How to nurture a culture of relentless learning

Comms skills are expiring faster than last week’s meme—and that stings. Think about it: Forty years ago, a comms competency like strong writing or pitching could power a career for a decade. But today, the average skill is losing half its relevance in four years, according to Forbes.

“If you’re not learning—you’re not growing and you’re risking irrelevance. There are no two ways about it,” agrees Georgetown University instructor Sukhi Sahni, who recently wrapped up a transformational run as a comms SVP at Wells Fargo.

To help future-proof your team’s skills and budget, she shares her moves that turned a scrappy learning and development (L&D)  pilot into a multimillion-dollar comms engine—along with tips for leveling up learning across your org.

Building a culture of learning

“Upskilling is the key to staying relevant—and it’s a guiding tenet of how I lead, build and nurture my teams in a growth environment,” said Sahni.

“But you can’t just say you want to launch a learning program. You have to build a true culture of learning—that’s how I stretched a shoestring operating budget in the five-figure range into a program 24 times larger in one of my roles where I was asked to reposition the brand.”

Here’s her five-step regimen for building a similar culture where you work:

1. Hire for hunger. “Hire talent that’s hungry and doesn’t necessarily fit all the boxes,” she suggested. “Take risks and let them surprise you.” For example, look beyond perfect resumes and scan for curiosity, adaptability, hustle—then give those hires a path to prove themselves.
2. Fail forward. “Create a culture where failure is celebrated not reprimanded,” advises Sahni. One example would be holding rapid post-mortems for every comms initiative so takeaways and lessons for improvement cascade across the team instead of disappearing into Teams threads.
3. Loosen the reins. “Empower your people to take risks, but also to take ownership,” Sahni said. A way to do that is to set clear guardrails, then let one person drive each comms pilot end-to-end so accountability and credit both stay sharp.
4. Fund fast pilots. “Keep a small ‘test-and-learn’ budget so you can experiment,” she suggested. “Build a prototype for learning that fosters innovation.” For example, consider earmarking 5-10% of your program as a standing “innovation fund” that can be tapped with a one-page pitch.
5. Iterate and embed. “L&D is an ongoing process, not a one-off,” said Sahni. “So apply any learnings from pilots to strengthen not only your team’s skills—but also the program itself.”

Her takeaway is to treat this last step like you would any comms campaign—mining the engagement metrics, keeping what worked and changing what didn’t before relaunching.

Borrowing college classroom insights

Sahni’s Georgetown role keeps her close to Gen Z mindsets—and gives us these quick classroom hacks for keeping your learners engaged:

• Open with the whole self. “I record a welcome video for my new classes,” she explained. “In that video, I usually share three things—my professional background, what they can expect in class and my family background, which includes how I’ll bring my whole self to class every day.” Of course, it’s a great icebreaker. “But it also helps to create conversations that transcend boundaries and culture.  Those conversations help create a safe place for learning.”
• Scan beyond industry. “Another lesson is to widen your ‘competitor analysis,’” said Sahni. “Beyond L&D, this applies to comms leadership—because looking beyond your industry and even globally lets you think big, be more creative and create more room for innovation.” It’s the same for L&D. Learners are often most inspired by examples, case studies and even instructors that stretch beyond their daily experience. For example, you could schedule quarterly “outside inspiration” sessions into your L&D calendar and invite a speaker from gaming or healthcare so fresh ideas flow back into your team’s comms skillset
• Tap the student pulse. “My students keep me fresh and brimming with ideas,” Sahni added. “They’re the pulse of the future in comms—and honestly, my superpower.” The L&D takeaway? Consider building a standing “pulse panel” inside your LMS where emerging-talent employees can post micro-videos, vote on skill gaps and even suggest new modules. Then fold their top-ranked topics into your next upskilling sprint or L&D brainstorm.

Continue leaning into learning  on July 29th at our free virtual fireside featuring Ragan Sr. Director of Learning and Development Justin Joffe in conversation with Amazon Alexa Trust & Privacy Marketing Lead Gary Cooper. They’ll discuss learning as a culture, Amazon’s framework for leveling up leadership and much more. Claim your free spot and register now!

Brian Pittman is the dean of Ragan Training and a senior Ragan event producer. A veteran journalist, storyteller, Hollywood screenwriter and surfer, he can be reached at [email protected].