Author: Bruce Tulgan

Here are some changes companies are rapidly moving toward in the first few years of the 21^st century—and possible adjustments to make in your own work attitudes.

• Established institutions must be completely flexible because markets are chaotic and resource needs are unpredictable.

• Because established institutions are in a state of constant flux, individuals must be fiercely self-reliant.

• The growing information tidal wave presents us all with an infinite array of options, so there is no one way to think about or do anything any more.

• As the pace of change accelerates, the only relevant time frame is just-in-time.

The following are five business practices that can turn your workplace into a learning environment:

1. Create an obsession with training and learning in your organization—make learning and training part of everybody's job and make time available for these activities.
2. Fill the workplace with learning resources in every medium possible (print, video, audio, CD interactive, intranet, etc.) and give employees unfettered access to those resources; support outside learning opportunities such as degree and certificate programs.
3. Encourage employees to set concrete learning goals with deadlines, but then meet those goals and deadlines in their own way and at their own pace.
4. Allow people to take assignments in diverse skill areas and move around the organization in order to build their knowledge.
5. Create a free market for mentoring: Teach everybody how to be a mentor and how to get a mentor, and then let them choose each other as they wish.

Source: Bruce Tulgan, RainmakerThinking, Inc.