LocationsLearning in the Flow: Why Growth, Not Busyness, Defines the Future of Work at UNDP
November 5, 2025
Learning is often seen as something we do when everything else slows down. But what if it became the very force that drives how we work? In this reflection on the UN 2.0 vision and UNDP’s People Development Strategy, Sylvie Kuyisenga, Executive Analyst for UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, explores how shifting from “learning as a task” to “learning as a system” can unlock deeper engagement, creativity, and impact. True growth, she argues, happens not in pauses between work, but in the flow of it.
What if learning wasn’t an interruption to our work, but the very force that powers it?
This question stayed with me after hearing the UN Secretary-General describe his vision for UN 2.0, a system powered by data, digital, innovation, foresight, and behavioral science. António Guterres’ words were both inspiring and unsettling, because they revealed a tension that many of us at the UN know all too well: while we fully believe in continuous learning, we often struggle to find the time for it. In a culture of relentless activity, where success is often equated with being busy, when - and how - do we truly learn?
The issue became personal for me earlier this year during a Purpose, Policy and Operations (PPO) workshop for JPOs and UNDP graduates. I went in expecting another week of slides, laptops, and note-taking. What I found instead was a transformative experience that changed how I think about learning and, more importantly, how I think about work.
From the outset, the facilitators made an unusual request: “You will not need your laptops this week.” My initial reaction was disbelief. How could I manage without my most essential work tool? Yet I complied, and that small act of surrender triggered a powerful realization. Without a screen to retreat to, I became fully present. I listened deeply, participated without distraction, and allowed ideas to settle and connect in ways that seldom happen during a normal workday. The richness of that engagement reminded me that attention, true attention, is one of our most underused professional skills.
But this presence felt like it came at a cost. As the hours passed, I felt the weight of emails accumulating in my inbox, tasks multiplying, reminders flashing in my mind. Even as I learned, I was haunted by the feeling of falling behind. It struck me then that this guilt, this sense of always needing to “catch up,” is not just personal: it is systemic. We work in a structure that rewards output over reflection, speed over depth, immediacy over insight. Yet we know that the problems we face as development professionals, such as complex crises, shifting political dynamics, social transformations, etc., require not just action, but thoughtful action.
There is a clear and strong need for a learning policy instating ‘learning time’ in the organization. This is a policy gap, but also a cultural one.
The UNDP People Development Strategy captures this dilemma with striking clarity: “Heavy workloads and a lack of time for structured learning affect personnel’s ability to avail themselves of learning and development opportunities... There is a clear and strong need for a learning policy instating ‘learning time’ in the organization.” This is a policy gap, but also a cultural one. Learning is often seen as something we do when we have the luxury of time. But what if we recognized it instead as the strategic foundation for everything we do?
Modern research in organizational behavior supports this shift. Josh Bersin, a leading thinker on human capital, argues that the most effective organizations embed “growth in the flow of work.” His studies across more than a thousand companies show that when learning is woven into daily routines, through mentoring, feedback, experimentation, and contextual application, productivity and performance both rise. People don’t just get better at their jobs; they get better through their jobs.
To be relevant, learning must be contextual, real-time, and frictionless. It must meet people where they are, at the moment of need.
Similarly, experts like Harry Cloke emphasize that the old model of learning (occasional training sessions or one-off courses) is no longer enough. To be relevant, learning must be contextual, real-time, and frictionless. It must meet people where they are, at the moment of need. This is not about replacing deep, structured learning; it’s about complementing it with agile, micro-learning moments that enhance performance on the go. The goal is to make learning not an event, but a habit, embedded in the daily rhythm of our work.
This idea echoes the findings of Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, whose work published in the Harvard Business Review outlines three principles for sustainable learning cultures: integration, activation, and routinization. They urge organizations to make learning part of daily routines, by reflecting on mistakes (“mistake moments”), sharing feedback through “strengths spotting,” and encouraging experimentation through “pitch, prototype, pilot” approaches. When learning is treated as an add-on, they note, it rarely happens. But when it becomes part of how we operate, it transforms not only performance, but resilience and creativity
It was less about learning new content and more about learning how to think differently.
Reflecting on my PPO experience, I saw how this plays out in practice. When I stopped multitasking and focused on engaging with others, I was not just absorbing information, I was connecting ideas, questioning assumptions, and seeing patterns. It was less about learning new content and more about learning how to think differently. That is the essence of the Secretary-General’s UN 2.0 vision: building an agile, forward-thinking UN system equipped to navigate uncertainty and complexity through skills, data, and collaboration.
Yet the success of this transformation depends not only on infrastructure, but on mindset. UNDP has invested heavily in platforms, curated learning paths, and high-impact initiatives like PPO. These are essential building blocks. But their full value emerges only when we use them deliberately, reflecting on how each new skill, tool, or insight translates into better impact on the ground. The challenge before us is not a lack of resources: it is carving out the time, space, and permission to engage with them meaningfully.
The UNDP People for 2030 Strategy offers a way forward. It emphasizes the pivotal role of managers in shaping learning cultures, advocating for development, modeling curiosity, and creating safe spaces for experimentation. This is crucial because structural support is what turns aspiration into practice. When managers protect learning time, it signals to teams that learning is not secondary to delivery, it is delivery. It reinforces a message we need to repeat often: investing in people is not optional; it is strategic.
As the world changes faster than ever, the demands on development institutions will only intensify. The choice before us is simple but profound: do we continue to equate productivity with activity, or do we embrace learning as the very engine of progress?
If the past few years have taught us anything, from pandemics to economic upheavals, it is that agility, reflection, and learning are not luxuries. They are survival skills. They are what enable us to adapt, innovate, and deliver for those we serve.
At UNDP, there is an ongoing effort to reframe how we see learning, not as time taken away from impact, but as the catalyst that multiplies it. Not as a pause in our productivity, but as its most powerful source.
Because in the end, the real question is not whether we have time to learn, but whether we can afford not to.