Is Your Company Culture Future Proof?

Kristian Kruse believes learning as a vehicle to promote company culture, innovation and motivation. Currently acting as Global Partnership Manager at Hyper Island with learning hubs in NYC, Stockholm, Manchester, Karlskrona and Singapore, Kruse works directly with global brands and agencies to up development programs that maximize learning outcomes. His passion lies in motivational learning, social connection, cultural innovation, creative leadership, amazing coffee, and bike riding. He is based in New York.

Are agencies missing out on talent because they cannot cultivate a culture for learning and growth? Future employees are looking for companies that can help drive their development and keep them motivated. However, it is not all about the companies, but also the individuals needing to take ownership of their growth and development. So how do we educate the future talent?

The world is changing at an exponentially faster rate, especially when we consider how educational programs are being developed and how we learn. Companies need to refocus on values and culture to become learning organizations where people can explore their passions and talents. We can do this by setting up spaces and supporting the learning journey. The next generation of talent is demanding this of the places they choose to work. Also, the next generation of talent needs to take personal responsibility for their development and learning - identifying and seizing their potential, and ultimately working towards creating better and more compelling work.

As important as individual talent is to being truly creative and innovative, I would argue that teamwork is an underrated art form. Acknowledging that we are not experts in everything, but rather collaborative team players contributing to the bigger picture should be a very liberating and positive shift in thinking. This shift, however, calls for a change of leadership, moving from transactional to transformational in order to nurture employees and create a truly uplifting culture.

At Hyper Island we support lifelong learning and prepare our students to become real world ready. We use a special and successfully proven methodology where everyone is allowed to be who they are and start the process by working on actual briefs from clients in the industry. We do not have teachers, but rather skilled facilitators. It is not about what skills they learn, but rather enabling their learning by allowing them to identify what competencies are needed to make a project successful. This is a fundamental change from

short-term thinking and reactively solving problems, to proactively identifying opportunities and creating long term value in their work.

For companies to thrive in the world of change and acquire and retain talent, they need to clearly define their purpose. As Sir Ken Robinson states: “...people’s

increasing dissatisfaction with their professional lives is creating a profoundly dangerous situation – a disconnected society in which spending the majority of their time slogging through activities that have little meaning for them.”

A question that needs to be on your mind more than ever is how do you encourage a culture of learning? There is no silver bullet and it is not meant to be easy, but it will profoundly affect the future trajectory of your organization. Investing in culture and education constitutes a major step forward toward future proofing your business.

This article appears in The SoDA Report

Kristian Kruse is Global Partnership Manager at Hyper Island