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25 Quotes for Learning and Development Professionals

A strong employee training plan can qualify as the backbone of an organization and not just a way to train the employees. It can help you handle change, transformation, and disruption if it is done right. However, keeping up the morale can be a difficult thing to do. There are multiple factors that are involved in it. Several of which are not controllable.

Of the factors that you do have control over, the right setting and environment are some of the most important ones that often get the least attention. Remember to provide your employees with all the infrastructure and support they might require to make the most of the training program. This also includes prepping them with the right mindset. Here are 25 quotes for you to your trainees (and yourself) going when navigating your training roadmap.

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”  Henry Ford, Founder, Ford Motor Company

“If learners think it looks bad, you may have lost a good percentage of the battle in getting them to pay attention.”  Patti Shank, President, Learning Peaks, LLC 

“Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or could not learn.”  Sir Winston Churchill, British Statesman, Soldier and Writer.

“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”  C. William Pollard, Chairman, Fairwyn Investment Company

“Learning can emerge as spontaneous order at the edge of chaos.”  Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”  Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

“Education is not the filling of a pot but the lighting of a fire.”  W.B. Yeats, Irish Poet, Dramatist and Writer

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”  Phil Collins, English drummer, Singer-Songwriter, Record Producer, and Actor

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”  Aristotle, Greek Philosopher

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”  John F. Kennedy, 35th American President

“For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.”  Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

“Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it.”  Confucius, Chinese Philosopher and Politician

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.”  B.B. King, American Blues Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, and Record Producer

“Boring to make is boring to take.”  Lisa Stortz, Strategic Relationship Manager, Allen Interactions

“You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.”  Seymour Papert, Mathematician, Computer Scientist, and Educator

“Think about what your learners need to do with that information after the course is finished and design around that.”  Matthew Guyan, Learning Solutions Specialist

“If knowledge is a power, then learning is a superpower.”  Jim Kwik, Memory and Brain coach

“We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”  Peter Drucker, Austrian-American Management Consultant, Educator, and Author

“In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply.”  Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German Poet, Playwright, Novelist, Scientist, Statesman, Theatre Director, and Critic

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”  Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher, Cultural Critic and Philologist

“Best way to respect learners: Use techniques that research has proven to work. Help people reach their goals without wasting their time.”  Cathy Moore, Internationally Recognized Training Designer

“Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.”  George Evans, American Cartoonist

“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.”  E.M. Forster, English Fiction Writer, Essayist and Librettist.

“Change is the end result of all true learning.”  Leo Buscaglia, American Author, Motivational Speaker, and Professor

“Practice design, not decoration: Don’t just make pretty talking points. Instead, display information in a way that makes complex information clear.”  Nancy Duarte, American Writer, Speaker, and CEO, Duarte Design

As a Learning and Development professional, it can be hard to stay driven in times of disruption and abrupt change. It is also easy to stray away from basic principles of how learning works when under stress. Hopefully, these quotes help inspire you to deliver the best you can in your L&D endeavors.