We move fast because we’re told fast is better, because we think being busy proves we matter, because it feels safer to stay in motion than to stop and ask whether we’re going the right way. But there’s also power in the pause. Power in reflection, in questioning and in choosing to learn slowly, because somethings matter enough to take our time.
Over the past year, I’ve been immersed in a yoga teacher training course. It’s been long, layered, and deeply human. I’ve spent 200 hours face to face with my fellow yogis practicing together, examining philosophy and discussing different practises with at least another 200 hours away from the studio developing my own practice, reading and reflecting. While the pace has been slow, the learning was anything but shallow. It has provided a space to think, to absorb and to transform.
At the heart of the course was a return to ancient texts, some of them written 3,000 years ago. These teachings haven’t changed. The language, the principles, the philosophy is still intact. Still meaningful and still being used to shape and guide modern lives. It’s made me reflect on if we, in the corporate world, are trying to rush something that should not be rushed?
Is this building deeper capability or are we just changing lanes on the same high-speed road?
Right now, most learning design is driven by system changes, market shifts, compliance updates and operational urgency. The constructs around us are pushing for faster returns, obsessed with filling skill gaps and filling them fast. It all sounds innovative, agile and cost effective but are we optimising just for speed, building “just in time” learning to fill the current perceived gaps in knowledge and processes that help us keep running in the current direction? It’s true you can fill some gaps with the latest platform or methodology, but can you help a person to grow this way?
Every year, we layer on new learning methods: digital first onboarding, AI assembled training modules, 5-minute micro learning modules, curated playlists, engaging interactives and often to do it alone, on a screen, with no pause in between. Is this building deeper capability or are we just changing lanes on the same high-speed road?
My yoga training gave me time, practice, dialogue and stillness. It wasn’t efficient but it was transformational. I didn’t just gain information; I became someone different because of it. Have we forgotten something simple in the process for striving for something new? Learning isn’t a gap filler, it’s a human process.
Yoga teaches us what the brain already knows: transformation happens slowly, in the pause. In yoga, we still the mind, we breathe, we stretch into discomfort and wait because we know that’s where the growth lives. We don’t rush through postures just to tick them off, we hold them. We stay in them long enough to feel what they teach us and when the mind wants to move on, we come back to the breath because presence is the practice. And we revisit the same practises time and time again.
Why then, do we in the corporate world, now treat learning, development and growth as things to speed through, to automate, to scale, to make more “efficient” when we already know what works. Maybe it’s time to bring that same wisdom back into how we learn at work. To stop mistaking movement for meaning and to remember that slowing down is not a weakness, it’s how we grow.
It’s time to hit pause and think again about where we are heading. Doing more, faster, has become a sign of worth, even though it often masks a disconnection. Speeding up lets us feel like we’re moving forward, even if we haven’t considered if we’re moving in the right direction.
Just because information is instant, doesn’t mean that decisions, growth, and learning should be too. What if we started again from scratch? What if, instead of building endless new courses for every new initiative, we asked a more fundamental question about the human or life skills every person needs, regardless of role or organisation.
Things like:
- Resilience & Wellbeing
- Financial empowerment
- Self-awareness & Adaptability
- Self-advocacy & Influence
- Creative & Critical thinking
- Ethical Leadership & Integrity
What if, instead of pushing out fragments of learning in separate programmes, we created one cohesive, human-centred learning experience – something everyone stepped into when they joined an organisation and stayed with over the long term? Not a one-off induction or another digital certificate, but a lifetime learning arc—anchored in mentorship, dialogue, community, and depth.
People could return to the same topics at different points in their careers, approaching them through a new lens, shaped by their age, life stage, or role. The learning wouldn’t need to be one-size-fits-all or delivered all at once, it could be layered so that it was cost-effective, innovative, and even agile, designed in sprints or chapters that align with the natural rhythms of working life. When the time was right, they could revisit those foundations and go deeper, building maturity and confidence as they evolve.
Technology should be reserved for what it is best at – supporting systems but not replacing the soul of learning. I’ve been reminded on my own learning journey that transformation doesn’t come from quick fixes or instant access, it comes from slow, deep integration. Just as the ancient texts have quietly shaped my own path to becoming a yoga teacher, there is some wisdom that no technology can replicate, no matter how advanced it becomes. There is a different kind of intelligence in slowness — in letting something settle, revisit, and change you from within.
