Senast uppdaterad: 05 maj 2025

We've all heard it and probably said it ourselves: "I don't have time for that right now." In learning and development, it's one of the most common barriers we hear. Learning gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list, and leadership & employee development initiatives get rescheduled, not because they aren’t valuable, but because there’s "no time."

But what if time isn't really the problem? What if the real issue is how learning is positioned, prioritized, and connected to what truly drives business impact?

When learning competes with immediate work demands, it's typically the first thing sacrificed. Yet organizations with strong learning cultures consistently outperform their peers. This disconnect isn't just costing companies talent development opportunities, it's affecting their bottom line.

What’s Really Stopping Us – Lack of Time or Lack of Clarity?

When leaders & employees say they don't have time for learning, they're telling you something far more revealing than their calendar status. They're signaling that learning isn't a priority and for good reason.

In most organizations, the perception is that learning is optional, an add-on rather than business-critical. When deadlines loom and meetings multiply, the "urgent" tasks inevitably win. But this raises a crucial question: Why is learning rarely seen as urgent or business critical?

The answer is painfully simple: Only 26% of employees believe their L&D activities connect to business goals, according to LinkedIn Learning. Without a clear line of sight between development and business outcomes, motivation naturally falters.

Think about it: If employees don’t understand why a skill matters, how it contributes to business success, or what impact it will have on their career, why would they prioritize it? Research from the NeuroLeadership Institute confirms that our brains are wired to avoid uncertainty. When the value of learning isn't immediately clear, we default to tasks with more obvious payoffs. Even if more time were suddenly available, learning still wouldn't happen without this clarity of purpose.

The hard truth? Time is rarely the real constraint - purpose and clarity are.

Leaders Set the Tone – If They Don’t Learn, No One Does

Leadership's influence on learning culture cannot be overstated. When leaders treat their own development as optional, they signal to the entire organization that learning isn't truly valued.

Gallup research reveals that a staggering 70% of employee engagement variation is tied directly to the manager. If leaders don't demonstrate commitment to their own growth, why would their teams prioritize development?

The business impact is significant, teams with engaged leaders are 21% more profitable and experience 59% less turnover. Leaders who actively develop themselves create environments where continuous improvement becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Creating a resilient organization requires continuous learning baked into its processes and systems. When executives claim they "don't have time" for development, they're unwittingly creating a culture where learning is perceived as separate from work rather than integral to performance. The message received throughout the organization is clear: “real” work comes first, development comes second (if at all).

Investing in leadership development isn't optional, it's a strategic imperative that drives organizational performance from the top down.

Are We Making Learning Feel Too Abstract?

Traditional corporate learning programs often suffer from a fatal flaw: they lack immediacy and clear feedback loops. When learning happens in isolated contexts, disconnected from daily work, it feels theoretical, and motivation inevitably suffers.

Humans naturally gravitate toward activities with clear, immediate benefits. When we can't see how learning directly applies to our work or when feedback is delayed or absent, engagement drops dramatically. According to Harvard Business Review, employees who receive regular feedback are 39% more engaged than those who don't.

This disconnect manifests in low completion rates for learning initiatives and the familiar refrain of "I don't have time." However, research shows that when learning is integrated into the flow of work, engagement increases significantly. For instance, a McKinsey study found that companies that effectively integrate learning into daily workflows see 4x higher engagement in development activities.

The underlying problem isn't time, it's also relevance. When learning directly connects to addressing immediate challenges and delivers visible results, people make time for it. For L&D to truly engage employees, it must move beyond theoretical knowledge transfer to create experiences that deliver immediate, applicable value. Learning must connect directly to action and outcomes, showing its worth through real-time application rather than promised future benefits.

Rethinking L&D: From a Nice-to-Have to a Business Driver

Forward-thinking companies have already shifted from viewing learning as a support function to positioning it as a strategic business driver. The data speak for themselves:

• Organizations that embed learning into their strategy outperform peers with 218% higher income per employee and 24% higher profit margins (Association for Talent Development).
• 92% of companies with a strong learning culture are more innovative and produce higher-quality products (Deloitte).
• Organizations where employees spend more than 5 hours per week learning are 74% more likely to be first to market with innovative products and services (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report).

