Organisations talk a great deal about learning. We hold reviews, commission analyses, write reports and reflect carefully on what happened. We often finish by asking a familiar and seemingly sensible question: what have we learned?

The problem is that this question is far too easy to answer.

It can be answered with insight, honesty and sophistication — and still leave everything exactly as it was. We may understand the past better, but continue to make the same decisions, follow the same steps and respond in the same way.

That is not learning. It is observation.

Real learning is not demonstrated by what we can articulate. It is demonstrated by what we do differently next time. If behaviour does not change, then whatever has taken place may have been thoughtful, but it has not altered our future actions.

This distinction matters.

In universities and other complex institutions, analysis is often treated as an endpoint. An admissions cycle is reviewed, a programme evaluated, a report written — and the completion of the analysis itself becomes the marker of seriousness.

But analysis that does not lead to change is not neutral. It consumes time, attention and energy — all of which are finite — and then leaves our decisions untouched. If we repeat the same processes, apply the same assumptions and respond in the same ways, we should expect the same outcomes. That is not pessimism; it is causality.

Learning only exists when something changes.

That change does not need to be dramatic. It may be a decision rule that is clarified, a step that is removed, a responsibility that is reassigned, or an assumption that is explicitly challenged. But it must be visible. It must show up in how we act.

This is why the more important question is not what have we learned? but what will now be different?

When that question cannot be answered clearly, it is a sign that we have stopped short. We may have observed carefully, but we have not improved our ability to act in the future.

Mistakes are inevitable in complex environments. Repeating the same mistake is not. When issues recur, it is rarely because people do not care or are not trying. More often, it is because nothing was changed to reflect what was already known.

Learning therefore cannot be left as a personal insight. Insight that lives only in people’s heads is fragile. Learning becomes durable only when it is embedded in decisions, routines and expectations — when it changes what happens next time.

Learning is not about being reflective. It is about being willing to act differently.

If nothing about our behaviour changes, then learning has not taken place. We may have described the past accurately, but we have not altered the future.

Learning that doesn’t change behaviour isn’t learning.
It’s observation.