Reflections from World of Learning – February 2026

Echoes of old stories and evidence of real progress

You get the most value from your investment when you use L&D strategically.  

For a long time, old habits about hours completed and boxes ticked have dominated the way learning is thought about in the legal sector. 

Now AI is changing all that.  Because strategy is dynamic and evolving in the light of rapidly changing tech-enabled capabilities, so L&D has to keep up, stay ahead even, in order to be relevant. 

We need to think deeply about the skills and mindset of the future legal practitioner, because they are changing and we need to equip people anew. 

Discovery phase 

The practical implication is that L&D has to get closer to the coal-face and really understand learners’ needs. The discovery phase of learning design is ever more important. Making assumptions about what and how people learn can reduce impact and, weirdly, disengage your target audience.   

The phrase “points of friction” was used several times by different speakers throughout the day at the World of Learning Summit recently. Questions were asked, such as: 

1. What decisions do people need to be able to make? 

2. What stops people from feeling ready to take action? 

3. How are people capturing the valuable intelligence they may gather in their working day?  Are they using cut-throughs and work-arounds for quickness? 

Where are these points of friction and what are they costing your colleagues and the business? 

Design: Relevance & Blend 

No, not a new coffee brand. The imperative to make sure that learning is designed for outcomes which are super relevant for your learners.  Never be led by content – that way madness and waste lies.  Always be led by strategy. Break that down into outcomes and test them out on your audience. 

Now use your expertise and create great learning. If it’s a new skill or a mindset shift, we can’t do it over sandwiches at lunchtime.   

We could check-in on progress in that way, or share stories, refinements, reflections.   

Most things worth learning, and which are not about the acquisition of knowledge alone, require a change in behaviour or approach. 

Much of the time, businesses crave this sort of change.  

Letting ideas take root 

The key is to plant and nurture ideas several times, developing and deepening understanding at each step. Use a variety of delivery methods to do this. The days of the one-day training course are over. 

The most effective learning designs I heard about at the World of Learning Summit, focused less on what people know and more on what they do. They prioritised: 

• immediacy over volume 

• application over completion 

• relevance 

  
  

When learning is embedded into the flow of work, supported by line managers, peers or well-designed AI tools, it becomes far more likely that something actually changes. 

Learning Transfer 

Emma Weber reminded us that transformation really starts when people reflect and determine how to change behaviour AND mindset for themselves.   

Activity in the classroom, in-person or online, is just activity unless learning transfers into the working day, and reflection is key to generating the motivation to do that. 

Building reflection in at a stage when people have the benefit of time and energy is crucial.  Do NOT, Weber told us, leave it to a rushed final 2 mins.  

Reflection is, she said, "a mechanism to secure commitment and set-up accountability".   

Knowing vs Doing 

There is a crucial difference between knowing something and doing something. Reflection is what bridges that gap. 

When people are given space to pause, consider what they will do differently, and commit to a specific action, learning starts to translate into behaviour. Reflection is not about reminders or reinforcement. It is about ownership. 

Effective reflection is often supported by simple scaffolding:

• a committed action plan part-way through the learning 

• time set aside to review what worked and what didn’t 

• conversation with a peer, manager or trusted (AI?) system 

Crucially, reflection requires psychological safety. People need to believe they can be honest about what they tried, where they struggled, and what they need next. 

Without reflection, learning remains theoretical. With it, learning becomes personal, contextual and durable. 

Culture as an Enabler 

Culture came up again and again, not as a vague concept, but as an enabling force. 

One of the most useful reframes I heard was this: culture is what shapes human choices under pressure. 

This was particularly evident in sessions on cyber security, where “human error” is often cited as the weakest link. What became clear is that human error is rarely the root cause. It is a signal. 

People make mistakes when they are overloaded, rushed, uncertain, or working within systems that reward speed over judgement. If a culture values silence over speaking up, or compliance over curiosity, people will act accordingly, even when they know better. 

The question after an incident should not be “who made the mistake?”, but “why did this make sense to this person at the time?” 

When organisations treat mistakes as learning signals rather than failures, something important changes. People are more likely to ask, to check, and to challenge. Judgement is valued, not punished. 

Culture, in this sense, acts as a control system. It determines whether people feel safe enough to slow down, to reflect, and to make good decisions when the rules don’t quite fit the situation in front of them. 

This is why learning and culture cannot be separated. Learning does not land in a vacuum. It lands in a system that either supports or undermines human choice. 

Final reflection 

What the World of Learning Summit reinforced for me is that the foundations of good learning design are enduring.  New tools may support excellence.  They cannot replace it. 

Learning is about designing environments where people can think well, decide wisely, and act with confidence. These are the ingredients for coping when certainty is unavailable. 

Learning shapes how organisations behave when nobody is looking. 

Ultimately, this is where learning proves its value.