These statistics aren't coincidental, they reflect a fundamental truth: when learning is positioned as a growth engine rather than a support function, it drives measurable business outcomes.

The real challenge for L&D & HR leaders is to move beyond activity-based metrics (such as completion rates) and focus on impact metrics that align with business KPIs. This means connecting learning initiatives directly to:

• Revenue growth
• Customer satisfaction improvements
• Innovation metrics
• Leadership pipeline strength
• Faster time to proficiency for new roles
• Productivity enhancements

When learning is seen as integral to business strategy, the conversation shifts. Instead of asking, "Do we have time for learning?" leaders begin asking, "How can we integrate learning into everything we do?"

Measuring success through outcome-based KPIs ensures that L&D efforts are aligned with business goals. By speaking the language of business outcomes, L&D & HR professionals can secure executive buy-in and break down the "time" barrier that often limits learning initiatives.

It’s Not About Finding Time – It’s About Changing How We Work

Time will always be a finite resource, but it is also democratic. The fundamental question isn't how to find more time, but how to reconceptualize learning as an integrated aspect of work rather than a separate activity competing for attention.

What if learning wasn't an "extra," but simply how we work, lead, and grow every day – our behaviours and actions? This requires mindset shift and structural changes:

• Creating space for reflection and building it into work processes
• Designing systems that enable immediate application of new skills
• Encouraging curiosity, experimentation, and knowledge-sharing as core behaviours
• Developing collaborative spaces like communities of practice
• Setting aside time for deep work, exploration, and capturing implicit knowledge

Organizations that succeed in breaking down the artificial barrier between working and learning create not just better employees, but more adaptable, resilient businesses. The process begins with acknowledging that time pressure is real, but using it as a catalyst to reimagine how learning integrates with work rather than as an excuse for inaction.

Research from Microsoft's Work Trend Index supports this approach, showing that employees who regularly reflect on their work are 35% more productive and report 23% higher job satisfaction. Curiosity, reflection, and real-time development create environments where learning becomes a natural part of work, not something that requires "extra time."

AI in Learning & Leadership – Friend, Fear, or Future?

Artificial intelligence presents both a learning challenge and a potential solution to the "time problem." AI is here, but are organizations ready to embrace it as part of learning and leadership?

While AI can automate repetitive tasks, freeing time for deeper development, many leaders and employees hesitate to adopt it. This "AI shame" - feeling embarrassed about not understanding or utilizing AI tools creates a significant barrier to progress.

According to McKinsey, companies integrating AI effectively see productivity gains of 20-40%. Meanwhile, Josh Bersin’s research shows that organizations with mature AI learning strategies report 50% faster skills development and 46% stronger leadership pipelines.

The companies gaining competitive advantage aren't necessarily those with the most advanced AI technologies, but those creating cultures where:

• Curiosity about AI is encouraged, not feared
• Psychological safety allows experimentation without judgment
• Open conversations reframe AI as a growth tool, not a threat
• Learning to work with AI becomes a core capability, not an optional skill

Leaders must model AI adoption using these reflection, prioritization, and development tools. By doing so, they signal that AI isn’t a passing trend, but a critical shift requiring immediate attention.

Those who learn how to leverage AI for learning and development will stay relevant. Those who delay risk falling behind, as the AI skills gap widens faster than ever.

AI tools that can personalize learning pathways, provide real-time feedback, and help employees & leaders reflect on their development can transform how we approach learning in time-constrained environments.

Conclusion

The next time someone says, "I don't have time," ask: Are we truly out of time or have we failed to show why learning is worth making time for?

When learning becomes a visible driver of business results, directly connected to both individual success and organizational performance, the time barrier dissolves. People make time for what they value, what they understand, and what delivers immediate results.

The future belongs to organizations that don't just find time for learning but transform how learning happens making it an integral part of how work gets done rather than an additional demand on already limited time.

Time isn't the problem. It's what we believe is worth our time that makes all the difference.

The question isn't whether we have time to learn. It's whether we can afford not to.