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Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

Satya Nadella succeeded in revitalizing Microsoft by changing it from a company of know-it-alls to learning-it-alls. It's profound proof a culture of continuous learning positively impacts business performance. This post explains how and why that's the case.

By: Gal Rimon, Founder & CEO, Centrical

Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

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The Financial Times honored the efforts of Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO. The authoritative global business news organization named him the “FT Person of the Year.” I bring this to your attention not because he took a company from the brink of irrelevance back to the top of the tech industry. Rather, it’s his creation of a culture of empathy, collaboration, and learning that’s truly worth noting.

Nadella observed that Microsoft had to move from a “know-it-all behavior” to a culture that encourages employees to become “learn-it-alls.” He acknowledged, given the company’s prior ultra-competitive culture, the shift wasn’t easy. However, he likely could not have generated a $1 trillion (that’s a “t”) return for shareholders without creating a culture that emphasizes learning.

As the FT announcement cited, “He has promoted a new outlook for MIcrosoft workers, based on a ‘growth mindset’ that would involve constantly being open to learning and new ideas, rather than the ‘fixed mindset’ of the past.” In addition, “he worked to break down silos, instead championing a “One Microsoft” to unify the company.

RedThread Research, with whom we examined the cause-and-effect nature of culture and performance, said “culture creates an environment in which performance may thrive or stall. Culture is ubiquitous — through shared assumptions, values, and behaviors — and it has the capacity to influence frontline workers’ performance,” the customer-facing employees who, in more ways than not, are the brand ambassadors of the companies they represent.

Microsoft, under Nadella, makes clear that a kinder, gentler culture can also be performance-driven. According to RedThread, a key to creating a performance-driven culture is to have a future focus, to look for ways to constantly be improving the knowledge and skills of employees to get them ready to ably travel the road ahead and contribute to their company’s success.

There are three key elements that mark a company with a future focus:

Invests in developing managers’ people management skills
Encourages people to believe that their basic abilities can be developed
Encourages employees to continuously learn and develop skills

Let me underscore that this orientation also gives employees the ability to excel in the current roles while preparing for tomorrow.

Interestingly, RedTread’s findings indicate many more organizations can benefit from what Nadella calls a “growth mindset.” The study found “in growth mindset cultures, workers trust their companies more and feel a greater sense of ownership and commitment to the company.”

The study also found organizations that encourage continuous learning and development, customer-facing employees report higher engagement and much better organizational performance.

If you work to evolve your company into a culture akin to what Nadella created at Microsoft, who knows…maybe at this time next year you’re named FT’s Person of the Year.

Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

“CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”

“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.”

“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.”

“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.”

“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.”

“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg.  Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.”

“For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.”

“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.”

“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.”

One myth that will be debunked in 2025?: “Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.”

Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

Nadella Named FT Person of the Year Offers Further Proof Culture of Continuous Learning Yields Big Results

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