How are adult learning principles relevant to today's workplace and workforce? This article explores how the learning science of The Adult Learner can be applied to make your learning more engaging, your learners more motivated, and how you can develop a learning culture that aligns learning activities to business outcomes.
If I had to list all of the pressures facing the American workplace right now, to paraphrase Jaws, I’d need a bigger article. Between economic pressures, anxiety from layers of uncertainty, business and social tension, and the pressure to keep pace and stay ahead of rapid technology changes, it’s no surprise people are feeling overwhelmed and pressured to adapt fast.
Add to that the realization that we’re still feeling the effects of workplace pressures forged during the pandemic experience, where for many, a promise of a technology-enabled freedom of workplace has calcified into newly rigid pressures which show up as mandated time in-office, digital monitoring, and expectations to maintain output in the face of budget tightening, hiring freezes, or layoffs. It’s no surprise that for some, skills development and learning is being put on the back burner or seen by employees as either unimportant or unapproachable during working hours. It’s a tricky confluence of factors that can leave people disengaged, frustrated, and exhausted, and can threaten their on-the-job performance in profound ways.
This moment, though, also holds the opportunity for transformation. If learning and organizational development can meet the moment with not just learning content, but with empathy, with strategy, and with discipline, L&D can realize our goal of supporting human and organizational performance. And a key for this can be found not in the latest blog post, but in the “back to basics” guidance of Malcolm Knowles’ theories, outlined in his book first published a half century ago, The Adult Learner.
Let’s explore the six principles of adult learning Knowles and his co-authors outlined, and how they help to reframe today’s L&D work as both stabilizing and liberating: they provide a roadmap that can help learners turn stress into agency, and helps organizations build a workforce with skills and capabilities that include the ability to navigate change.
In most workplaces, change is constant. Employees are told to master new systems, pivot priorities, and retool their skillsets. These pressures can be seen by employees to be overwhelming and random, and absent a clear explanation of why, it can erode the motivation to learn and adapt.
People learn best when they understand clearly the relevance of what they’re learning. In our learning practice, this means being clear about the link between learning and real-world outcomes. Every training experience must anticipate the question, “how will this help me solve a problem that I face or that I’m about to face?”
When we make this connection explicitly, by tying skills development to outcomes which align with the learner’s motivation, learning is transformed from a chore to an opportunity for empowerment. Instead of pressure, employees can see purpose. They respond that the training request is not just something being done to them, but something done for their benefit.
One of the paradoxes of modern work is that as we add technology, autonomy can shrink: workers navigate systems which on one hand assist them, but at the same time track time, output, and behavior. It’s worth considering the effect of tools and job performance metrics on the worker’s sense of agency.
Knowles offers an antidote: adults want control over their learning. This means, in part, offering choice, not a prescription. But how does this work when the training is required? Make the choice not about whether to engage in the learning experience or not. Instead, offer multiple pathways to the same learning outcome. (You will spend a little more time developing learning assets, but you will gain learner engagement and the ability to A-B test the performance of learning paths.)
Giving your learners agency in their learning is a gesture of trust. It signals the company values their competence, not just compliance. It supports learner engagement and the behavior outcomes that follow.
Careers are no longer a straight line connecting two dots. People navigate their careers and their lives differently, and the workforce is a diverse mosaic of backgrounds, experiences, career paths, generations and skills. But too often, learning programs don’t find a way to respond to (or incorporate) the lived experiences of the learners.
In The Adult Learner, the adult learner’s “reservoir of experience” is a starting point for learning, not an afterthought. Validating the learner’s experience builds engagement, fosters psychological safety, and can support peer learning. As a L&D leader, our programs can operationalize this by thoughtfully inviting employees to contribute case studies, to co-facilitate learning events, or to act as mentors in coaching relationships, such as to bridge domain wisdom with fluency in new technology.
This practice also can protect the organization from institutional memory loss. As employees exit the organization (for any reason), the structures you’ve built to capture and transfer knowledge can be an important element of business continuity and succession planning. You’ll have transcripts, notes, videos, job aids, and other resources to document and preserve skills and culture. Your team’s “reservoir of experience” becomes a living textbook.
Another of Knowles’ insights feels almost prophetic in today’s volatile environment: adults learn best when they face tasks or transitions that make the learning immediately relevant. Timing is everything. But still, many learning events are centrally scheduled and not coupled to the timing of the learner’s need.
