And it's Been Haunting L&D even before Shoulder Pads and Pleated Pants (I might still be holding on to a few pairs.:)
Let’s face it, learning transfer doesn’t just have a branding problem... It’s having a full-blown identity crisis.
Accumulating annual investments over the recent years, corporate L&D has spent trillions of dollars–yes, trillions, according to Training Industry Report, designing and delivering training, only to discover the real challenge isn’t the learning itself...it’s what happens after. Or more often, what doesn’t happen.
It’s been rebranded and repackaged more times than this year’s flavor-of-the-month management program. Each new term brings a slightly different flavor. Each one tries to pin down the same sticky problem:
How do we help people act on what they just learned and drive real impact?
So here are some of our favorite terms over the years for this challenge and the thought leaders behind them:
Learning Transfer - a.k.a. Transfer of Training
The OG. Academic. Precise. Refers to the degree to which learning results in meaningful behavior change on the job. It has been studied for decades but is rarely tracked well in the wild.
Thanks to scholars like Timothy T. Baldwin and J. Kevin Ford, articles like Transfer of Training: A Review and Directions for Future Research, and countless practitioners who’ve fought to measure it, this phrase, albeit academic, remains the most enduring label in the field.
In recent years, Ina Weinbauer-Heidel has brought fresh clarity to the topic with her 12 Levers of Transfer Effectiveness, a practical framework grounded in evidence that highlights the organizational, instructional, and learner-level factors that must align to turn training into results. Her work, along with work by the CEO of the Institute for Transfer Effectiveness, Melanie Martinelli, reinforces the idea that transfer isn’t just a learner problem; it’s a system problem.
Embedded Learning
Some call it “learning in the flow of work.” Others, like Paul Matthews and Gary Wise, emphasize that training creates potential, but it’s only when applied at the point of work that it makes a real difference.
Embedded learning means building development into the rhythm of real work. Not as an add-on, but as part of the system. It addresses the gap between competence (what someone knows) and capability (what they can apply in context). Because even a trained employee can feel incapable when processes, culture, or time work against them.
This approach aligns with the concept Josh Bersin coined, "learning in the flow of work," in the article, A New Paradigm For Corporate Training: Learning in The Flow of Work, where learning opportunities are seamlessly embedded into the employee's routine, enhancing engagement and retention.
Without deliberate integration into tools, systems, and day-to-day context, even the best learning exists in the classroom already comatose. Embedded learning is how we bring it back to life.
Sustainability
Not the environmental and composting kind. In L&D, this is about whether new behaviors persist over time, long after the workshop ends.
This idea is championed by authors like Paul Matthews, who, in his eBook How to Reboot Training for Tangible Business Impact, writes extensively about embedding learning in the day-to-day. It reminds us that training isn’t successful unless the behavior becomes second nature.
Behavior Change
This term makes it clear: it’s not enough to know -- you’ve got to do. This is where training stops being theoretical and starts showing up in meetings, decisions, and KPIs.
Marshall Goldsmith, a renowned leadership coach, emphasizes the importance of actionable feedback. His Feedforward methodology, detailed in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, encourages individuals to seek future-oriented advice and express gratitude for the insights received. This approach has been shown to lead to significant performance improvements across various organizations.
Similarly, Dr. Beverly Kaye has highlighted the necessity of continuous feedback and learning in professional development. Her work Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em underscores that for behavior change to be effective, individuals must not only receive feedback but also act upon it, integrating new behaviors into their daily routines.
Making Learning Stick
This phrase became an L&D mantra and even its own mini-book genre.
From Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Brown, Roediger & McDaniel) to Make Training Stick (Dr. Barbara Carnes), and 39 Ways to Make Training Stick: What to do after Trainees Leave the Room (Chris Fenning), the message is loud and clear: training fades fast without reinforcement.
There is plenty of great advice, but the same old challenge remains: knowing isn’t doing. Without follow-up, even the best training slips through the cracks.
Knowing-Doing Gap
Coined by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, this framing says people often know what to do, they just don’t do it.
