Seth Godin recently wrote about “ghost cities” – systems that still stand, still run, still look like infrastructure, but no longer hold real life.

In workplace learning, the ghost city isn’t the LMS or the framework itself.
It’s the assumptions they were built on:

• Stable roles
• Predictable skills
• Linear progression
• Work that changes slowly
• Knowledge that stays in place

Those assumptions haven’t been true for years and this is why clarity matters so much right now.

If the environment keeps shifting, then capability isn’t built by rolling out more instruction.
It’s built by ensuring people can orient inside change:

• What does good look like today?
• What changed since last time we did this?
• What decision needs to be made now?
• What’s getting in the way of the work?

Clarity is not a communication issue, it’s how we stay grounded when the tools, workflows and roles keep moving. Ghost cities fade because they can’t adapt and organisations perform when they can.

Learning has to move with the work, not defend the architecture. That’s the shift.

Where have you seen “ghost city” assumptions still shaping learning or leadership today, and what helped the real work come back into view? Let me know in the comments.