Build a Culture of Learning

Many of the most successful companies in the world establish cultures of learning. What do I mean?

It's simple. Just apply what you learned during your seventh grade science project—start with a hypothesis. What do you want to learn about your customer? What do you want to learn about your business? What are the do's and the don'ts? How do you create the best experience possible? 

Everyone Learning

Start by having each department of your business focus on  learning. What are they currently learning and what do they want to learn?

These questions are easily answered with experiments. Once you get enough data to make the experiment valid, record what you learn, apply it, and move on to the next learning.

Have each department report on what they are learning. You can do this on a weekly basis. Too many times I've seen companies learn something really important and forget to really learn it, so they do it again—the same costly mistake.

Use your learnings to your advantage. I like to write them down in a google doc so I can share them with other members of my teams. We ask ourselves, "Now that we know this, what are we going to do about it?"

You will be surprised by all the important learnings your team makes if you establish a culture of learning.

Some of the top business leaders in the world take this advice to heart. Here are some important learning from the world's top business leaders.

Top Learnings

Weigh Your Priorities

"Most start ups are focused on growing faster. That alone would not make us a great company. We realized we had to focus on three things: love, growth, and foundation." 

Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb

Celebrate Each Step

"The best way to make employees happy is to set realistic goals and achieve them. I make sure those small steps are pointing us in the right direction."

Leila Janah, CEO, Samasource

Get Better As You Get Bigger

"We grew like crazy in 2012, but we had a lot of growing pains. Make sure your structure is efficient before piling more people on top of it."

Ben Lerer, CEO, Thrillist

Entrepreneur is a Job Title

"Entrepreneurship is a new corporate function. If companies are looking to have teams build new disruptive innovations, each team should have a leader whose business card says "entrepreneur."

Eric Ries, Author, The Learn Startup

Overcommunicate, Overcommunicate

"Ideas go nowhere if they stay in your head. Everything has to be communicated to the people who execute the ideas."

Dennis Crowley, CEO, Foursquare

Data Trumps Opinions

"The highest-paid opinion matters the least. Data from experiments is critical so that the best idea can prove itself."

Brad Smith, CEO, Intuit

Don't Skimp on Talent

"This year was all about having the conviction that when you hire great people, despite the cost, great things will happen."

Jonah Peretti, Co Founder, BuzzFeed

Don't Overcommit

"The commitments I make don't affect only me. Next year I'll set more realistic goals for my company so our employees can have a healthy work-life balance."

David Chang, Chef and Founder, Momofuku

Assemble a Dedicated Team with a Shared Vision

"Commitment to the vision trumps funding, technology, gold-plated degrees, and press. It remains our primary qualification. Everything else can be taught."

Marci Harris, CEO, Popvox

Focus on Collisions

"Innovation is often the result of random conversations, collisions—where ideas outside your industry are applied to your own. We want to accelerate those collisions among our people."

Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos

Users Deserve An Roi

"When you put your information about yourself out there, that's a transaction. You need to feel that your getting something in return."

Margaret Stewart, Director of Product Design, Facebook

You can see the power of learning. Just imagine what you will learn if you focus on it. Build a culture of learning.

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