It’s one of the most executive-friendly terms on the list, often heard in C-suites and MBA classrooms alike. It emphasizes execution and culture, not just curriculum. A similar, complementary perspective comes from Seth Godin in his well-known book Linchpin. While he acknowledges the value of learning, Godin emphasizes that true impact comes from applying that learning by becoming indispensable through consistent action and meaningful contribution.
Levels of Evaluation
This one comes straight from the Kirkpatrick Model, developed by Donald Kirkpatrick in the late 1950s and first widely published in 1967. It remains one of L&D's most recognized—and misused frameworks.
It outlines four levels:
- Reaction – Did they like it?
- Learning – Did they understand it?
- Behavior – Are they applying it?
- Results – Is it driving business impact?
Most organizations stop at Level 1: “Did you like the workshop? How were the snacks?” But transfer, the actual application of learning, lives in Levels 3 and 4.
Building on this foundation, Dr. Jack and Patti Phillips introduced a fifth level: ROI. Their methodology, widely used across global organizations, connects training to financial impact, making learning a business conversation, not just an HR one.
In recent years, Paul Leone has proposed a sixth level: Transfer Climate, arguing that to truly measure learning effectiveness, we need to evaluate the system learners return to. His point: performance doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in context, and that context can make or break transfer.
Today, Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick carry the original torch through Kirkpatrick Partners, while the ROI Institute (led by the Phillipses) continues to show that learning is not only measurable but investable.
Learning Scrap
Popularized by Roy Pollock, Andrew Jefferson, and Calhoun Wick in The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, “scrap learning” refers to the portion of training that never gets used on the job, sometimes as much as 85%.
It’s a powerful term because it reframes the issue as not only ineffective but wasteful.
Dr. Robert Brinkerhoff expands on this idea with his Success Case Method, which identifies when and where training produces meaningful results and just as importantly, when and where it doesn’t. His work reminds us that it’s not enough to ask if people learned something—we need to ask if it mattered.
The upcoming Fourth Edition of The Six Disciplines reminds us that this is still one of L&D’s greatest untapped opportunities.
The Forgetting Curve
Hermann Ebbinghaus taught us over a century ago that 70% of new material is forgotten within 24 hours.
Modern authors like Dr. Pooja K. Agarwal, co-author of Powerful Teaching Unleash the Science of Learning, have shown how tools like spaced repetition can beat the curve—and move learning from short-term memory to long-term capability.
Learning Reinforcement
Not the AI kind. This is about spacing, nudging, and reinforcing—using prompts, follow-ups, and micro-content to keep learning alive.
As Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps explain in Telling Ain’t Training, training is only the beginning. Real retention comes from repetition, relevance, and application over time. ATD continues to publish research backing this up.
70:20:10
A model originally surfaced by Morgan McCall, Michael Lombardo, and Robert Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership, this model reframed the learning world:
- 70% of learning happens on the job
- 20% through coaching and relationships
- 10% via formal training
While its conceptual power has helped L&D teams think beyond formal training, it’s not based on empirical data. As Kajewski and Madsen (2012) of DeakinPrime concluded:
“There is a lack of empirical data supporting 70:20:10, and while the above-mentioned sources are frequently credited, there is also a lack of certainty about the origin.”
It’s best understood not as a rule, but as a mental model, a conceptual frame that encourages blending experiential learning, coaching, and structured content. Just because someone believes they learned 70% on the job doesn’t mean organizations should invest only 10% of their budget in formal learning.
Today, Jos Arets, Charles Jennings, Vivian Heijnen, and the 70:20:10 Institute have taken it even further, offering frameworks that make the model actionable, not just aspirational.
Application (of Learning)
The metric everyone wants but can’t quite measure. It’s about how often new skills are used, in real work, on real tasks, tied to real goals.
Josh Bersin has long called out this blind spot and was one of the early advocates of learning moving to "Learning in the Flow of Work". While most LMSs track completions, they miss what matters most: capability in action. Until this shifts, application rates will remain the unicorn of all the learning metrics.
Behavioral Experimentation
This newer frame borrows from agile coaching and behavioral science: try the skill, reflect, adapt, and repeat.
It echoes the work of BJ Fogg at Stanford, whose Tiny Habits model shows how small tests lead to big changes over time. It’s also the spirit behind Laszlo Bock’s Humu platform, now part of Perceptyx, nudging teams to shift behavior one moment at a time.
