Training courses don't change behaviour. Workflows do.
If that sounds provocative, good. It should. Because if you're serious about behaviour change, you already know that most value is not created in the classroom or the LMS. It's out there in the messy, busy reality of work, where people either do something different, consistently, or they don't.
The uncomfortable truth is this: content doesn't change behaviour. Doing does.
Why training courses alone aren't enough
The reason we do L&D is to help people do their jobs better. We want them to take different actions and get better results. In other words, our real goal is behaviour change.
But behaviour change doesn't happen in a one-day workshop, a webinar, or a piece of eLearning. It happens when people repeatedly try new things, in their real context, over time, until those new actions become their default way of working.
Traditional course-centric approaches work against this:
- They're time-bound events, while behaviour change is a process that unfolds over weeks and months
- They focus on knowledge and content, not the sequence of activities needed to build new habits
- An LMS tracks completions well, but it doesn't get people doing the activities that actually change behaviour
I often see beautifully designed courses that simply don't survive first contact with the day job. People leave full of good intentions, then the inbox, the manager, and the next crisis arrive, and the old habits quietly win.
It's like giving someone a powerful smartphone but no charger. The potential is there, but without ongoing support and prompts, it fades fast.
What a learning workflow actually is
To fix this, we need to change the unit of design in L&D. Instead of stopping at "the course", we need to design the workflow: a sequence of activities over time that delivers the desired outcome.
Once you start thinking in workflows, you stop asking "What content should we deliver?" and start asking "What activities do people need to do, in what order, to reach this outcome?"
A learning workflow typically includes:
- Short bursts of content to spark ideas or provide models
- Specific tasks to try in the real job, with clear instructions
- Reflection prompts so people notice what happened and what they'll do next
- Conversations with managers or peers to support and challenge
- Follow-up nudges over time so new behaviours don't fade
Notice the emphasis: tasks, not just content. It's the doing, reflecting, and repeating in the flow of work that shifts behaviour. Not another slide deck or video.
In the next article, I'll share a simple five-step recipe for designing a learning workflow around any existing programme you already run.
Find out more about People Alchemy at https://peoplealchemy.com
Paul Matthews is the founder of People Alchemy and author of three books on learning transfer and workplace behaviour change.
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