at most firms, but when you don’t give any reward or credit for training, you might be inadvertently sending a message that those hours are not valuable time.
But billable credit is not the only incentive available. You can offer awards, prizes, or recognition to associates who attain a certain number of hours of training and Professional Development; or perhaps gamify it with a kind of PD Bingo where associates get prizes for achieving certain PD goals over the course of a year. There are lots of possibilities if you get creative and have fun with it!
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To achieve a culture of learning, you must be persistent, and you must approach learning from a variety of angles. When associates get a consistent message that learning is valued by their firm, they will start to value the time they spend on it.
By: Kandice Thorn, Founder, WorkBetter for Lawyers
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