Make continuous learning part of your company’s DNA―and growth, profits, and sustainability will follow Keeping up with the pace of change may seem impossible, but it’s not. The secret is to make continuous learning a top value for every person on the team so when change happens, everyone is prepared. In The Upskilling Imperative , Shelley Osborne, Udemy’s Vice President of Learning, reveals the methods she uses to help many of today’s leading companies―from Adidas to PayPal to Barclays―build and sustain a culture of learning. With techniques supported by the latest learning science, she takes you through five steps for transforming your business into an industry powerhouse: Create an environment of freedom, opportunity, and love of learning - Use honest, forthright feedback to fuel your new learning culture - Clearly communicate the rewards that come when we approach our job as a learning adventure - Build learning into the everyday workflows and operations - Manage your new learning culture in a sustainable way With this new, evolved mindset, you and your workforce will approach the next inevitable workplace upheaval or technology with skill and confidence―not confusion and dread. Shelley Osborne, with fifteen years of experience in the education and corporate learning and development sectors, is vice president of learning at Udemy. Previously, she served as VP of Learning and Development at Farside HR Solutions. Thousands of learners in over one hundred countries are enrolled in her online courses. “ The Upskilling Imperative offers a remarkable amount of insight into how knowledge and learning can be unleashed in an organization. Every leader hoping to build or maintain a successful learning culture within their company should read this book!” — Marshall Goldsmith , New York Times #1 bestselling author of Triggers, Mojo , and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There “In a workplace with five generations, there’s one skill that’s important no matter your age: continuous learning. The Upskilling Imperative is a road map for anyone who wants to build learning into the flow of work, foster growth throughout every stage of an employee’s career, and ultimately use continuous upskilling as a competitive advantage.” — Chip Conley , Airbnb Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership and founder of Modern Elder Academy “In today’s workplace, employees want to grow on the job—up, down, and sideways. Companies that will thrive in today’s world of work take professional development personally, and are creating a culture where learning is valued. The Upskilling Imperative makes the case for learning as the way we grow and transform as individuals and organizations. Just about every page has an idea that you can put to use right away to make your workplace more human and be more productive.” — Erica Keswin , workplace strategist and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Bring Your Human To Work “Every top performer I ever meet always has one thing in common: they’re lifetime learners. Rather than settling after formal education, they embrace a love of learning for the long run. Shelley Osborne’s The Upskilling Imperative gives a fresh and honest take on how organizations can harness that mentality and cultivate top performers every day.” — Josh Linkner , New York Times bestselling author, tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist “With the excruciating speed with which work, and learning, is changing—automating, shifting to machines, disrupting every part of our lives—creating workplaces of rich, diverse, perpetual learning is no longer an aspiration. It’s a moral imperative. We owe it to those who’ve served our companies well to prepare them for the future and to keep our enterprises viable and thriving. Osborne and Witkin, and their Udemy team, have done a marvelous job in this book providing a blueprint for how to do it. Scrap everything you thought you knew about what learning really is, and start over by reading this book. Learning is a consequence of thinking and being, not teaching. The Upskilling Imperative will guide you on your journey to real learning if you have the courage to follow.” — Ron Carucci , Managing Partner at Navalent and author of Rising to Power “When employees think about learning and development, they typically picture a workshop or program that aims to inspire, motivate, and educate—and rarely does any of those. And yet, organizations are still offering them, and employees are still attending them, costing both of them time and money. Why? The Upskilling Imperative not only answers that question, but offers fresh and actionable insights into how we can change the learning game into one where everybody wins. Written for readability and packed with relevant research, this book should be top of mind for anyone charged with helping people get better, faster.” — Deborah Grayson Riegel , CEO and Chief Communication Coach, Talk Support and author of Over