How IKEA makes learning part of the daily flow

Leading by Example

Learning is too often seen as something you do on the side. You might go to a classroom for a day, or sit at your desk completing a mandatory online module. But IKEA has a different view: learning is a core part of the job. According to Josja van der Maas, Learning and Development Leader at the Swedish furniture giant, the goal is to make professional growth part of the regular, daily routine.

The problem: learning as a distraction

One of the biggest challenges in large organizations is that training can feel disconnected from the actual work. After a course, employees often struggle to apply what they have learned at the shop floor. IKEA realized that if learning stays something that you only do ‘somewhere else’, it will never truly change how people work.

The company needed a way to bridge this gap, to ensure that development was not an interruption of the work, but a way to make it better every day. IKEA established a ‘North Star' vision, a principle that guides towards an ambition: to become a company where learning is fully integrated into the daily flow, personalized for every co-worker.

The solution: The Everyday University

The solution IKEA developed is built on a simple philosophy: the workplace is a university. Josja explains that the strategy relies on the idea that about seventy percent of what employees learn happens through their daily experiences. They call this the Everyday University.

“We actively encourage everyone to look for lessons in their daily tasks,” Josja says. Whether someone is working in a warehouse or leading a project at the office, every challenge is seen as a chance to develop. A key part of this is building reflection and knowledge sharing into the workday through both ‘small talk’ and ‘big talk’ in teams. Teams talk about their progress in the moment by asking simple questions about what they tried and what they can do differently tomorrow.

The result: competence leads to commerce

By making learning a natural part of the day, IKEA has changed the role of its leaders. In their “Leadership by All” approach, everyone is expected to lead, regardless of their title. Leaders act as coaches who model curiosity and foster a safe environment where mistakes are seen as moments to learn.

The result is a workforce that is more confident and effective. “Confident and competent co-workers sell more,” Josja says. Competence clearly leads to more sales, satisfied customers, and a stronger brand value. This approach has democratized learning, with over ninety percent of their 220,000 co-workers actively learning millions of times each year.

Lessons from IKEA

The IKEA case clearly shows how a learning culture can be implemented in the daily workflow. Josja’s approach offers clear lessons:

• Leading by example: Leaders actively reflect and share what they learned, through which they show how learning is part of the culture.

• Integrate informal learning: Next to formal learning, the daily work is Everyday University that can be used to learn through reflection and knowledge sharing.
  

• Democratize knowledge: Ensure that company knowledge is accessible to everyone at any time.

• Connect growth to results: Recognize that when people grow, the business grows with them.

By turning the workplace into a university, IKEA ensures that their people are always developing, making the organization ready for the future of retail.

Want to see more examples of how leading companies build a learning culture?

Download our full whitepaper, Cultivating a learning culture for more practical tips and stories from IKEA, Schiphol, and others.

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