From isolation to innovation: Why social, community-based learning is more powerful than ever
41%
When learning socially, two-day knowledge retention increases 41 points — from 28% to 69%[1].
+6%
Social learning is the only form of learning to see an increase in adoption in the last three years. Other forms (like mobile learning or webinars) have stagnated or fallen[2].
Humans hate isolation
Even in the worst prisons, solitary confinement is considered an extreme punishment. This means people would rather be surrounded by other inmates than left by themselves.
What other proof do we need that we’re social creatures?
If your learning program tries to fight human nature, it will lose. L&D practitioners must leverage social learning—or accept low engagement and effectiveness.
What’s the impact? Dramatic. Research shows that over 80% of learners think social learning is more effective[3] and it significantly improves knowledge retention—from 28% to 69%[4].
Community matters. Here’s how it impacts L&D success.
Humans are wired for connection. But few organizations help learners build it.
A striking 45% of workers say their companies don’t offer coaching, while 80% say that better upskilling and training would boost job satisfaction[5]. And if companies can’t deliver on these fundamentals, you can bet they aren’t delivering on social learning or community-building.
Customers, especially Gen Z, also crave personal connections—49% are less likely to purchase after an impersonal experience, and 27% will abandon a brand entirely or leave negative reviews[6].
Overall, isolated workers and impersonal customer experiences hinder learning, reduce satisfaction, and contribute to attrition and churn. It isn’t pretty. To address this, building robust communities is essential.
Communities offer scalability and connection
Communities are naturally scalable, leveraging crowd-sourced, user-generated content and user-moderated community guidelines. When more people join your community, your population of content consumers increases—but so does your population of content creators and knowledgeable experts.
There’s another benefit, too: Communities are the Porsche or Hermès of social proof. When your customers join a community, they see other customers enjoying the product, engaging with the brand, and being loyal brand advocates. The experience is also more personal than submitting a formal ticket or using a support chat, and the resolution is then preserved and can help educate others in the future.
There really is no substitute.
Impact to expect
Organizations that cultivate a culture of self-directed, dynamic learning through community-based approaches see big benefits. These organizations experience 30-50% better retention rates, 52% higher productivity, and are 56% more likely to bring products to market ahead of their competitors[7].
Learners prefer it. It’s more effective. And it bolsters the business. What’s not to love?
Now, let’s dive into a use case and look at the best practices for building successful communities.
Use case study: Enterprise organization with 50,000 global learners
When an organization goes global, complexity ramps up. There are language issues to tackle, different legal jurisdictions and security requirements, and much more. It’s a headache. Here are some common challenges and how communities can help:
Sharing knowledge across different locations
When you aren’t close together, it’s easy to drift apart. This means siloed information and inconsistent communication. A community can break these silos by enabling employees to share insights, best practices, and solutions through forums, groups, and discussion boards. This fosters a culture of open communication and continuous improvement across different locations.
Simplifying the tech stack
The average organization has 130 SaaS platforms[8], with many having multiple learning systems as well. This makes it hard for learners. A powerful community helps address this issue by serving as a single source of truth. Of course, to make sure information is accurate, we recommend using an AI-powered platform that can reference existing company assets like product sheets and filter answers based on date and rating. The effort is well worth it and can make your community the first place learners visit for important questions.
The need for scalable learning
It’s not feasible to run instructor-led courses for tens of thousands of learners. Learners need a platform that encourages direct interaction and collaborative problem-solving. This is where features like spaces, group posts, and direct messaging can help. These tools allow employees to ask questions, share experiences, and collaborate on projects, enhancing their learning experience and creating a supportive network of peers.
Building a culture of learning and a community of practice
What’s the point of acquiring knowledge if you can’t retain it? Communities can facilitate virtual meetups, collaborative projects, and the creation of shared resources that help keep important information top-of-mind. This builds community gets learners aligned.
Leadership development
High-potential employees can make each other better— if you give them the tools. Communities can serve as collaborative spaces for cohort-based learning, integrating online and virtual instructor-led training. They can facilitate mentoring (and group mentoring) relationships and help build a robust, interactive environment for future leaders.
Barriers
The top three barriers to achieving people goals are a lack of learner time, low engagement, and limited budget[9].
These shouldn’t stop you. Here’s why:
Communities are time-efficient because they are easy to learn and can be used in small bursts in between other tasks (just like social media).
