The big idea
People grow when leaders design for learning: a clear need, practice that fits the job, and a workplace that expects them to use what they learned.
In 60 seconds
- Learning is the engine of the organizational response cycle: learning drives innovation, adaptation and results.
- Learning organizations create, acquire and transfer knowledge, and change their behavior because of it.
- Most learning happens on the job, and training only pays off when learners, design and the workplace all support transfer.
Do this: pick one program you lead, run it through the Training Transfer Check, and fix its weakest link before the next session.
How fostering learning works
Fostering learning
How might we empower people to grow and become their best?
A human-centered leadership approach to learning, development and making training stick.Lane Morris, PhD & Jules Morris, PhD
The Creative Alliances System
Fostering learning lives in Flourish.
How this topic fits the Creative Alliances System
- Tasks & Tools: Flourish. Learning, growth and development is half of Flourish; fostering learning is how leaders make it happen.
- Bonds that make learning possible. Positive Mindsets & Emotions (a growth mindset) and Creative Climate (safety to try, fail and ask) decide whether people learn.
- Goals it fuels. Efficacy, the proven capacity to deliver, and Expansion, growth into new capabilities and markets.
- Where it connects. Performance Communication turns learning into goals and feedback; Operationalizing HCL covers Flourish and the transformational learning loops.
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- Tasks and Tools: Flourish is learning, growth and development, plus health and well-being. Fostering learning is how leaders make Flourish real.
- Bonds: a growth mindset (Positive Mindsets and Emotions) makes people want to learn; Creative Climate makes it safe to try.
- Goals: learning fuels Efficacy (the proven capacity to deliver) and Expansion (growth into new capabilities and markets).
Why learning matters
Learning and business
The only lasting advantage is the ability to learn.
Organizations that learn faster than the world around them adapt, innovate and win.
Learning and business
We understand that the only competitive advantage the company of the future will have is its managers’ ability to learn faster than their competitors.
Arie de Geus“Planning as Learning,” Harvard Business Review, March–April 1988
Learning and business
Businesses must turn labor into talent and leadership.
85M+
people
The global talent shortage Korn Ferry projects by 2030.
$8.5T
a year
Annual revenue that could go unrealized because of it.
Korn Ferry, Future of Work: The Global Talent Crunch (2018).
The challenges
Strong performers aren’t automatically ready for bigger roles.
49%
of critical business leadership roles can be filled immediately by internal candidates. The rest wait, or go outside.
And 86% of HR leaders expect a growing need to develop new leadership skills over the next five years.
DDI, HR Insights Report 2025: 2,185 HR professionals and 10,796 leaders.
The organizational response cycle
Learning is where results start.
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- Learning at the individual, team and organizational level fuels innovation in products and services.
- Innovation lets the organization adapt, responding to change and complexity.
- Adaptation produces results. Are they sufficient? If not, the cycle starts again with learning.
Learning organizations effectively…
Strong learning cultures keep and grow their people.
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- Compared with companies with a baseline learning culture, companies with strong learning cultures saw:
- Retention: 57% higher.
- Internal mobility: 23% more.
- Promotions to management: 7% more.
- Based on LinkedIn platform data as of August 2023; retention is the median tenure of current employees.
Organizational understanding of key skills, 3 to 5 years out
The skills we’ll need are moving targets.
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- Employers expect 39% of workers’ existing skill sets to be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030.
- 63% of employers identify skill gaps as a major barrier to business transformation.
- Survey of more than 1,000 employers covering 14 million workers in 55 economies.
What learning is
Definitions of learning and learning organizations
Learning changes what people and organizations can do.
Before we can foster learning, we have to agree on what it is.
Definitions of “learning”
An entity learns when…
George Huber (1991)
- “…through its processing of information, the range of its potential behaviors is changed.”
Ray Stata (1989)
- Learning happens through shared insights, knowledge and mental models, and builds on past knowledge and experience, that is, on memory.
Definition of a learning organization
A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.
David A. Garvin“Building a Learning Organization,” Harvard Business Review, 1993
Debates about “learning”
Where scholars agree, and where they don’t.
Agreements
- Most view learning as a process
- Learning links knowledge acquisition with improved performance
Disagreements
- Is behavioral change required for learning?
- Are new ways of thinking enough?
- Does learning require shared insights?
- Is information processing the mechanism?
Habits of learning organizations
Capacity to learn, adapt and change.