Enablement
A go-to in modern sales organizations, Gartner confirms in their Sales Enablement Leadership Vision eBook that enablement is about more than knowledge. It’s about systems, tools, and just-in-time support.
World-class sales enablement leaders, whom I know like Alicia Leach and Sarah Stites know it’s about reducing friction and giving people what they need to win, right when they need it.
Because if you’re not enabling, you’re just hoping.
Follow-Through
For the past two decades, my former colleagues, Cal Wick, Roy Pollock, Andy Jefferson, and the Fort Hill Company, have made a material impact on the training industry. Their Six Disciplines approach made follow-through a non-negotiable.
Adding learning contracts, peer coaching, and manager alignment helped organizations shift from “event-based” learning to performance-based learning. Training without follow-through? That’s just edutainment.
And speaking of execution: Pioneers in behavioral safety have long shown the power of sustained follow-through. Dr. Thomas Krause, founder of Behavioral Science Technology and now co-founder with Kristen Bell of the Krause Bell Group, often helps organizations rebuild after major incidents like the Challenger explosion, proving that change sticks when behavior, feedback, and systems align.
Because when the stakes are high, whether it’s safety or performance, systems matter.
Durable Learning
Because we didn’t want to feel left out, we pulled this one from our playbook at Sageful AI, written by Michael Papay and Dr. Pelè Ugboajah, Durable Learning isn’t about the event—it’s about the system that surrounds it.
It integrates three critical levers:
- The Learner – supported to act and reflect in the flow of work
- The Organization – aligning reinforcement with business goals
- The Coach – real or virtual, there to prompt action over time
When those elements connect, training becomes less disposable and far more transformational.
Wisdom Walks
Ok, we might have just made this one up. But it fits.
This is what happens when all the right ingredients come together: learning becomes visible, active, and ongoing. You don’t just hear about change, you spot it in the wild: in meetings, decisions, emails, and actual behavior shifts on the job.
This is learning leaving the classroom and walking confidently into the workplace.
Shamans and Sages are optional.
So, What’s the Point?
Too often, L&D professionals get stuck in a game of buzzword bingo, relabeling the problem instead of putting meaningful effort and resources into solving it. But if you're a business leader reading this, it’s time to raise the bar:
- Are your highest-priority strategic skills taking root?
- Can you see the positive impact of learning show up in the wild—in meetings, decisions, KPIs?
- Is your investment in learning and development delivering measurable personal and organizational impact?
Hold your HR and L&D teams accountable—not for outputs, but for outcomes. For real skills, real change, real value.
And no matter what you call it, learning transfer, follow-through, behavior change, durability, let’s agree: This represents one of the biggest opportunities in front of us today.
It’s a chance to drive both credibility and exponential value creation from one of the largest recurring investments companies make: developing their people.
And as for sage? Well, it might be great in your tea or burned at your local wellness retreat…
But what your workforce needs are tools like Sagey, support that shows up in the flow of work, reinforces key behaviors over time, and helps turn every training moment into measurable performance.
The AI Opportunity
After decades of frameworks, research, and pioneering insight, we finally have a way to solve learning transfer at scale.
AI doesn’t replace or ignore the concepts of thought leaders like Goldsmith, Pollock, Jennings, Brinkerhoff, or Kirkpatrick. It builds on them and brings them to life in real time. With relevance. With reinforcement. With data.
And that’s exactly what Sagey is built to do.
Where past solutions have lived in binders, email nudges, or the minds of expert coaches, Sagey embeds personalized, contextual coaching directly into the learner’s workflow – whether in Slack, Teams, or SMS. It nudges action, reflects behavior, tracks progress, and connects learning to real business outcomes.
No matter what you call it – learning transfer, follow-through, application, or sustainability – Sagey makes it personalized, scalable, and measurable.
Because at the end of the day, business leaders aren’t debating buzzwords – they’re asking:
- Are our people learning the right skills?
- Are they using them on the job?
- Are we seeing impact?
Sagey helps organizations and learning teams answer yes.
If you're ready to turn learning into lasting action, let’s connect via letsgo@sageful.ai or you can learn more at www.sageful.ai.
