10 good reasons to keep learning!

Instead, let us bring them into the light and help them to see the value that continued learning can bring to organizations...

Everything about L&D is focused on doing learning, producing learning, delivering or facilitating learning, reviewing learning, evaluating learning, and finding new people to learn with. That's a lot of learning!

But workplaces aren't populated exclusively by L&D specialists. Other professionals, notably in the fields of operations and finance, may look at the cold figures being spent in pursuit of development and training and not see their true importance.

Here are 10 arguments you can use to convince the doubters.

1. Everyone (else) does it

Growth marketer A.J. Agrawal says,: "There're always new skills to learn and techniques to adopt.

"The most successful people in the world understand that they must continuously learn to be successful. For us to live life to the fullest, we must continually look for ways to improve."

2. If we don't do it, we'll lose out

Skeptics may see investment in learning purely as a cost, not a benefit, with negligible return on investment (ROI). But a valid counter-argument is, "If you think the costs involved in learning are high, you should examine the extremely high business costs of not learning."

Cath Convery, head of operations at the U.K.-based L&D consultants Explosive Learning Solutions, says, "We're seeing increases, across Europe particularly, in learning that's linked to business requirements.

"All L&D activities can make a direct impact to a business's bottom-line, but they won't if L&D professionals don't start emphasizing the ROI that can result from their work, and link their efforts directly to the business need. That's the key: to ensure that L&D professionals are driving true business value."

3. Learning changes things

Any organization that wants to grow and flourish needs to invest in its workers through continual L&D.

Given the rapid pace of change in the modern business landscape, your workforce needs to continually develop new knowledge and new skills to enable your organization to compete effectively in the marketplace.

4. It leads to new opportunities

For individuals, learning helps to broaden horizons and encourage self-development. With their new knowledge, they may be able to identify new opportunities for your organization, or identify more efficient ways of working. L&D activities can expand your people's list of contacts, including potential customers.