The good news is we’re in an age of transforming what just-in-time learning is and looks like. Learning technologies enable us to support learner-triggered learning (such as surfacing a microlearning module around a pattern of interaction with a company system, or when an employee assumes a new role or new responsibilities) aligns strongly with Knowles’ principle of readiness to learn. When instruction arrives at the precise moment of friction, the learner sees it as a relief rather than an obligation.
This “moment-of-need” design is especially powerful when embedded into the organization’s operations and workflows, offering context-appropriate information that helps when and where it’s needed. Learning becomes ongoing, relevant, and appreciated.
A reasonable critique of legacy training approaches is that learning often focuses on information transfer (what employees need to know) at the expense of supporting their understanding of the context of the information (the why and how to align the learning with their jobs). Knowles tells us adults are problem-centered, not content-centered, and want to solve real-world problems.
Again, this is an area where the latest learning platforms can transform our approach. By building learning experiences inside authentic work scenarios (case-based, simulations, or “scenario sprints”), learners can engage in learning and practice decisions in an environment they see as relevant and meaningful. This accelerates skill acquisition and transfer (the critical ability to apply new knowledge to circumstances as they encounter them).
One way to approach this is a shift in framing the learning experiences. For example, rather than a “training session,” develop a “performance lab” in which employees see themselves as the drivers, the problem-solvers, who are engaging with new information to actively address an issue. The outcomes of the session are also closer to the metrics which are important to the job: whether the business KPI is error reduction, customer satisfaction, or speed to proficiency, the “lab” metrics can be made in close alignment. It’s a way to continue to elevate L&D’s role as a partner in the business.
Why and how can we work with our learners’ motivation to learn? For many years, L&D has relied on extrinsic motivation to drive training compliance: this relies on external factors ranging from the learner’s employment status to recognitions like badges or points, to get a learner to participate. These extrinsic motivators can trigger action but rarely sustain enthusiasm or long-term engagement.
Adults learn when they are motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When work feels transactional or learning feels disconnected from personal growth, motivation collapses.
To rebuild intrinsic motivation, organizations can connect workplace learning to the learner’s sense of identity, by helping workers see a direct connection between how they see themselves (including how they want to see themselves) and the skills and information offered. Structures like skills frameworks and progress dashboards, combined with clear advancement pathways, can help learners track their own progress toward a goal that matters to them.
Recognition can play a role, too, so long as it’s authentic and, ideally, maps to the learner’s own motivators. While many organizations will recognize employees who exceed a performance metric (like error reduction, or improving a customer satisfaction measure), it’s rare that these are mapped against the learning experiences which can set up these accomplishments. Imagine what it would communicate if the quarterly award is given to someone based on “they completed our error-reduction workshop and then improved their own performance by 75%”: it communicates that performance is rewarded and that learning is how we get there.
As expectations of the workplace continue to transform and evolve, so must how learning shows up. This likely means shorter cycles, more clearly articulated objectives, and authentic, real-world assessment. It also means that the manager’s role in learning will evolve, as managers must be able to support the coaching and human skills needs of their teams, and ensuring that learning has a prioritized space on their calendars.
Time is our most limited resource. Protecting it for the purposes of learning sends a crystal-clear message to the organization: your growth is work that’s worth doing.
This isn’t only an operational change, it’s cultural. When you build systems that support adults taking ownership of their own learning, you’re working with their motivation and goals, and you’re making a statement about how the organization values its people. It’s a step along the path to make the company a collaborative learning community rather than a factory of compliance.
The adult learning principles articulated by Knowles and expanded by Holton, Swanson, and Robinson, were never just about pedagogy, they were about human potential. At its core is the assumption that people are capable, purposeful, and self-motivated when conditions allow. These assumptions are empowering and human, and can signal to your people that they’re much more than metrics on a dashboard.
The principles of The Adult Learner offer a blueprint for organizational resilience. When we build learning around relevance, learner autonomy, problem-solving, and intrinsic motivation, we create a workplace where pressure motivates, not intimidates. Our people can face change with confidence rather than fear, and organizations gain a competitive advantage: a workforce that learns faster than the environment is changing.
At AXIOM, we have a roster of learning professionals who are available to step in and start helping you achieve your goals right now: whether you need a single instructional designer or a project team to launch an enterprise initiative, we'll match you with the expertise and capabilities you need. Want to learn more? Contact us and let's chat.
