Dive Brief:

• Catherine Avendaño, senior manager of learning and organizational development at MuleSoft, explains in Entrepreneur how and why she tapped into an early career experience to create a learning initiative that forces employees out of their own comfort zones.
• A 2017 Gallup report states that four in ten employees had a chance to learn and grow at work last year, and that only one in three think someone advocates for their learning. One way to increase learning engagement in employees is to challenge them to think outside of their regular way of doing things, the report says.
• Avendaño shares how, in addition to lots of facetime, the company promotes cross-functional team learning and a large event called MeetUp to allow all employees to interact, learn, and work on special projects together. Events are fun and designed to take employees out of their comfort zones. 

Dive Insight:

MuleSoft's approach may be an example of where learning could be headed in the near future for many companies. Rather than asking employees to regurgitate facts from dull learning modules, companies are finding that hands-on learning opportunities, peer interaction and work-related activities might just be the 'secret sauce' that L&D is looking for.

Employees learn best when they are able to apply new information to their jobs immediately, so learning by doing something new stretches their capabilities. Action learning opportunities have been shown to increase retention and participation, so MuleSoft has tapped into this methodology to create their own version.

And making learning a fun part of the corporate culture, which MuleSoft appears to have done, can further motivate and inspire employees.