Organizational capacity to learn, adapt and change
The process knowledge spectrum
The more uncertainty, the more learning looks like experimenting.
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- Routine operations rely on well-known, codified process knowledge; learning focuses on making things better, faster, cheaper and safer; success is improved efficiency.
- Complex operations rely on problem-solving in unpredictable situations and events.
- Innovation operations rely on experimentation to generate new possibilities; learning develops without a blueprint; success is novelty in products, services and experiences.
The process knowledge spectrum at work
Every organization runs all three.
| Organization | Routine | Complex | Innovation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive company | Assembly plant | Supply chain management | Designing future vehicles |
| Computer chip maker | Fabrication plant | Supply chain management | Next-generation chips |
| University | Dormitory management | Building construction project | Research labs, curriculum redesign |
| Space exploration agency | Payroll operations | Space missions | Developing future programs |
| Airport | Security and food services | Air traffic control | Future planning |
| Hospital | Phlebotomy | Emergency room | EMR implementation |
Learning building blocks
Five ways organizations learn.
- Systematic problem solvingUse data and scientific methods, not assumptions.
- ExperimentationSearch for and test new knowledge.
- Learning from the pastReview successes and failures and record the lessons.
- Learning from othersBorrow good ideas from outside the organization.
- Transferring knowledgeSpread what one group learns quickly across the organization.
David A. Garvin, “Building a Learning Organization,” Harvard Business Review (1993).
Two types of knowledge
Most of what people know is below the surface.
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- Explicit knowledge can be formalized, codified and communicated.
- Tacit knowledge is personal, based on individual experience, and difficult to explain to others. It is the larger share of what experts know.
Transformational learning
Learning in three loops.
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- Single-loop learning (what; adaptive): make adjustments to correct a mistake. Focus on doing things right.
- Double-loop learning (how; generative): invent new ways of looking at the world and work. Focus on doing the right things.
- Triple-loop learning (why; emancipatory): explore our values and ask why we do what we do.
Meanwhile, on the farm
Ask why it keeps breaking.
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- Panel 1: the donkey, wrench in hand, celebrates fixing the leak again.
- Panel 2: the Polish hen points to the dripping pipe and the calendar: that’s the fifth time this month.
- Panel 3: she suggests, maybe ask why it keeps breaking?
Strategic learning and sustained competitive advantage
Strategy is planned, and it emerges.
Strategic learning options
- Learn from failures
- Learn from successes
- Failure to learn
- Lost opportunities
- Gained opportunities
Deliberate
The strategy you plan and intend.
Emergent
The strategy that forms as you learn from what actually happens.
Deliberate and emergent strategy: Henry Mintzberg and James Waters (1985).
Job complexity and relative productivity
The more complex the job, the more expertise is worth.
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- How much more the top 1% of workers produce than the average worker in the same job:
- Low-complexity jobs: 52% more.
- Medium-complexity jobs: 85% more.
- High-complexity jobs: 127% more.
- The spread widens as complexity rises, so developing expertise pays off most in complex work.
Developing people
Training and development
Develop people on purpose.
Diagnose the need, understand the environment, then choose the right development strategy.
Determining T&D imperatives
Start with a diagnosis.
T&D diagnostic
- Examine current offeringsType, audience and distribution.
- Find fast-changing jobsWhich jobs rapidly change in knowledge?
- Pinpoint gapsBetween what people know and need.
- Ask employeesHow do they perceive their growth and learning?
- Scan for changeHow are organizational and industry changes affecting knowledge and skills?
- Audit alignmentDo offerings match strategic needs?
- Diagnose cultureIs the culture ready to support ongoing learning?
T&D environmental influences
The environment decides whether learning lives.
Culture and people
- Tolerate mistakes during learning
- Openness to new ideas and change
- Supervisor encouragement
- Co-worker support
- Encouragement to share knowledge
- Individual readiness to learn and change
Systems and structures
- Assignments that develop people
- Policies and OJT practices
- Situational constraints: resources, time, space
- Chances to use new skills
- Reward and recognition systems
- Communication
Aerospace industry competency model
Nine tiers, from foundation to management.
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- Tiers 1 to 3 are foundational: personal effectiveness, academic and workplace competencies.
- Tiers 4 and 5 are industry-related: industry-wide and industry-sector technical competencies such as aerospace fundamentals, design and development, manufacturing, quality assurance, maintenance and safety.
- Tiers 6 to 9 are occupation-related: occupation-specific knowledge areas, technical competencies and requirements, and management competencies.
Investment in learning
Spending fell in 2025. Hours rose for the first time in five years.
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- Average learning expenditure per employee: $1,280 (2021), $1,220 (2022), $1,283 (2023), $1,254 (2024), $846 (2025).
- Formal learning hours used per employee: 32.9, 20.7, 17.4, 13.7, then 16.7 in 2025, the first increase in five years.
- Cost per learning hour: $103, $115, $123, $165, then $120 in 2025, down 27% from 2024.
Technology-based learning
Most organizations are not yet using AI embedded in learning.
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- Used vs. considering: podcasts and videos 73% vs. 16%; simulations and scenario-based learning 69% vs. 20%; microlearning 66% vs. 24%; immersive learning 39% vs. 37%; games and gamification 39% vs. 36%; AI applications embedded in learning 26% vs. 52%.
Extent to which organizations use on-the-job learning
Six in ten use OTJ learning to a high extent.
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- Very high extent 28.57%; high extent 33.54%; moderate extent 26.09%; small extent 8.70%; not at all 3.11%.
On-the-job learning methods
Organizations offer a variety of on-the-job learning.
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- Used vs. considering: job aids 83% vs. 10%; coaching 71% vs. 20%; stretch assignments 68% vs. 22%; mentoring 65% vs. 26%; job shadowing 58% vs. 22%; rotational training programs 30% vs. 33%.
Five key development strategies
Development happens mostly on the job.
Mentoring and coachingFor example, 360-degree feedback.
Personal development plansFor example, a reading plan.
Temporary assignmentsFor example, job swaps.
Short-term stretch assignmentsFor example, international assignments.
External experiencesFor example, sabbaticals.
Employee development methods
What companies with mature career development use.
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- Share of companies with mature career development programs (about 40% of organizations) that use each method:
- Leadership development programs: 70%.
- Shared internal jobs: 58%.
- Mentorship programs: 57%.
- Individual career plans: 49%.
- Internal mobility: 44%.
- DDI (2025): online learning libraries are used by 67% of organizations, yet 63% report poor return on them.
Training and development ROI from academia
Well-designed leadership training works.
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- A meta-analysis of 335 independent samples found leadership training improves:
- Reactions: effect size 0.63.
- Learning: 0.73.
- Transfer to the job: 0.82.
- Organizational results: 0.72.
- Effects were strongest with a needs analysis, feedback, practice, spaced sessions and face-to-face delivery.
If not reinforced, T&D erosion is real
Use of new skills fades without reinforcement.
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- Organizations report that 62% of employees apply what they learned immediately after training, 44% after six months and 34% after one year.
Meanwhile, on the farm
Training that doesn’t transfer is expensive forgetting.
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- Panel 1: the KuneKune pig bursts in holding his training binder: I learned twelve new tools!
- Panel 2: the donkey manager waves him off: great, now back to the old way.
- Panel 3: six months later, at night, the binder sits on the shelf and the pig slumps at his desk.
Training ROI: credibility watch-outs
Before you trust a training ROI number, ask.
Calculations separated from the larger system are suspect.
Are fully loaded costs used, and do the percentages convert to the bottom line?
Methodology scope
Is the source reputable, with conservative, peer-reviewed estimates?
Reputation of the source
Is the study meant to report accurately, or to sell consulting?
Motives and purpose
Are generally accepted practices being followed?
Assumptions
After Jack J. Phillips, Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods, pp. 198–200.
Leadership traits needed
What leaders need to develop.
Competencies
- Strategic thinking and planning
- Strong personal ethics and values
- Emotional intelligence
- Business acumen
- Managing change, chaos and innovation
- Risk management and crisis
- Global mindset
Soft skills
- Communication and presentation
- Planning and organizing
- Personal effectiveness
- Workforce diversity and cross-cultural relations
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Relationship building
- People development and coaching
Styles
- Authenticity
- Collaborative knowledge and power
- Building and keeping trust
- Openness to learning
- Managing with transparency
- People-first management
- Leading by example
Making it stick
Improving training transfer
Training that doesn’t transfer is expensive forgetting.
Leaders, not trainers, decide whether learning makes it back to the job.
Improving training transfer
Reinforcement decides what survives.
10%
An often-quoted estimate says no more than 10% of training spending results in transfer to the job. It was an estimate, not data, but it has framed the problem for decades.
Forgetting is fastIn Ebbinghaus’s classic memory research, most new material is forgotten within a month unless it is practiced.
70-20-10Most development comes from challenging experience on the job, then from other people, then from formal training. Managers make on-the-job learning happen.
Georgenson (1982), cited in Baldwin & Ford (1988), Personnel Psychology, 41; Ebbinghaus (1885), replicated by Murre & Dros (2015), PLoS ONE; Lombardo & Eichinger (1996), building on McCall, Lombardo & Morrison (1988).
Trainee transfer characteristics
What the learner brings.
- PsychologicalSelf-efficacy, motivation, attitude and readiness to learn.
- CognitiveAptitude, retention, self-management, skills awareness, goal orientation.
- PhysicalTransfer effort and performance outcomes.
- AbilityReadiness and capacity to transfer and change.
Training design transfer characteristics
What the design brings.
- Content validityDoes it teach what the job requires?
- Feedback systemMetrics that show progress.
- Transfer designOpportunity to use and perform it.
- RelevanceContent, context and timing: on or off the job.
- Learning environmentA setting that supports practice.
Work environment transfer characteristics
What the workplace brings.
Context The climate for transfer.
Sanctions and rewards Policy, supervisor and peer responses; positive and negative outcomes.
Support and readiness Peer, supervisor and technological support; openness to change.
Workplace factors affecting learning transfer
Nine forces shape on-the-job behavior.
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- Nine workplace factors push on-the-job behavior: performance feedback, role congruity, defined processes, workplace incentives, supervisor support, mentoring and coaching, opportunity to apply, job aids, and goal-setting.
Learning agility
Agile learners turn first-time situations into results.
Critical thinking and creativityExamine problems carefully and make new linkages.
Self-knowledgeApply strengths and compensate for weaknesses.
Comfort with changeStay steady when things shift.
Results in first-time situationsThrough drive and team-building.
Highly motivated learnersThey want to learn.
Knowledge management drives customer intimacy
Make knowledge flow.
- Establish a KM framework
- Develop a sharing approach
- Spot and fix underused knowledge
- Develop an information skills network
- Build a knowledge-friendly culture
- Answer “what’s in it for me?”
- Set criteria for KM projects
- Communicate knowledge effectively
Learning interventions
Six moves when performance needs to change.
Establish Build a capability that doesn’t exist yet.
Exchange Substitute a better practice for a weaker one.
Equilibrium Restore balance and maintain what works.
Eliminate Remove what gets in the way.
Enlarge Build and develop existing strengths.
Work around Design around a constraint you can’t remove.
Try it: the Training Transfer Check
Will your next training stick?
Below this deck, rate the learner, the design and the workplace for one program you lead. See your weakest link and one move to strengthen it.
Try it: Training Transfer Check
Self-check · Fostering learning
Training Transfer Check
Pick one training program you lead or sponsor. Rate the learner, the design and the workplace. See your weakest link, and one move to strengthen it.
- 1Rate
- 2See
- 3Practice
The learnerstrainee characteristics
Learners believe they can master the new skills.
Learners know why the training matters to their work and goals.
Learners are ready and motivated to change how they work.
The designtraining design characteristics
The content matches what the job actually requires.
Learners practice the skills and get feedback during training.
Training happens close to when people will use it.
The workplacework environment characteristics
Supervisors talk with learners before and after the training.
People get a real chance to use the new skills within a week or two.
Peers support trying new approaches, even when they feel awkward.
Using the new skills is noticed and rewarded.
Your transfer picture
Your result builds as you rate.
This is a reflection exercise, not a validated assessment. It draws on transfer research such as Baldwin & Ford (1988) and Holton’s Learning Transfer System Inventory. Your answers stay in this browser tab. Nothing is sent or saved.
Go deeper
Back to all Executive Education topics · Related: Operationalizing Human Centered Leadership
Part of Executive Education from the Human Centered Lab: workshops Jules Morris, PhD and Lane Morris, PhD lead for working professionals.
Frequently asked questions
What is a learning organization?
David Garvin defined a learning organization as one skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.
What is the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge?
Explicit knowledge can be written down and shared. Tacit knowledge is personal and built from experience, so it is hard to explain; it moves best through mentoring, shadowing and working side by side.
What is training transfer?
Training transfer is the degree to which people use what they learned back on the job. It depends on the learner, the training design and, most of all, the work environment.
How quickly does training fade?
In one study of organizations, 62% of employees applied new skills right after training, 44% after six months and 34% after a year (Saks & Belcourt, 2006).