Internalizing Openness to Change and Building a Lifelong Learning Culture
Technology never sits still, and neither can we. The pace of change is relentless. What worked yesterday might be obsolete tomorrow, and clinging to the comfort of established standards is like building a fortress on sand. In a world driven by disruption, adaptability is the ultimate competitive advantage. The most successful leaders are not those who resist change, but those who embrace it, anticipate it, and inspire others to follow. As Mark Jacob, Managing Director of luxury brand Dolder Hotel, wisely says: “It needs to be a culture where change is the new normal. Not change after change, but continuous change.”
Openness to change is not the responsibility of leadership alone; it must flow through the entire organization. Some employees already thrive on change, but others need guidance, resources, and encouragement to step into this new reality. It is not enough to tell people to adapt. They must be given the tools, the skills, and the confidence to do so. This means making learning an everyday habit, not an occasional event. Too often, employees cite “lack of time” as the reason they cannot upskill. The solution is simple but powerful: institutionalize learning. Make it part of work, not an afterthought. Give people the time, space, and permission to grow without sacrificing their core responsibilities.
Creating a culture of lifelong learning is about more than providing training. It is about creating an environment where curiosity is rewarded, where asking “why” and “what if” is encouraged, and where feedback is not feared but valued. Recognize and celebrate those who push themselves to learn and experiment. Hire people, especially leaders, who have an insatiable hunger to explore, question, and improve. When curiosity runs deep in the DNA of your workforce, formal retraining becomes less of a necessity because people naturally seek out new skills and adapt faster when change comes. And it will come.
Even the world’s most innovative companies know they cannot take learning cultures for granted. Amazon in 2019 pledged US $700 million to retrain 100,000 employees, a third of its US workforce, by 2025. Their initiatives span technical universities, machine learning academies, career-switching programs, and tuition support, all designed to make learning a shared, company-wide responsibility. Google, seeing artificial intelligence as the next frontier, moved quickly to embed AI knowledge into its workforce. By 2018, nearly one-third of its engineers had completed an in-house “Machine Learning Crash Course” and applied those skills in their daily work. SAP, shifting toward cloud-based solutions, rolled out multi-year “learning journeys” combining bootcamps, coaching, and shadowing to help employees navigate their evolving roles. These are not isolated training sessions; they are deliberate cultural investments.
The lesson is clear: continuous learning is the lifeblood of an adaptable organization. It transforms change from something to fear into something to welcome. It turns uncertainty into opportunity. It equips people not just to survive disruption, but to thrive in it.
In today’s world, yesterday’s best practices can quickly become tomorrow’s bottlenecks. The organizations that will lead the future are those that hardwire learning into their culture, that view curiosity as fuel, and that make adaptability their default setting. Change is coming. The only question is whether you will be ready to ride the wave or be swept away by it.
