We know more than we do: how learning becomes useful at work

2026/09/29

Irja Rae, Managing Partner, Figure Baltic Advisory

September, the month of learning, is almost over. Hopefully, we are all a little wiser, more capable or more curious than we were at its beginning. Learning rarely arrives as a dramatic breakthrough. We season a meal more confidently, complete a familiar task more clearly, or run 100 metres further than last month. We tried something, noticed what happened and made an adjustment.

That is a helpful way to think about learning at work, too. The aim is not to be better than the person next to us. It is to do something today that we could not do as well yesterday. With tools and expectations changing, that ability matters. In the World Economic Forum's 2025 employer survey, respondents expected 39% of workers' existing skill sets to change or become outdated by 2030. This is a forecast of employers' expectations, not a measured loss of skills. It still raises a practical question: how does new knowledge become something we can actually use?

Listening can start learning

“People learn best by doing” contains an important insight, but taken literally it misses something. If we have never encountered a better way to work, we may not know what to practise. A trainer's explanation can introduce a method. A demonstration can show what good work looks like. A question from a fellow participant can expose an assumption we have not examined. New information becomes meaningful when we connect it with what we already know and with a problem we recognise.

Listening, reading and watching therefore have a purpose. They help us discover possibilities. The risk appears when understanding an explanation feels like the end of learning. It is quite possible to leave eight academic hours of training saying “That makes sense” and still struggle when the real client, report or difficult conversation appears. Attendance and confidence are not the same as being able to perform a task.

Knowledge is valuable. It is not yet a skill.

The step between knowing and doing

Skills grow when we apply an idea to a relevant task, see the result, receive useful feedback and adjust. A clearer report might begin with rewriting its conclusion, asking a colleague what remains hard to understand, and revising it again. A better client conversation might begin with practising a question, using it in a real meeting and reflecting on the answer it produced.

This process need not be confined to a classroom. A trainer can explain and demonstrate; fellow participants can challenge our reasoning by approaching the same problem differently. Research on peer instruction reports positive effects on academic learning, although that evidence comes mainly from educational settings. It does not mean that every group discussion at work improves performance. People need a meaningful task, a chance to explain their thinking and feedback on their answers.

Returning to material after a gap helps us retain it. A 2023 systematic review in health professions education found that distributed practice and active retrieval were effective in most of the studies it examined when compared with several alternative approaches. Remembering a method without looking at the slide, then using it on a new case, is more demanding than rereading the slide. The evidence concerns learning and retention in particular contexts; a real workplace skill still needs a real opportunity to perform.

Nor does practice mean repeating a task mindlessly. We need information about what worked, what did not and what to change. Feedback may come from a trainer, a colleague, a client or the task's outcome. A second attempt matters because it gives us a chance to use that information.

Why useful ideas remain in notebooks

Many of us know the feeling: an excellent training day, several photographed slides, an inspiring sentence underlined and then a full inbox. A month later, our work looks much the same. The day may have broadened our thinking. But if its purpose was to change our work, we need a bridge between “That was interesting” and “I will try this.”

A small detail at this year's Nordic Business Forum illustrated that bridge. The participant notebook made room for insights and for “Insights into Action”: one idea to share, one habit to build, one assumption to rethink, one action within seven days, one within 30 days and one person to meet. These prompts invite reflection, but also ask us to decide what comes next.

Research on structured reflection suggests it can improve learning outcomes, though results depend on the form of reflection and the setting studied. Reflection becomes especially useful when it changes the next attempt: What did I notice? What did I assume? What will I do differently?

A vague intention is easy to postpone. Research on planning examines the value of linking an action to a specific situation: when this happens, I will do that. “I want to write clearer reports” states a goal. “When I finish my next report, I will ask a colleague which conclusion is least clear and revise it before sending” describes an occasion, an action and a source of feedback. Planning is no guarantee of change, but it makes the first step easier to recognise.

Learning must have somewhere to go at work

The participant cannot make this happen alone. Recent reviews of workplace training transfer emphasise opportunities to use a new approach, practice, feedback and support in the work environment. A manager can select a relevant assignment before the course and make time for a first attempt afterwards. A colleague can review the result. The learner can adjust and try again. If the job offers no opportunity to apply what was learned, even an excellent course has limited room to change behaviour.

This is why a training day should be designed as part of a longer process. Before it, identify a problem worth solving. During it, offer explanation, demonstration and practice on relevant examples. After it, arrange a real task and a way to review what happened. Not all knowledge needs to become an immediately observable skill: new perspectives can be valuable in their own right. But when the stated aim is improved performance, the learning needs a route into work.

What should a training budget count?

Organisations usually know the course fee and can estimate travel or materials. Participant time is also committed: if 20 people attend a one-day course, that is 20 person-days away from their usual tasks. Some work waits, and some may need covering. This arithmetic illustrates time invested; it is not a calculation of financial loss or return. Practice and follow-up also require time.

That does not make training a poor investment. It means the decision deserves a clear purpose. How many days people spend in training and how much the organisation pays are useful inputs, but neither measure shows what changed. Before choosing a course, ask: Which problem are we trying to solve? Who needs this capability? What should they do differently? Which real task will let them practise? How will we know whether it helped?

A course can be worthwhile when it gives people a better method, a new perspective or a safer way to practise something difficult. Calling it an investment becomes more convincing when we can describe the expected benefit and later look for evidence in the work itself. That might be a clearer report, fewer avoidable errors, a better decision or a conversation handled more skilfully. The measure should fit the purpose; no single metric captures every benefit of learning.

How to get more from a course

Before: Bring one real problem. You do not need to know the answer. Decide what you would like to do better, and agree with your manager where you may try a new approach afterwards.

During: Look for a new method and connect it to your task. Ask questions. Try an exercise. Compare how another participant approached the same problem. Ask for feedback on your first attempt.

Within seven days: Use one idea on a real task. Decide in advance when you will do it and whose feedback will help you judge the result. Keep the first attempt small enough to make it happen.

Within 30 days: Try again after feedback. Look at the work, not only at whether you remember the presentation. What is different? What still needs practice?

The same questions help an organiser. A positive reaction form can tell us whether participants valued the day, but cannot by itself tell us whether they can do something differently at work. Decide in advance what evidence would be useful, without claiming that every outcome can be reduced to a number.

What changes after we learn?

We often know more than we do. Some ideas deserve to stay as ideas until we need them; others deserve to become skills. The difference is often made by a small sequence: notice something new, connect it to a real problem, try it, get feedback, reflect and try again.

As September ends, perhaps the most useful question is not “How much did we learn?” but “What can we now do a little better — and what will we try next?”

Research and further reading

• World Economic Forum (2025). The Future of Jobs Report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/digest/
• Kraiger, K. & Ford, J. K. (2021). The Science of Workplace Instruction. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-060109
• Kauffeld, S. et al. (2025). Learning and transfer in organisations: how it works and how it can be supported. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2025.2463799
• Making soft skills stick (2024). Systematic scoping review of training transfer. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2376909
• Mehner, L. et al. (2025). How to maximize the impact of workplace training. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2024.2319082
• Trumble, E. et al. (2023). Systematic review of distributed and retrieval practice in health professions education. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11078833/
• Effects of peer instruction on academic achievement (2024). Meta-analysis. Pedagogies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2023.2246447
• Zhai, N. et al. (2023). Can reflective interventions improve students' academic achievement? Meta-analysis. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2023.101373
• Gollwitzer, P. M. & Sheeran, P. (2025). Psychology of Planning. Annual Review of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-021524-110536