At iac Berlin, we see learning as an ongoing, adaptive process — comparable to a dance with some prepared steps coupled with the openness to improvise on new tunes. Rather than focusing solely on ‘what we learn’, which is always contextual and subject to change, we ask ourselves: how can we build our capacity to learn and adapt in ways that prepare us for unknown futures?

Shifting how we approach learning

Learning at iac Berlin happens on multiple levels—individually, within and across teams, through collaborations with partners, and in networks. It reverberates through how we develop our organizational culture, experiment with new approaches, and embed shared values and principles in our work. As we (re)design and implement our learning practices, we are intentionally shifting away from a more traditional, outcome focused understanding of learning towards an approach that emphasizes process, curiosity, and capacity-building. This is not a shift that can happen overnight. Instead, we are continuously reflecting on why and how learning happens within our organization and partnerships.

Embedding experimentation into our organizational culture

Prototyping is part of iac Berlin´s DNA. Since 2017, we have been continually deepening and testing our understanding around relational approaches through lab-style formats and by creating spaces of incubation both for ourselves and our partners. Adopting a “prototyping mindset” lowers the barriers to getting started, allowing us to avoid overplanning and to instead engage in a cyclical process of learning by doing. To create space for emergence and serendipity, we work with long-time horizons, explore multiple futures, and reintegrate our learnings through regular feedback loops.

We started by ensuring responsible usage and creating containers in which to experiment with e.g. Large Language Models for text feedback, concept development, Excel support, knowledge management, text analysis, or meeting wrap-ups while maintaining strict GDPR compliance. One such experiment has been the Activity Report you are now reading which has been supported at various levels by AI as a critical companion. The promising and the underwhelming results as well as the critical considerations around AI usage have been fed back into the team to improve our understanding and implementation of these approaches. Conducting these experiments required time and effort but we see this learning process as an investment in our future capacities.

Prototyping goes beyond tangible, time-bound interventions—such as the use of AI in the Activity Report 2024. It represents a core principle of our approach to organizational learning. As we develop our 2030 strategy, we´re putting this principle into practice by combining clear intent and direction with an openness to potentials and emerging opportunities. How might this approach influence the way we navigate both everyday decisions as well as long-term considerations around organizational culture and structure?

While adopting a prototyping mindset helps us stay open to serendipity and emergence, it also brings with it a set of tensions that can’t be overlooked. In our experience, one ongoing challenge is leaving enough buffer capacity to regularly integrate what we’ve learned and design meaningful next steps after each experiment. To truly learn through experimentation, we also need to continually nurture an organizational culture where we feel safe enough to try new approaches—and to openly share both the successes and inevitable “failures” that are a natural part of the process.

Dedicating roles and resources to care for learning

Since 2023, we have embedded learning more intentionally into our organizational structures by introducing the role of a Learning Facilitator. This role integrates learning into both our internal culture and external collaborations. Within the organization, this involves:

• Facilitating reflection spaces for teams at key moments in their work cycles.
• Supporting colleagues in designing workshops and learning formats.
• Taking stock of our learning practices and identifying areas for growth.
• Offering new perspectives on how we might approach learning.

Feeding individual learning into the collective

As employees within the organization each on our own professional path, the responsibility for capacity building is shared between the individual and the organization. Alongside seeking out learning opportunities within our individual portfolios, we are supported by a comprehensive employee development concept that actively incorporates capacity building as well as different internal and external measures such as coaching, shadowing, and various training formats.

Beyond channeling our learnings from capacity-building activities into our particular role and tasks, we also try to feed our individual experience and insights back into the organization. For example, offering a mini workshop to colleagues to share key insights from a training on organizational development or mental health first aid. The opportunity to share with others not only helps us to cement our own newly gained knowledge but it also turns relevant topics into an organization-wide conversation.

Tailoring learning practices to team needs

Across the organization each department has its specific portfolio and team constellation. Defining one way to approach learning simply would not work. Instead, each team has the freedom to develop their own practices tailored to their specific learning styles and needs. Here are just a few highlights:

• One learning practice that the Networks in Philanthropy team has introduced more recently is a regular reflection designed to gauge the individual and collective well-being of the team. The intention is to widen the focus beyond what they are doing to include how they are finding it and what support they may need in the process. The assumption is that this regular exchange and the subsequent support will positively affect both the quality of their collaboration internally and the outcomes of their work externally.
• The Bosch Alumni Network Coordination Team has shifted their approach to how they evaluate and learn from projects and activities within the network. Whilst it remains important to reflect on the outcomes, knowing that the conditions in which activities are hosted will be different every time, they have tried to move beyond simply determining whether something was a success or not and instead focus on what can be learnt from the process to inform future endeavors. This is very much a collaborative exercise that is undertaken with network members.

With the diversification of team practices, there is the risk that we develop distinct cultures of learning within the same organization. Here we see the need to design more connection points across teams so that we can learn from how we each approach learning, identifying both context-specific practices as well as common principles.

Connecting across teams

To ensure information flows and that we grow collectively as an organization, we have established various spaces for cross-team learning. These can be small interventions such as Wisdom Nuggets—short knowledge-sharing routines in our weekly Team meetings—but can extend into more structured formats such as reading clubs and entire team retreats. However, the everyday demands of our work can make it easy to remain within silos. During our last team day of 2024, we reflected on the need to strengthen learning across teams. To tap more into this potential, we intend to prototype several collaborative practices in 2025 and beyond, including:

• Spotlight on learnings—rotating sessions where teams share in depth about recent insights and challenges.
• Internal shadowing—immersing ourselves in different aspects of our colleagues’ work to learn through observation and hands-on experience.
• Cross-team projects—identifying intersections in our work to foster deeper collaboration and create space for serendipity.

Learning with partners and in networks

As an organization that believes in the power of communities, networks, and ecosystems, we cannot limit the scope of our learning to organizational needs. Learning plays a vital role in leveraging the potential of relational infrastructure. This becomes palpable for example in our commitment to peer learning as reflected in initiatives such as the R&D Lab and the Wasan Huddles, which are introduced in the Activity Report 2024 as well (see below).

In the constantly developing and maturing Bosch Alumni Network, we are noticing and responding to a shift in priorities —from focusing primarily on what we can do together to how we can support each other and learn together.

We trust that in creating spaces where we can “be” and learn together, we are laying the foundations for other desirable “results” to emerge.

So, how can we build our capacity to learn and adapt in ways that prepare us for unknown futures?

Our work is made possible thanks to the support and collaboration of so many colleagues and partners. It is a privilege to be connected to all of you through our shared ambitions and initiatives.

If we piqued your curiosity and you would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us!

This article has been taken from our Activity Report 2024. You can download the entire publication here: