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What It Really Takes To Build A Learning Culture

Every company talks about learning and development. But creating a true learning culture—one that’s lived beyond values statements—takes more than talk. It takes intention, systems, and leadership that’s willing to go beyond the checkbox.

It’s the challenge I’ve devoted my career to, because when learning becomes embedded in culture, it transforms not just people—but performance. That’s why I was so inspired by my recent conversation with Dr. Angela Stopper on The Learn-It-All Podcast. As Chief Learning Officer and Director of People and Organization Development at UC Berkeley, Angela’s work stands out as an exemplary model for building a learning culture at scale.

When Angela came into the role, employee morale and engagement were low. The results of pulse surveys weren’t promising. Learning wasn’t prioritized, systematized, or embedded into daily work.

Over the next several years, Angela led a cultural turnaround rooted in learning. She built systems, policies, and trust—measuring and adapting along the way. Now, she’s not just leading a learning culture—she’s shaping what it looks like for one of the most well-known institutions in the country.

Here’s how she did it, and how you can do it too.

Start With Culture, Not Content

Many companies confuse a learning policy with a learning culture.

Anyone can draft a broad statement about professional development. But a real learning organization needs a value proposition. Come work here, and we will invest in your growth. Not just once at onboarding, but every step of the way.

You have to begin by building trust, psychological safety, and an active belief in growth. That means people have to feel safe making mistakes. Growth can’t happen without the ability to fail.

Development can’t be merely a perk—it must be a core part of the employee experience from day one.

Angela describes a learning culture as one where growth is embedded from top to bottom. Leaders model it. Managers ask about it. Employees are rewarded for it. There’s space to want more—and space to be comfortable where you are, as long as you’re still growing.

You can’t fake this. Employees know the difference between a wall poster that says "�鶹������ý value learning" and a culture that actually lives it.

The value proposition only exists if people can depend on leaders backing these policies.

Start building the culture by

• Building Trust
• Model and Reward Learning
• Listen to your people
• Create a safe place for failure

Make It Real: Policies With Teeth

“If you create a policy… and then write job descriptions that say 5% of your time should be for professional development… all of a sudden it’s part of the company culture.” — Dr. Angela Stopper

At UC Berkeley, Angela Stopper helped lead the creation of a formal policy granting every employee 80 hours per year—or in some cases 10 full days—for professional development. That time is written into job descriptions and tracked like vacation hours. It doesn’t stop there. The expectation is built into the review process. When reviews come up, managers are expected to ask about this fundamental part of their role. How did you use those hours or days? How did you grow?

Not everyone learns in the same way. Employees can accrue their growth in whatever way works best for them:

• Workshops
• Conferences
• Coaching
• Book clubs
• Vendor-supported learning
• Online courses

By naming these options, Angela’s team removed the ambiguity—and the excuses. They personalized learning by offering it in multiple formats, from formal to informal, in-person to online.

“If you really want to build a learning culture, you have to normalize it… Build it into people’s jobs. Measure it. Model it. Reward it.” She says.

All of this takes time. At Berkeley, it took four years to get it right. Last year alone, 4,000 participation instances were recorded across 8,000 staff—a 50% engagement rate. This was an incredible improvement from those early pulse survey scores.

The difference? Berkeley didn’t just declare itself a learning culture. It operationalized it.

• Put learning in the job description
• Include learning and growth as part of the review process
• Track learning hours like vacation or sick leave
• Give your organization time

Winning Over Executives: Make Time for What Matters

“Humans tend to make time for things they feel are important… Our job is to make learning feel rewarding.” — Dr. Angela Stopper

The most common form of resistance I encounter from leadership about implementing a learning culture is time.

Leaders might feel that they are too busy to invest in learning. Mangers worry about lost work when employees are spending time growing. But this mindset has a serious delayed consequence. After enough time, skills become stale. Growth suffers. Engagement drops. Teams stagnate.

Angela tackles this resistance with empathy—by inviting leaders to invest in their own growth first. Many have never been supported in their own growth. She invites them in by asking leaders how they want to grow and what they are interested in learning. This gets them to immediately see the value for themselves too.

And leaders modeling learning with their teams creates real motivation for the team.

I’ve seen L&D programs fall flat simply because senior leaders refused to participate. You can’t build a learning culture without also engaging in it directly.

If your organization has mandatory training but leadership opts out, you’re sending a clear message: this doesn’t really matter.

By inviting managers and leaders into the process they not only experience the results for themselves, but they also inspire their teams into growth.

Then to meet their concerns about impact, Learnit will always offer managers specific and directed follow up Coaching Questions to ask their employees about the trainings.

This isn’t a quiz, it is the beginning of a conversation about what will be different as a result of the trainings.

• Support managers into their own learning and growth
• Get leaders to engage in the learning with their team
• Make the business case for long-term growth and engagement
• Make comprehensive follow up Coaching Questions for leaders to engage with their team about future impact based on the growth.

Measure What Matters: ROI Without Fear

“Even if it’s not a great story… Hold us accountable to that.” — Dr. Angela Stopper

You can’t be afraid to look data in the face, especially when it tells an unhappy story. It’s only a problem if you do not act on what the data says.

Not every business will have the same idea for which metric to watch. But the idea is to pick a metric. Then our job is to make sure that the metric meets our goals.

• Participation rates
• Star ratings
• Satisfaction scores
• Survey results

But let’s be honest: a 4.5 out of 5 star rating on a workshop doesn’t mean anything if you cannot tie it directly to business outcomes.

At Learnit we offer multiple ways to enhance visibility on ROI.

• �鶹������ý give our clients a series of metrics to look at.
• �鶹������ý guide them to choose two or three that matter most to them.
• �鶹������ý work with them to follow through to make sure that the impact has been felt.
• �鶹������ý offer leaders a Development Playbook that helps them activate and further the growth of their team.

When Angela arrived at UC Berkeley, the employee engagement data was bleak. But instead of ignoring it, she brought it into the open. Her team pulled out a few core metrics to monitor from their survey questions.

The ones they decided to track included:

• “I feel supported at work”
• “My supervisor cares about my development”
• “I’d recommend Berkeley as a place to work”

From there, they made a plan to develop their learning culture. Then they measured again. And again. Over five years, the numbers improved.

At Learnit, we work with organizations to do the same. �鶹������ý encourage clients to choose a metric that matters—whether it’s retention, engagement, or internal mobility—and build their L&D program around moving that number. Not everything can be measured, but something must be.

Here’s how I frame it with other leaders: What would success look like at the end of the year? Fewer regrettable exits? A 30-point rise in engagement scores? Better manager reviews?

Define the target—then build a way to track it.

• Pick the metrics that matter most
• Don’t fear the data—act on it
• Use Development Playbooks to continue the ROI

Learning That Sticks, Culture That Lasts

Every company says they care about learning. But few make it part of how the organization actually works:

• Learning can be put into job descriptions
• They need to be backed by Policies With Teeth
• Growth is part of performance reviews
• Leaders are leading engagement

Angela Stopper didn’t just roll out a program at UC Berkeley—she built a system. A culture. A way of working that places development at the heart of performance, belonging, and impact.

And here’s the good news: This isn’t a Berkeley-only story. Every organization has the opportunity to build a learning ecosystem that drives culture and results—if they’re willing to back it with intention, systems, and real accountability.

At Learnit, we believe culture-first learning isn’t just aspirational—it’s essential. Because when learning sticks, people grow. And when people grow, companies thrive.

Culture Is The Way Forward

If you're a leader wondering where to begin, ask yourself: What would success look like at the end of this year if our people were truly learning and growing? Then build backward from there.

Whether you're starting from scratch or refining what you’ve built, use Angela’s model as your north star.

Don’t just talk about learning. Invest in it. Normalize it. Measure it. Model it.

That’s how learning sticks. That’s how culture lasts.

Listen to our conversation in its entirety here.

Learn more about how Learnit partners with organizations to build culture-first, results-driven learning programs here.