The 2020 Talent Forum calendar started strong, with the first networking event held on the 7th of February in our home town Bristol - hosted by Burges Salmon. Over the last few years the event has become something we’re very proud to be associated with - something we know attendees get a lot from.

As with previous events, it was a brilliant combination of interesting insight from two engaging guest speakers, Gavin Hooper from Burges Salmon and Rich Cook from Mindset Practice, followed by round table discussions on a variety of current L&D topics, including modern performance management, identifying and engaging high performers, and embedding a strong workplace culture.

For me, it was the question of how to create a learning culture and the resulting conversation that sparked a fascinating conversation – as L&D and HR professionals continue to look at ways to demonstrate value and ‘return on investment’, are we stifling the kind of learning culture that we’re trying to cultivate?

Research over decades (I first read ‘Informal Learning’ by Jay Cross back in 2007) has shown the value of learning from each other in a more casual way and finding answers when we need them – we use a company name as a verb – “have you tried googling it?”

Taking attendance at classroom training interventions, setting mandatory LMS content to be completed and sharing reports of how many people have ‘read’ a particular document, all flies in the face of true knowledge exchange.

How do you create a ‘learning culture’ without it feeling restrictive, manufactured or contrived? How do you give your people the space to feed their natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge? It’s about creating an environment that means people can share the things that they’ve tried and have worked, the things that haven’t worked - giving them the space to speak openly about the lessons they’ve learned.

We should give our people the flexibility in their working practices and resources to find the answers they need in a way that works best for them, whether that be attending a course, talking to each other, watching a TED talk or simply having the downtime to think through the possible outcomes.

If you’re an HR or L&D professional who’d liked to be involved in discussions like this one, come along to the next Talent Forum on the 19th of June in Coventry. We’re looking forward to it and hope you’ll join us!