Communities are naturally highly engaging. People love people. And human interactions will always be much more compelling than abstracted information. Social media uses psychological hacks to be more addictive, including things like variable reinforcement and algorithmic content recommendation. Communities can leverage those hacks, too—but for self-betterment. No one ever makes a New Year’s resolution to ‘learn fewer things.’
And finally, communities are budget-friendly since their capacity can scale to meet growing user needs while the cost of running a community doesn’t directly scale with size.
Avoid these pitfalls!
While communities offer many benefits, they also come with potential pitfalls. Here’s how to avoid them:
Plagiarism and copyright concerns are common, and it’s challenging to verify the provenance of user-generated information. The best way to ensure people are sharing their own thoughts isn’t running complex plagiarism or copyright checks, it’s to reward and incentivize original content. Discourage generic and low-value posts and reward people for sharing personal experiences. You can even create guidelines that require users to share photos or screenshots of their unique challenges and solutions to filter out low-effort contributions.
Incorrect information can be doubly harmful, damaging the integrity of your community in addition to the harm of the information itself. Here are some tips:
- Acknowledge contributions: Even if someone shares incorrect information, thank them for their contribution.
- Correct with sources: When correcting misinformation, always provide reliable sources and frame corrections as questions. For example, "Oh, interesting. I’ve also seen the opposite at [source]. Have you heard that? Let me investigate and see what’s correct."
- Use a positive framing: If misinformation pertains to your product, share the correct information positively, focusing on the good news or correct details. This is often relevant when people incorrectly describe your product’s features and limitations.
Disrespectful conduct can happen, even in the kindest communities. Here’s how to handle it:
- Establish and enforce community guidelines that outline acceptable behavior.
- Address disrespectful behavior immediately. This can start with constructive feedback. If necessary, delete offensive comments and explain why the action was taken. Include a note like ‘This comment was deleted because it violated our community guidelines.’ This serves as a signal to other members of the community.
- Engage with the offending party privately to clarify the guidelines and prevent future issues.
- Never skip on moderation and governance. A community can be successful if it’s tightly moderated and it can be successful if it’s relatively free. But every community needs moderation and oversight.
Groupthink/Homogeneity is common and can be a sign that everyone is getting along. That’s great. But innovation and constructive feedback don’t always happen when everyone is on exactly the same page. Here’s how to shake things up:
- Encourage diversity: Promote a diverse range of experiences and viewpoints within the community. Diverse communities are stronger and more resilient.
- Facilitate disruption and dissent: Organize activities like ‘Mistake Mondays’ where members share common beliefs or practices they disagree with, or ‘Workflow Wednesdays’ to share personal workflows and hacks. This makes things more personal and more idiosyncratic (in a good way!).
- Promote peer learning: Encourage members to learn from each other. This peer-to-peer interaction enhances acceptance of different perspectives and fosters a richer learning environment.
Social media uses psychological hacks to be more addictive. Communities can leverage those hacks, too—but for self-improvement.
After all, no one ever makes a New Year’s resolution to ‘learn fewer things.’
Wrap-up
Learning is better when it’s social
Imagine a world where your learners are both skilled and deeply engaged, where knowledge flows freely and collaboration happens seamlessly. This is the reality that communities create.
For employee development, social learning breaks down silos, facilitating peer-to-peer learning and mentorship across geographically dispersed teams. This dynamic environment accelerates skill acquisition and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. When employees feel connected and supported, they are more likely to stay, perform better, and contribute to innovation.
In customer education, communities build loyalty and advocacy. Customers who are part of a supportive learning network are more engaged, less reliant on support tickets, and more likely to renew their commitments. The return on investment here is clear: higher customer satisfaction and reduced operational costs.
The data speaks volumes. Organizations with robust learning cultures experience up to 50% better retention and 52% more productivity. On the customer side, organizations with customer education programs see an average of 6.2% more bottom-line revenue and 7.4% improved customer retention[10]. Social learning is on the rise, proving more effective than traditional methods by facilitating real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The power of social learning is deep and fundamental. That’s why Docebo is deeply focused on it. Our platform facilitates social learning for all audiences in a way that’s intuitive for users, efficient for admins, and transformative for organizations.
It’s time to merge the best part of being human with the most effective ways of training. It’s time to make social learning a core part of your organization—and your learning program.