What We Talk About When We Talk About Time

Ask any L&D leader why employees aren’t engaging with learning, and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: “They just don’t have time.”

It’s a reasonable answer. But it’s not the whole answer.

The Real Reason Learning Gets Deprioritized

Time constraints are real, especially in high-pressure, high-performance environments. But when learning consistently falls to the bottom of the priority list, “lack of time” is often a stand-in for something else: low engagement, unclear value, or weak integration into daily workflows.

In other words, lack of time is a symptom. Not the root cause.

Here’s the deeper issue: If people don’t see how learning helps them solve problems, hit goals, or grow their influence, they won’t make time for it. And if learning feels abstract, overwhelming, or disconnected from work, even the most motivated employees will not prioritize it.

As Sarah Cook explains in The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement, real motivation stems from a workplace culture where employees feel involved, respected, and supported – not just busy. Her “WIFI” model (well-being, information, fairness, and involvement) offers a useful lens: If those four elements are missing, learning feels optional or irrelevant to learners’ goals.

So what does this mean for L&D?

It means shifting the conversation. Instead of trying to “make time” for learning, we need to make learning feel essential. Organic. Useful. And yes, fast.

How L&D Can Change the Narrative

That starts by designing learning programs for relevance and immediacy:

• Offer useful insights that solve real problems
• Embed learning at the point of need
• Focus on quality over quantity
• Choose formats that fit the rhythm of work

From there, take a step further. In Terms of Engagement, Richard Axelrod advocates for deeply involving employees in shaping strategic initiatives. His “engagement paradigm” emphasizes widening the circle of involvement and co-creating change. That same principle applies to learning: when people feel like collaborators, they’re more likely to invest time and energy in development.

Help employees apply what they learn, reflect on its impact, and share it with others. That’s what turns content into capability.

When learning is visible, valuable, and easy to act on, people stop saying, “I don’t have time.” Instead, they start asking, “What else can I learn?”

Take a deeper dive into the getAbstract library…

The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement by Sarah Cook

Terms of Engagement by Richard Axelrod

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