Building a Learning Culture Beyond the Classroom: Automotive Dealership Training and Microlearning

I didn't start my career in training and development.

Like many people in our industry, I started in the dealership.

I learned firsthand what it feels like to balance customer expectations, operational demands, staffing challenges, and the constant pressure to perform. I experienced the pace, the unpredictability, and the reality that every day in a dealership seems to present a new challenge that wasn't on the schedule when you arrived that morning. Early on, those experiences led me into leadership roles and after four decades eventually into training and development, where I've had the privilege of helping support the next generation of dealership professionals.

What has fascinated me throughout that journey is that the dealerships that consistently separate themselves from their competition rarely do so because they have access to dramatically different resources, technology, or opportunities. More often than not, the difference comes down to people.

Specifically, it comes down to how intentionally those organizations invest in developing their people.

After spending years inside dealerships and now supporting dealership leaders through education and development, I've become convinced that the strongest organizations don't treat learning as an event. They treat learning as part of their culture.

That distinction may seem subtle, but it has profound implications for how dealerships develop talent, prepare future leaders, and create organizations capable of adapting to an industry that continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace.

If you've ever participated in a 20 Group, you understand that the value extends far beyond the composite review and benchmarking data. The real value often comes from hearing how another dealer solved a challenge you are facing, learning from mistakes someone else has already made, and gaining perspectives that help you see your own operation differently.

After decades of supporting dealers through 20 Groups, NCM established the NCM Institute in 2010 to support dealership personnel development. Thousands of managers, executives, and future leaders have participated in classroom programs, leadership development experiences, and educational workshops designed to help them improve their operational effectiveness and grow their businesses.

At its best, learning in automotive has always been a community experience. The challenge, however, is that most dealership employees never get the opportunity to sit in an NCM classroom or participate in a 20 Group meeting. While managers, executives, and dealer principals continue to invest in their own development, many frontline employees receive far fewer opportunities to engage in structured learning experiences that help them grow professionally and prepare for future leadership opportunities.

One of the lessons I carried with me from my dealership career is that leadership development doesn't begin when someone receives a promotion. The best leaders I worked with were developing long before they received a management title. They were learning the business, building relationships, developing communication skills, understanding financial performance, and gaining a broader perspective on how the dealership operated. Their leadership journey started years before anyone changed their title.

That reality becomes increasingly important when we consider where the next generation of dealership leaders will come from.

The future Service Manager is likely writing repair orders today. The future Fixed Operations Director may currently be working as an advisor or a parts professional. The future General Manager could be sitting in any number of roles from all aspects of the operation. Every dealership contains people with tremendous leadership potential, but potential only becomes performance when people are given opportunities to learn, develop, and expand their capabilities over time.

As our industry continues to navigate workforce challenges, changing customer expectations, advancing technology, and increasing operational complexity, developing talent throughout the organization has become less of a competitive advantage and more of a business necessity.

That belief is what led NCM to launch NCM's Microlearning Platform for 20 Group members, currently powered through a relationship with RockED.

Our Microlearning Platform is not about replacing the learning experiences that have long been central to the NCM Institute and our 20 Groups. Those experiences remain incredibly valuable because there is simply no substitute for bringing people together to learn, collaborate, build relationships, and gain perspective from peers who understand the business at a high level. The conversations that happen in a classroom, the relationships built during a leadership program, and the accountability created around a 20 Group table remain some of the most powerful development experiences available in automotive retail.

What excites me most is not simply the availability of content. The automotive industry has no shortage of content. What excites me is the opportunity to create more connection points for learning throughout the year, allowing development to become a more consistent part of dealership life rather than something that only happens when someone attends a workshop, joins a leadership class, or travels to a 20 Group meeting.

A Service Advisor can engage with development content between customer appointments. A technician can strengthen communication skills while preparing for future leadership responsibilities. A salesperson can gain new insights into customer relationships and professional growth. Managers can reinforce key concepts between classroom experiences and 20 Group meetings rather than waiting months for the next formal development event.

Those moments may seem small in isolation, but culture is rarely built through isolated events. Culture is built through repetition. Culture is built through consistency. Culture is built when learning stops being something that happens occasionally and becomes something that happens continuously.

One of the most significant opportunities this creates for our 20 Group dealers is the ability to align learning throughout the organization. For years, NCM has helped dealership leaders build stronger businesses through shared knowledge, best practices, and peer accountability. NCM's Microlearning Platform extends those same principles to the rest of the dealership, creating opportunities for employees at every level to engage with development content, strengthen professional skills, and better understand how their role contributes to the overall success of the organization.

In many ways, NCM's Microlearning Platform allows us to bring the spirit of the NCM learning community into the dealership itself. The same philosophy that has guided the NCM Institute and our 20 Groups for decades—that people grow faster when they learn together—can now reach employees at every level of the organization.

The dealerships that thrive over the next decade will not simply be the ones with the strongest processes or the newest technology. They will be the organizations that successfully develop people, create future leaders, and foster environments where learning becomes part of the culture rather than a separate activity.

At NCM, we have always believed that great dealerships are built by great people. Our classroom programs, leadership development experiences, and 20 Groups have helped shape generations of automotive leaders. NCM's Microlearning Platform represents the next evolution of that commitment, allowing us to support learning not only when leaders leave the dealership to attend training, but also when employees return to work the next day.

Because the strongest learning cultures are not built during a single event. They are built through thousands of moments of growth, curiosity, coaching, and development that happen over time.

Having benefited from a culture of learning throughout my own dealership career, I know firsthand the impact that investment can have on an individual's confidence, capability, and future opportunities. Today, I have the privilege of helping create those same opportunities for others. Our Microlearning Platform allows us to create more of those moments and extend the reach of the NCM learning ecosystem further than ever before.

Sir Richard Branson is credited for this now famous quote….

"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to." 

And ultimately, that's what building a learning culture is all about.  

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If you're looking for ways to create more opportunities for learning and development within your own organization, we'd be happy to share what we've learned along the way.