A Learning Culture: What It Is & Why It Matters to Your Nonprofit

Learning cultures tap into available knowledge, build upon existing successful practices and seek continual improvement.  Are you using the data you collect for program and process enhancement?  Is your organization constantly looks for ways to be more effective?  Does your organization value ongoing learning?  Join us to discover how learning cultures boost impact and strengthen organizations. 

By the end of the training, participants will be able to describe the benefits and costs of organizational learning.  You will have an opportunity to complete a self-assessment to determine your organization’s readiness to develop a learning culture.

We will also explore your interest in joining an Organizational Learning Study Group.

Learning Objectives

• Explore the concept of organizational learning and learning cultures
• Understand how learning cultures develop and are maintained in nonprofit organizations
• Be able to self-assess your organization's capacity for developing a learning culture

Level

Intermediate

Audience

Executive Directors and Board Members who desire to build their organization’s capacity to adapt in response to a rapidly changing nonprofit environment.

Presenters

Patty Emord, Ph.D.  has performed a variety of services that included strategic planning and design,  program evaluations, building evaluation capacity,  coordinating state-wide research programs, developing evaluation plans, collecting and analyzing data, writing evaluation reports,  and facilitating focus groups.  Her clients have included persons of color and persons with disabilities from various state government agencies, academia, non-profit social service agencies, community level organizations and tribal community health councils.  Dr. Emord completed her Ph.D. in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technologies in May 2009, with an emphasis on using evaluation as a means to organizational learning.  Her dissertation focused upon building organizational capacity using an assets based approach.   

Wendy Wintermute, Ph.D. has extensive training and experience in an array of research and evaluation methods, both quantitative and qualitative, with a commitment to participatory action research, involving community residents as partners, and focusing on timely and practical utilization of research and evaluation findings.  Dr. Wintermute has an MA degree in family and community relations from Columbia University Teachers College, an MSW and Ph.D. in sociology and social work from the University of Michigan. She credits her education to the communities in which she has learned and served and the community members who have generously educated her in the fine art of working together.