{"id":9025,"date":"2019-06-14T14:30:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T12:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/?p=9019"},"modified":"2022-01-20T11:53:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:53:35","slug":"are-we-so-busy-in-todays-workplace-that-learning-is-losing-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/are-we-so-busy-in-todays-workplace-that-learning-is-losing-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We so Busy in Today\u2019s Workplace that Learning is Losing Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Have we become so busy that there is always something that takes priority over our own development? Last year, when I was doing interviews with testers of our learning prototypes, it felt like this was the professional wall I had been bumping into for a number of years. For years now, we have wanted people to drive their own development more and embed it more in the flow of work. Therefore, as part of our innovation efforts, we made prototypes of tiny topics and tiny tasks \u2013 basically everything people tend to ask for: make it short, make it fun, make it easy to find and use, make it relevant, make it applicable, etc.  In one of the interviews with testers, I asked, \u201cSo does this meet your expectations and needs?\u201d The answer was \u201cyes\u201d. Then I asked, \u201cNow, would you do this during the flow of work?\u201d The answer was, \u201dHonestly? Probably not, I don\u2019t have time.\u201c
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Reboot.

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It\u2019s not that employees and their managers don\u2019t believe learning is important. In fact, I haven\u2019t met anyone who doesn\u2019t say learning is important. In today\u2019s volatile business environment, in which the half-life time of a skill is decreasing, fast and continuous learning is your best strategy. Constant learning makes our careers and businesses future-proof. The learning potential of a job is often what attracts people.

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However, the reality check doesn\u2019t look good. In today\u2019s workplace, we seem busy being busy. Learning loses out \u2013 often unintentionally. LinkedIn Learning called the number-one workplace-learning challenge \u201cmaking people make time for learning\u201d. Bersin reports that on an average day, we have about 24 minutes for learning. Check for yourself: in your organisation, is training one of the first budget lines to be cut? Is the \u201cafter-action review\u201d the part of the project plan that rarely gets done? Are knowledge-sharing meetings the candidates likely to be canceled so you can get other stuff done? When was the last time you asked for feedback on how you are doing? When was the last time you inserted a reflection moment in your calendar?

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So why is there a big gap between intention and reality? If you ask people, they will say the problem is time. This reply, however, is too superficial to reflect the full reality. In searching for more comprehensive explanations, an interesting body of research comes from behavioural economics. In this field, the term used to describe situations in which people behave differently from how economic theory prescribes is \u201cmisbehaving\u201d.

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We, people, aren\u2019t the rational machines some theories postulate. For instance, the biases and heuristics in our brains cause us to want to save more money, but we don\u2019t. We want to live more healthy lives, but then that cake is smiling at us. And it starts to rain when we want to go to the gym.

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We, people, are equally\nbiased (some say delusional) when it comes to what and how we learn. Here are\nsome examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n