Not every company has a large budget to spend on development, so how can you build a learning organization without breaking the bank?
- Use experts within your business to deliver lunch time insight sessions.
- Ask suppliers to hold sessions on key developments within your market or technical areas.
- Use community projects as team-building sessions and the chance for potential managers to develop their skills.
- Have a learning library and ask people to bring in their course materials or books to share with others. If you look around the senior managers bookshelves there is an array of books that if placed in a central area could benefit all.
- Partner with a college, university. Here you could swap learnings...you provide access to projects, or managers as mentors....they provide access to their facilities.
- Encourage your teams to listen to podcasts - obviously The Engaging Brand would be top of the list! But there are wonderful resources that are free but have incredible value.
- Have a wiki that holds internal information.
- Use Technorati, Del.icio.us, etc to find articles on your company, the market, the local community, global trends...and again it is free!
Now who says you do not have enough budget!
