Learning Culture

Today we are going to talk about Learning Culture — an important part of modern aviation that allows us industry to stay on of the most innovative in the world

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Learning Culture in aviation

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In general, Learning Culture is a set of values, methodologies, and practices that inspires and motivates employees (or the organization as a whole) to develop their knowledge, skills, and competencies.

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Definition of Learning Culture

Chapter 1

Advantages of modern Learning Culture in aviation

Chapter 2

Most common ways of creating a modern Learning Culture

Chapter 3

Summary

Chapter 4

Definition of Learning Culture

In the modern world, the main concept of learning is Continuous Learning (also known as Lifelong Learning). In simple terms: in a world that is developing so quickly and rapidly, it is impossible to ever finish one's education.

New technologies and developments mean that professionals can only remain in demand if they constantly learn new things, acquire new competencies, and update old ones.

This is especially true in aviation, where regulatory documents, aircraft, approaches, and work methods change several times a year - and aviation personnel always need to know and follow the latest guidelines!

Cycle of safety learning culture

In 2022, a global study on the culture of learning was finally released, and the leading brochure was titled "Towards a Safety Learning Culture for the Shipping Industry". This document was prepared at the request of a large number of organizations involved in transportation worldwide.

Although the main clients were operators of maritime transport, Eurocontrol - the main European organization for ensuring air navigation safety - also participated in the project.

So the data from the study is directly applied in many European airlines, which invest in modern learning methods in order to gain huge advantages in the long term."

Following the cycle of a safe learning culture allows for a significant increase in the quantity and quality of information about system failures in the long term, and therefore improves the quality of personnel training.

No one likes to sit for 8 hours straight listening to dry and boring lectures that only indirectly relate to the problem. But a deep study of the causes and consequences of violations allows for the creation of such educational materials that are both interesting to employees and contain truly important and useful information.

Advantages of modern Learning Culture in aviation

"Iceberg" of incidents

Any violation is a multifaceted event. It cannot be considered as an obvious and one-sided incident. Very often, hasty conclusions are incorrect, and decisions made based on them are useless or even worsen the situation.

We have already established that a well-created and constantly developing Learning Culture can bring many benefits to an organization. Let's consider the main ones:

Increased employee satisfaction
1
Decreased turnover

2
Increases in efficiency and productivity
3
A culture of knowledge acquisition and sharing
4
A "make it better" mindset within the organisation
5
Less resistance, and enhanced adaptability, to change

6

The benefits of modern learning culture are very similar to the benefits of a Just Culture that we talked about two weeks ago - and there is a reason for this. Both of these topics are strongly intertwined, and modern airlines use a comprehensive approach where both "cultures" complement and improve each other, allowing for the creation of a true industry of the future.

Most common ways of creating a modern Learning Culture

For learning to be effective within, and beneficial to, an organisation, the subject matter that is encouraged must be related to the business at hand. More critically, personnel within an organisation should be working together whenever possible, rather than learning individually. As an example, most flight departments recognise the advantage of sending a crew, rather than individual pilots, for initial or recurrent training. The shared learning environment enhances the training experience and allows the use of company protocols and procedures, thus increasing the value of the training and the confidence and capability of the crew involved.
There are many ways to create, encourage and enhance a Learning Culture. Not all of these can be used in every workplace environment. Some of the more fundamental aspects of creating a Learning Culture, in almost any environment, include:

Lead by example

A critical driver of employee learning is reflected by what the company managers actually do. A leader's behavior — particularly in terms of what they do as a matter of routine — has a strong influence on the behavior and the performance of their team.

In simple terms, don’t ask your employees to do what you don’t (or won't) do yourself.

Recognise and reward

Effecting a change in the culture of any organisation will be very difficult if there is not a process in place to entice or reward the desired outcome.

Allow time for formal learning, encourage creative or critical thinking and recognise, praise and reward those who display an effort to learn and develop.

Provide appropriate feedback

Although the tendency in many performance debriefings is to tell individuals what they are doing "right", the opportunity should also be used to tell them what they are doing "wrong".

Negative feedback must be offered in a constructive and diplomatic way but when it comes to the subject of continuous learning, one of the best ways to trigger curiosity on given a subject is to highlight a knowledge gap.

Hire appropriately

Irrespective of an individual's credentials or experience, if they do not support and embrace the culture of the organisation, they will not likely fit in well.

From a Learning Culture perspective, if naturally curious people are hired, and if their interests and their role within the organisation are overlapped to the maximum extent possible, it is unlikely that there will be an issue with their willingness to learn.

Summary

As is the case in many sectors, the world of aviation is changing rapidly. Organisations cannot expect to keep up if they are reliant on outdated technologies, work activities, and processes. Rules and procedures change, airspace utilisation continuously evolves, and the advances in technology and automation, in both air traffic management and in aircraft systems and capability, change the scope and pace of the role of each individual within their respective organisation.

To keep employees engaged, and to help develop the agility that they need to remain proficient, organisations need to embrace a Learning Culture that engages team members at every level of the Company hierarchy.

Name of article: Learning Culture
Sources: click, click
Release date: 9/14/2023
Acrticle author: Nikita Pavlov

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