As originally published in Forbes here.

Our team is often asked to assist with designing and delivering training, so we get to inspect a lot of learning and development operations, processes and deliverables. When we are engaged, we make two fundamental statements about the L&D within an organization. First, there must be a L&D strategy. Second, the organization must move toward a L&D culture.

Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve an overall goal or objective. When you think about a learning strategy, it means that you have an organized and thoughtful investment and plan for how to develop and grow the people at all levels within your organization consistently and constantly.

Culture refers to the collective hearts and minds of a group of people. When you consider a learning culture, you must think about a group of people who are collectively engaged in and passionate about an organization. They want to grow individually and collectively.

Read the full article here.