Building an Engineering Culture
The current pace of technological innovation makes it of vital importance to stay on top of new insights, for engineers just as much as for other knowledge professionals. Like anyone with a demanding job knows, this is something that requires conscious attention and effort. Also on the level of your team, and of your organization as a whole.
A Culture Of Learning And Innovation
In our experience, two fundamental principles are key to fostering such a culture. First, remove all and any thresholds to learning and innovation. Make it as easy and attractive as possible. And secondly, don’t just stimulate formal training courses. Focus just as much on sharing knowledge within your organization. People often think that everybody else already knows what they just discovered. They don’t.
This means you’ll need to invite people explicitly to share knowledge, both informally and in a more structured way. And maybe even more importantly: you’ll need to find a good way to share knowledge internally in a way that everyone can easily access it.
Do’s and Don’ts
- Enable and stimulate people to share their knowledge with others in the organization.
- Encourage people to look beyond the boundaries of their profession. Knowledge of other disciplines is an easy way to enable smooth cooperation in multidisciplinary teams.
- Remove as many obstacles to learning as you can and try new things. E.g. at Xebia we introduced a training budget that can be freely spent, no strings attached and no questions asked.
eBook Build your unique engineering culture
A thriving engineering culture is vital for any company that wants to be a digital leader. However, it is not an off-the-shelf product you can buy. Building an engineering culture requires sustained effort, a willingness to learn, and a commitment to continuous improvement. And that’s where our eight pillars come in. Instead of rushing through them, use them to address (and resolve) the key bottlenecks in your organization one pillar at a time and create the foundation for long-term success.
Are you ready to turn your company’s unlimited curiosity and ambition into unlimited potential? Start building your unique engineering culture now!
