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Driving Innovation

By Jeffrey Shupack, Harry Koehnemann, Adam Furtado, Bryan Woodruff, Tamara Skye

How Leaders Create a Learning Culture

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This paper, published in the Fall 2024 Enterprise Technology Leadership Journal, explores how leaders can create a learning culture to drive innovation in organizations. The authors argue that fostering an intentional learning culture and providing meaningful learning opportunities are crucial for organizational innovation and long-term success. The paper focuses on three levels of learning support: individual (leader as coach), team (scenius or collective genius), and organizational (learning objectives aligned with strategic goals).

  • Format PDF
  • Pages 21
  • Publication Date

Features

  • Leadership Coaching

    Leaders should shift from simply giving directions to providing growth opportunities and enabling employees to leverage their experience and knowledge through coaching.

  • Collective Intelligence

    Fostering a "scenius" or collective genius at the team level can drive innovation by creating an environment where ideas, knowledge, and skills are freely exchanged.

  • Strategic Alignment

    Learning objectives should be aligned with broader organizational goals and measured using frameworks like Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to ensure learning contributes to strategic priorities.

  • Continuous Improvement

    Organizations should regularly assess, update, and improve their learning objectives and strategies to remain relevant and impactful in a rapidly changing business environment.

About the Resource

This paper, published in the Fall 2024 Enterprise Technology Leadership Journal, explores how leaders can create a learning culture to drive innovation in organizations. The authors argue that fostering an intentional learning culture and providing meaningful learning opportunities are crucial for organizational innovation and long-term success. The paper focuses on three levels of learning support: individual (leader as coach), team (scenius or collective genius), and organizational (learning objectives aligned with strategic goals).

The paper provides practical guidance and examples for leaders to promote constructive dialogues about learning within their organizations. It covers topics such as maintaining a learning culture during stressful situations, fostering environments where collective intelligence thrives, and setting relevant organizational learning objectives. The authors emphasize the importance of psychological safety, continuous improvement, and aligning learning goals with broader organizational objectives. Throughout the paper, real-world examples, discussion questions, and next steps are provided to help leaders implement and improve learning cultures in their organizations.

Jeffrey Shupack
Harry Koehnemann
Adam Furtado
Bryan Woodruff
Tamara Skye
Jeffrey Shupack

Jeffrey Shupack

Jeffrey Shupack, president, Project & Team, is an advisor, speaker, and author who helps organizations improve efficiency in delivering complex products. Specializing in change management, AI, digital innovation, and fostering learning cultures, Shupack guides leaders to enhance operational flow, speed to market, and customer satisfaction. As a distinguished SAFe Fellow, he leverages proven methodologies from Lean/Agile, DevOps, design thinking, and organizational development to drive digital transformation. With decades of experience in bridging theory and practice, Shupack has delivered measurable, impactful outcomes across industries such as aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, finance, government, technology, manufacturing, medical, and oil and gas. He collaborates with Fortune 100 companies and government agencies. Shupack is also a published author in leading industry journals and a sought-after speaker at international conferences. Find his work at jeffreyshupack.com.

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Harry Koehnemann

Harry Koehnemann

Harry Koehnemann, Scaled Agile Inc., is a methodologist and SAFe Fellow. He helps organizations build and deliver large, complex systems faster, more predictably, and with high quality using SAFe. He has spent the past two decades working with large system builders in aerospace, defense, automotive, and other industries to apply Lean/Agile principles to their engineering practices, including systems engineering practices, quality management, and compliance.

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Adam Furtado

Adam Furtado

Adam Furtado, is the founder & CEO of Sagely, an early-stage AI-driven social learning product that upskills personnel and builds learning communities within large-scale businesses. Before Sagely, Furtado was on the founding team of Kessel Run, one of the largest and most successful software efforts in the history of the US Department of Defense. As its Chief Product Officer, Furtado was responsible for recruiting, growing, and leading over one thousand US Air Force personnel as they built dozens of software-based warfighting products within a culture of learning and growth.

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Bryan Woodruff

Bryan Woodruff

Bryan Woodruff, vice president of engineering for seller experience at eBay, leads a dynamic engineering team committed to revolutionizing the eBay selling platform. His team’s focus on innovation and user-centric solutions is transforming the way millions of sellers engage with the marketplace. With four decades of experience in the software industry, he has cultivated a deep expertise in software design and architecture, software project management, and the art of cross-functional collaboration which includes a long tenure of over 22 years at Microsoft, and an entrepreneurial journey creating two software development consulting companies providing solutions based upon an extensive background in kernel development, systems architecture, full-stack solutions and multi-platform client/server component design and development. Woodruff’s career is characterized by a relentless pursuit of excellence, aiming to deliver solutions that exceed expectations and drive business growth.

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Tamara Skye

Tamara Skye

Tamara Skye, founder of Center Gravity, is a peak-performance coach, strategy consultant, and leadership development expert, who partners with C-Suites, Boards, and upper management to achieve extraordinary, lasting results. Tamara’s prior experience includes serving as a Fortune 25+ executive. While working in corporate roles, her organizations consistently achieved outstanding, impactful, and measurable results in transformative enterprise initiatives, while working within highly regulated environments. Many of the large-scale initiatives included a need for wide-spread learning of new skills as a critical component for lasting success. A strong personal interest in integrative and behavioral psychology and the deeper aspects of emotional intelligence, as they pertain to leadership, led her to current work; helping existing leaders elevate their game, grow their impact, and achieve their fullest potential, while also facilitating sessions for aspiring leaders as they seek to unlock their potential and lay a strong foundation for leadership. Skye has an irrevocable belief: the goal of leadership is to successfully connect with and maximize the results of others consistently - advocating for their learning is the key. Learn more at centergravityleadership.com.

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