Morgan Burn explores how changing attention, technology and learner expectations are reshaping workplace development, and why L&D must move beyond isolated interventions. From personalised reflection to richer content and real-world scenarios, organisations need better continuous learning ecosystems that help people access, apply and revisit knowledge precisely when it matters most.
There is a widespread perception that attention spans are getting shorter. A 2022 survey by the Policy Institute and Centre for Attention Studies at King’s College London found that almost half of UK adults (49%) felt their attention span was shorter than it used to be. While there is not yet sufficient long-term evidence to conclusively demonstrate a decline in attention spans, there is little doubt that the way people consume information has changed dramatically.
These shifts have changed not only how people learn, but also what they need from learning
Today’s workforce is exposed to greater volumes of information, more frequent interruptions, and an increasing need to switch between tasks and priorities. These shifts have changed not only how people learn, but also what they need from learning. Learners increasingly expect relevant, accessible and immediately applicable development opportunities that fit within the realities of modern work.
For organisations, the implication is clear: effective learning is no longer simply about capturing attention for extended periods of time. It is about helping people access, process, retain and apply the right knowledge at the right moment. As a result, many traditional assumptions about what constitutes good learning design are being challenged, requiring organisations to rethink how learning is structured, delivered and embedded within the flow of work.
Beyond blended learning
In recent years, and particularly since the Covid pandemic, many businesses have adopted a blended learning approach to L&D activity. It has been widely understood that using multiple formats, such as in-person events alongside online learning, creates engaging and personalised learning experiences.
However, as newer generations enter the workplace, L&D professionals are increasingly seeing businesses confront the limitations of this model. Today’s workforce has grown up immersed in a world of highly tailored, on-demand and experiential content. For many learners, blended learning can still feel like a collection of separate learning formats, rather than a seamless and relevant learning experience.
This is not exclusive to younger workers. Across all generations, people have become accustomed to instant access to vast quantities of personalised information and have noticed changes to their behaviour as a result. 50% of participants in the King’s College London study said that, despite their best efforts, they sometimes cannot resist checking their smartphones when they should be focusing on other things, while 47% said that opportunities for deep thinking have become less common.
Clearly, if they are to remain effective, learning models need to factor in these changes. Traditional approaches, including blended learning and frameworks such as 70:20:10, were developed for a different information environment. While their core principles remain valuable, organisations increasingly need learning ecosystems that are more continuous, adaptive and embedded within the flow of work, enabling people to access support, knowledge and development precisely when they need it.
Ramp up the volume
Technology is also changing how learning experiences are facilitated. In traditional programmes, large amounts of workshop time were often dedicated to collective debriefs, with facilitators replaying scenarios and leading lengthy group discussions to help participants identify key learning points.
While reflection remains important, technology now enables learners to engage with these experiences in a more personalised way. For example, within leadership programmes, QR codes are used to provide access to recordings of role plays and simulations. Rather than relying solely on a facilitator-led debrief in the room, participants can revisit these scenarios in their own time, replay critical moments and analyse behaviours against the frameworks being explored.
This creates a more learner-led approach to reflection. Participants can spend additional time on the situations most relevant to them, revisit concepts when they become applicable in practice, and engage with learning at a pace that suits their individual needs. It also frees valuable workshop time for application, experimentation and coaching conversations, rather than repeatedly reviewing the same content as a group.
In this way, technology is not replacing reflection but making it more accessible, flexible and relevant to the learner’s context. Another way to facilitate a learner-led approach is to increase the volume of content presented within sessions. It is now not unusual to prepare a slide deck containing up to 80 slides. And it is equally not unusual for business leaders to react with surprise, and even horror, when this is revealed to them.
However, engagement levels often increase among younger workers when they are presented with high volumes of content. Rather than being overwhelmed by the amount of information, they naturally select and engage with the resources and insight they find most helpful. [High numbers of slides doesn’t always mean high volume of content, it can be information presented to avoid cognitive overload and move through the slides quickly -Ed]
Making it personal
‘Personalised learning’ means something different to a generation that has grown up with algorithms feeding them tailored and targeted information. For many learners, personalisation is not simply about receiving content based on their role or preferences. It is about learning that reflects the realities they are experiencing in their day-to-day work.
Emerging learning platforms are beginning to support this by allowing participants to capture challenges, observations and leadership dilemmas as they occur. Through simple voice notes, learners can record real situations they are navigating throughout their working day. These recordings can then be transcribed, anonymised and added to a growing bank of real-world scenarios.
This addresses a common challenge within traditional learning programmes. Facilitators frequently ask participants to share examples from their own experience, only to be met with blank faces. The issue is rarely a lack of experience. Rather, people often struggle to recall relevant examples on demand, particularly in a group setting.
By capturing situations at the moment they occur, organisations can build a rich library of authentic scenarios drawn directly from the workforce. Participants can then select scenarios that resonate with their own challenges, analyse how others might respond, and apply learning to situations that feel immediately relevant.
Facilitators can also use these anonymised examples to shape discussions, simulations and role plays that are grounded in genuine organisational realities rather than hypothetical case studies. The result is learning that feels more relevant, more practical and more personal. Instead of asking learners to imagine how a concept might apply in the future, it allows them to work directly with the challenges they are facing today.
Integrating learning into work-life
Learning no longer happens in distinct moments. For today’s workforce, learning is an ongoing, integrated experience. It is most effectively delivered via an experiential learning ecosystem; formats and platforms that participants and their peers can consistently feed into and which will grow and evolve with them.
And when it comes to content, more really is more. The era of one-off learning interventions is over.
Development is no longer defined by isolated workshops or training events. It is driven by connected learning ecosystems that enable continuous reflection, application, collaboration and growth.
Morgan Burn is Executive Consultant and Behavioural Psychologist at OnTrack International
