After each podcast we like to do a short, follow-up musing prompted by the conversation. When I talked with Rashim Mogha, I asked her about mindful leadership and she was adamant that a productive culture begins with mindful leadership.

It reminded me of the 2020 Workplace Learning Report that emphasizes the massive role that managers play in driving learning engagement and building a culture of learning.

Changing the culture can seem like a massive task. One that requires a huge budget and months if not years of planning.

But there is so much about establishing a learning culture that is absolutely free!

• There is no budget required to share something you’ve learned with your team members.
• There is no budget required to highlight a TED talk that resonated with you.
• There is no budget required or to reach out to someone you work with, superior, peer, or subordinate, and ask them what they’re learning.

I’ve always loved dominoes as a metaphor for the big impact of small gestures.

A 2-inch domino can knock over another domino 1.5 times its size.

Line up more dominoes, each 1.5 times larger than the last, and

• the 12th domino would be 15 feet tall.
• The 17th would dwarf the statue of liberty.
• The 19th would overshadow the Empire State Building.
• The 50th would knock over a domino the size of the distance between the earth and the moon.

Small actions create big chain reactions.

Leaders can inspire their teams with small gestures like a demonstrated interest in what their team members are learning!

Leaders have this responsibility. But the thing is. We are all leaders. In a democratized learning culture, everyone is a catalyst. Everyone has the chance to inspire people around them.

All it takes is to push the first domino.