“Transfer of knowledge isn’t about power and control. It’s about sharing and spreading strengths, and understanding that when you can start to harness and build a community of those strengths, then your team, your organization and your enterprise starts to thrive.”

Kim DabbsEMEA learning group director

Today, learning is a fundamental business skill. The ability to continuously learn and adapt is critical to innovation and growth. Peter Senge, who popularized the term “learning organization” in his book The Fifth Discipline, describes it like this: “places where people continuously expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.”

The ability to continually learn how to learn together was a fundamental aim of the LINC.

The space is designed to bring various stakeholders together–employees, leaders and visitors–to engage with one another, to build a sense of community, to discover and learn from each other’s unique perspectives, problem-solving methods and ideas.

This type of social learning cannot only happen in a classroom. Learning activities must be supported throughout the space, at any time, between everyone. Understanding that this was key to creating a learning organization, the team used Steelcase research and insights into how physical environments can encourage equal participation in learning, enhance people’s interactions and create more fluid communications so that learning could happen everywhere–in formal classrooms, as well as at the point of need in everyday work activities.

LEARNING Guiding Principles

Based on their explorations, the learning work stream team synthesized these principles to help inform the design of the new LINC:

Learning Happens Everywhere
Enable information and knowledge to be shared seamlessly, inside and outside the classroom.
Create spaces that address multiple learning purposes.

We all learn. We all teach.
Support spontaneous and curated connectivity.
Make learning visible.
Support storytelling, interactions and knowledge displays for employees and customers.

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