Why So Much Workplace Learning Misses the Mark

A warehouse team running a 20-minute Yzly Session

In most organisations, workplace learning is designed to serve the business, not the people who actually need to learn. Bureaucracy, silos, and the need to “cover everything” often result in programs that are either stretched too thin to be relevant, or too slow and heavy to be useful. The result? Employees are pushed into half-day or multi-day sessions, bloated accredited programs, and glossy interventions that look impressive on a slide deck but rarely make a lasting difference.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard leaders say, “We need to fix this.” And yet, when it comes to the crunch, someone with a louder voice or a shinier product wins the budget. A big-name consultancy arrives with a program that flatters some executives' ego, ticks compliance boxes, and costs a fortune, but almost always fails the people it was said to serve.

For over twenty years I’ve been advocating for the learner, designing experiences that work at the individual, team, and business level. The truth is, effective learning isn’t fancy. It doesn’t need to be. What works is tactical, evidence-based, and far more sustainable: small, regular investments of time, an hour or two every few weeks, guided by proven science.

And here’s the problem with the systems we rely on: they move too slowly and often drag outdated thinking along with them. In 2021, I was still required under the AQTF framework to include “Learning Styles” in the Certificate IV and Diploma of Leadership and Management that I was designing, despite the fact that the theory had been debunked as pseudoscience more than a decade earlier. (thanks again and again to Veritasium for this great video: You Are Not a Visual Learner) Only recently has it finally been removed. It’s a sharp reminder of how sluggish traditional systems can be, even when the science is clear.

Meanwhile, much of the training still on offer continues to rely on outdated formats, it tends to be heavy on content delivery, light on engagement and application. They deliver information, but rarely spark the motivation, higher-order skills, or lasting behaviour change that businesses actually need. Unless learning is designed with proven instructional models, like ARCS, Sylvia Downs Research, Merrill First Principles, Gagné's Nine Events, and others... it doesn’t stick.

I’ve sat in those “inspirational” sessions where a charismatic facilitator dazzles with borrowed quotes and intense eye contact. People leave saying, “That was a great session”... and three weeks later, nothing has changed. Inspiration isn’t learning. Performance theatre may impress in the moment, but it doesn’t shift capability.

For best results, learning design has to move beyond information delivery. It has to be interactive, science-driven, and carefully structured. That’s where learning becomes meaningful, and where individuals grow, teams evolve, and businesses actually see change.

This has been my mission for more than two decades: to follow the science, to observe what works, and to resist the flash in favour of the real. Because when learning honours the people doing the work, everybody wins.