10 tips for fostering a culture of continuous learning

To create and maintain an adaptable, dynamic organization that thrives in ever-changing conditions, IT leaders must encourage staff to continually acquire new skills and embrace new mindsets.

Contributing Writer, CIO |

10 tips for fostering a culture of continuous learning — Thinkstock

When McAfee CIO Scott Howitt asks prospective hires about their hobbies, he’s actually trying to discern whether they’re self-motivated learners.

“I purposely look for people for whom learning is a hobby: Do they travel, do they read, are they programming Raspberry Pis on their own? Those are the people I want,” Howitt says.

He hired one applicant who set up a mini data center in his garage to work on networking skills, and he created a position for an HR colleague who shared that she had earned the Global Information Assurance Certification on her own.

Howitt values these self-starters because he (like every CIO out there) needs workers who are willing to evolve their knowledge to keep pace with the quickening speed of technology evolutions and business disruptions.

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