Embedding Learning into the Flow of Work in a Remote World

I’ve been working remotely since before it was fashionable – back when it was still considered an operational compromise rather than a strategic advantage. My first startup was a mentoring platform with just five of us, and we were fully remote from day one. We didn’t choose remote to be progressive – we simply didn’t have a budget for an office, and we knew we didn’t need one. That did, however, mean that we had to get disciplined fast. We couldn’t afford to slow down for formal training or wait for someone else to teach us what to do. We learned in the middle of the work – by necessity, by habit, and through each other.

That experience gave me a lasting appreciation for the discipline that remote work demands. It also showed me how easy it is for learning to become invisible. If you’re not deliberate about it, knowledge stays locked in heads, mistakes get repeated, and growth stalls, even while people appear busy. Now, in conversations I have with L&D leaders and clients, I see this challenge surfacing more often. With so many teams operating remotely or in hybrid setups, the traditional ways learning used to happen — through osmosis, shadowing, or spontaneous conversations – have all but disappeared. The result? A need to rethink how we support learning not as a side project, but as something embedded directly into the daily rhythm of work.

Learning as a Culture

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that learning only sticks when it’s embedded into the way people already work. That doesn’t mean structured training and learning platforms aren’t valuable – quite the opposite. But without a culture that reinforces reflection, curiosity, and shared ownership of learning, even the best-designed courseware sits unused.

This is where L&D teams can have real impact – not just by offering content, but by helping teams build routines that make learning expected, social, and active. It’s these routines – small, repeatable actions – that create the culture where learning thrives.

Turning Everyday Work into Everyday Learning

In a small, remote setup, structure often comes second to speed. So instead of trying to force in-depth training programmes or top-down initiatives, I started developing small learning habits for myself – things that would fit around the work rather than interrupt it. For example, I started writing short weekly notes: what worked, what I struggled with, what I learned. Not for anyone else – just for myself. It turned out to be one of the most effective habits I’ve ever built. It gave me a clearer picture of where I was growing, what I was avoiding, and where I needed help.

When I was working with a collaborator, we’d often jump on short calls to walk each other through something we’d just built or figured out – not to present it, but to explain our thought process. These conversations didn’t take long, but they revealed the kind of practical learning you’d never get from a manual. And they helped create trust and transparency – two things that are vital in any team (remote or otherwise).

These small habits – weekly reflections, informal walkthroughs, shared thinking – along with other “best practice” working habits I’ve built up (like Zero Inbox’ing) – gradually formed a culture of learning and boosted productivity without needing policies or platforms. And from what I see, this principle scales. The specific format might change in larger organisations, but the underlying dynamic remains the same: frequent, visible, conscious learning and habits beat occasional formal training, every time. Ultimately, this is what’s led me to co-founding uRoutine – the realisation that great habits, however small, mixed with social accountability, can really make a big difference.

Blending Habitual and Formal Learning

Of course, habits and rituals alone aren’t enough. As teams grow and become more specialised, structured learning becomes essential. The key is to connect those structured learning opportunities – whether that’s a course on your LMS, a targeted training programme, or curated content – to the challenges people are actually facing in their day-to-day work.

For example, if someone’s reflecting on a difficult stakeholder conversation in their end-of-week notes, that’s a signal to surface communication modules or negotiation microlearning. When someone shares that they’ve struggled with prioritisation, it’s a great moment to connect them with time management training or peer mentoring. These moments – when reflection meets relevance – are where structured learning lands best.

This is where L&D can shift from being seen as content providers to being learning partners. It’s not about pushing out programmes. It’s about tuning into what’s happening on the ground and building a feedback loop between lived experience and formal learning pathways.

Routines Build Psychological Safety

Another overlooked benefit of routines is that they normalise learning – especially the vulnerable kind. When people regularly share what they’re figuring out, what they’ve tried, and what they’re unsure about, it makes it safe for others to do the same. And in remote settings, where it’s easy to feel isolated, that kind of psychological safety matters even more.

We’ve seen that transparency fuels learning. That means working in public where possible – shared documents, open Slack channels, visible thinking. We also avoid over-polishing. A rough idea shared early invites input. A finished plan shared late invites silence. When teams see that learning is happening out loud, it becomes a cultural norm – not a performance. It also means that if people can see their colleagues making time for learning within their daily and weekly routine, they are likely to too.

What L&D Can Do in This Environment

From where I stand, the role of L&D isn’t just to train people – it’s to shape the conditions in which learning becomes self-sustaining. That means thinking like behavioural designers as much as educators. Ask: What habits reinforce learning? What rituals support reflection? What can we do to make learning more visible, more continuous, and more socially reinforced?

Even small things make a difference, such as a weekly prompt to reflect, a channel to share learnings, a quick feedback loop tied to a training course. These aren’t headline initiatives, but they move the needle more than you might expect.

Most importantly, we need to stop treating learning as something that happens away from the work. The further it gets from real tasks and conversations, the less useful it becomes. Instead, let’s focus on embedding it directly into the work – not as another task, but as a way of doing things. That’s where real growth happens, with routines and habits encouraged from the top-down, the bottom-up and between colleagues.

In a remote world, where pace, autonomy, and adaptability are everything, embedding learning into the flow of work isn’t just good practice. It’s essential.

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Ed Johnson (CEO of uRoutine)

Ed Johnson is the CEO & Co-Founder of uRoutine, a social network focused on accountability, routines, and motivation-tracking. Previously, he co-founded a leading mentoring software company, which he sold in 2023. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact in 2022, he has a background in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. Ed also writes, mentors startups, and speaks on tech and business.

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