Learning professionals have never been more important. After all, they now have to contend with a widening skills gap, digital transformation, distracted learners and a dwindling budget.
It’s time for some inspiration. We’ve collected 65 (yes, 65!) of our favourite quotes about workplace learning. These quotes cover training, development and instruction in all forms. We’ll hear from thought leaders and visionaries who understand this space like no one else.
These quotes are the ideal source of motivation for learning and development teams, instructors and trainers. That said, there is plenty of wisdom in there for the rest of us as well. And if you’re hungry for more quotes, then there’s more to be had:
- 70 Powerful Quotes About Learning
- 70 Moving Quotes About Motivation
- 60 Inspirational Quotes About Teaching
Ready for some workplace wisdom? Then let’s dive in!
Workplace Learning Quotes: The All-Time Top 30 Ranked
1. “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” — Henry Ford
2. “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” — Jack Welch
3. “The single biggest driver of business impact is the strength of an organization’s learning culture.” — Josh Bersin
4. “We complain that learners want to be spoon-fed, but then we won’t let them hold the spoon.” — Jane Bozarth
5. “We need to bring learning to people, instead of people to learning.” — Elliott Masie
6. “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” — Richard Branson
7. “When it comes to the design of effective learning experiences, one provocative question is worth a hundred proclamations.” — Bernard Bull
8. “You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.” — Seymour Papert
9. “The most profound words will remain unread unless you can keep the learner engaged.” — James Bates
10. “Learning experiences are like journeys. The journey starts where the learning is now, and ends where the learner is successful.” — Julie Dirksen
11. “There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.” — John Maxwell
12. “We don’t care what people know, we care what they do. It’s all about performance.” — Michael Allen
13. “Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning.” — Peter Senge
14. “One of the most important areas we can develop as professionals is competence in accessing and sharing knowledge.” — Connie Malamed
15. “If you continue training the same way you’ve always trained, don’t expect to get better results.” — Jim Crapko
16. “Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” — Brian Tracy
17. “The goal of education is understanding; the goal of training is performance.” — Frank Bell
18. “The best development programmes change the way people see themselves.” — John Bright
19. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” — Harvey S. Firestone
20. “What’s going to make a difference to your organization is not the ability to recite facts… It’s the ability to make better decisions.” — Clark Quinn
21. “Learning and performance will become one and the same thing. Everything you say about learning will be about performance.” — Peter Block
22. “To unlock the true potential of eLearning to train successful employees, it needs to be people-centered.” — Simon Greany
23. “Throw out some of that instructional design language and speak like a human being in conversation with another human being.” — Cammy Bean
24. “L&D maturity… will be defined by the way that we take personal responsibility and step out in courage to act on the basics that we know work.” — Laura Overton
25. “We are living in a world where access trumps knowledge every time.” — Charles Jennings
26. “Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” — William Pollard
27. “If learners think it looks bad, you may have lost a good percentage of the battle in getting them to pay attention.” — Patti Shank
28. “Learning is a process not an event.” — Elliott Masie
29. “There are no refunds; learners cannot get their time back if we waste it.” — Michael Allen
30. “Stop thinking the answer to everything is to develop a course.” — Jane Bozarth
Workplace Learning Quotes: Honourable Mentions
31. “Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.” — Amos Bronson Alcott
32. “If you make it matter, it sticks. If not, it slides. Emotion is not important to learning. Emotion is learning.” — Nick Shackleton-Jones
33. “Every enterprise is a learning and teaching institution. Training and development must be built into it on all levels—training and development that never stop.” — Peter Drucker
34. “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” — Robert Greene
35. “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” — Warren Buffett
36. “Often it hardly matters how good the course, class, materials or instructor is. If the organization does not support learning, then training programmes will be wasted.” — Josh Bersin
37. “Our work gets better when we connect and collaborate with others, as does our impact on engagement, learning and performance.” — Michelle Ockers
38. “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” — David Kolb
39. “There’s no experience like on-the-job training.” — Hank Azaria
40. “The most effective, successful professionals are constantly learning, they take the time to apply what they have learned, and they continually work to improve themselves.” — Joel Gardner
41. “Learning is a process to deliver performance, it is not a final outcome.” — Charles Jennings
42. “A learning organization is an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.” — Peter Senge
43. “The basic DNA of good learning experiences is trying to do something and getting feedback.” — Julie Dirksen
44. “People don’t want prettier or more interactive courses. They want more relevant solutions to their problems.” — Jane Hart
45. “Boring and effective are mutually exclusive attributes in learning.” — Michael Allen
46. “Talking about people as learners is like talking about people as breathers.” — Nick Shackleton-Jones
47. “Standardized courses are artifacts of a time when connections were few and information was scarce. That time has passed.” — Harold Jarche
48. “Learning and innovation go hand-in-hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” — William Pollard
49. “If you want people to have fun, give them the day off. If you want them to learn, create engaging instruction.” — Karl Kapp
50. “People will only want to engage if it is relevant to their needs or helps them solve problems.” — Jane Hart
51. “If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.” — R. Buckminster Fuller
52. “When it comes to organizational learning, if it ain’t fun, it won’t get done.” — Juliette Denny
53. “Don’t push growth: remove the factors limiting growth.” — Peter Senge
54. “The most important investment you can make is in yourself. Nobody can tax it or take it away from you.” — Warren Buffett
55. “Don’t think of what it costs to train your employees… Think what it costs not to train them.” — Shep Hyken
56. “Create the culture of learning that you wish you’d had.” — Laura Vater
57. “Most of life is on-the-job training. Some of the most important things can only be learned in the process of doing them.” — Jack Canfield
58. “Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.” — Denis Waitley
59. “The interaction of knowledge and skills with experience is key to learning.” — John Dewey
60. “An empowered and enriched workforce is the backbone of a company’s success framework.” — Ananya Birla
61. “Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.” — Lawrence Bossidy
62. “The fourth industrial revolution continues to transform the world of work. Reskilling and upskilling have never been more important.” — Rashim Mogha
63. “Fostering an ideal learning atmosphere means giving learners confidence, a supportive push and the tools to help them learn.” — Caroline Ford
64. “When it comes to eLearning, content means everything. If eLearning content is not masterfully designed, all the rest will just go down the drain.” — Christopher Pappas
65. “A huge factor in ensuring we tackle the skills gap at scale is by meeting employees where they’re at.” — Caitlyn Beattie
Final Word
There we have it. A selection of quotes from business titans, industry experts and learning specialists. We hope this list has got you fired up and ready to engage your learners!
Which quote resonated best with you? Did we miss any quotes that you think should be included? Please let us know via our social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook).
And before you go, don’t forget to check out our 70 quotes on learning, 70 quotes on motivation and 60 quotes about teaching. Happy learning!
Here at Growth Engineering, we know what makes learners tick. We’ve collected our findings into a brand new guidebook, ‘Your Guide to The Modern Learner’. Download it now!
