In late 2018 someone asked me what my learning philosophy was. I posted about it then and the last lines of that post read:

What is a learning philosophy? I’m guessing it’s the key tenets of my practice which I won’t compromise in my design and delivery.
I’ll have to think what they might be and get back to you.

Learning philosophy

I’ve had a think and 5 years later, this is where I’m at now.

Firstly, workplace learning isn’t just individual activity but organisational leverage. Learning isn’t simply personal development but a strategic enabler for organisational performance, workforce planning, and system-level change. Learning is a tool to:

• Influence behaviour at scale
• Align with business outcomes and workforce supply-demand gaps
• Anticipate future capability needs (e.g. through SWP and AI literacy)

Next, evaluation of this activity must be meaningful and not ritualised. Interrogation of weak or performative evaluation practices is essential and the focus should be on rigorous and honest measurement.

I’m certain that learning happens in the gaps, not the gloss. Real learning happens in moments when we are messy, human and contextual. That means the learning profession needs to shift to evolve as contextual sense makers:

• Become interpreters, curators, and connectors—not just trainers or tech users
• Be fluent in data, culture, and organisational language
• Develop systems thinking and comfort with ambiguity

Lastly, learning strategy needs to be considered within political, structural, and systemic awareness. Systems don’t exist in isolation: a learning strategy needs to be integrated into the organisation’s performance and understands legal, cultural, political, and technological realities.

These are the principles which shape my thinking. What’s your learning philosophy?