.svg)
Sources: Gartner (2018) found that only 12% of corporate training is applied on the job. Brandon Hall Group (2020) reports that scenario-based learning—an experiential method—can boost skill application to 70%. Estimate based on analysis of multiple sources including ATD’s “Experiential Learning for Leaders,” Training Industry’s annual reports, and Brandon Hall Group research. While over 75% of organizations report using some experiential elements, only 10–20% of total training content is typically delivered via experiential formats.
Paradigms shift when a dominant way is replaced by a new perspective that better aligns with current realities. Experiential Learning is based on a paradigm where learners generate understanding through experience, and actively construct their own knowledge. In this paradigm, learning emerges from real situations and truth is found in reflecting on personal experience, not in textbooks, slides, or lectures. And perhaps most importantly, learners actively participate in the learning process.
Like any new paradigm, Experiential Learning challenges underlying assumptions, beliefs, approaches, and ways of being across every level of an organization–from learners and facilitators to curriculum designers and leadership.
In this guide, we'll explore the paradigm of Experiential Learning, and examine four key shifts organizations must navigate to wield its power. From 'we've always done it this way' thinking and tight training budgets, to concerns about measuring soft skills and finding qualified factilitators–we'll give you the tools to guide each stakeholder group through their unique challenges in making this transformational shift.
David Kolb published his Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) in 1974, building on the work of earlier thinkers but offering a broader and more integrated perspective on how experience shapes learning. At the heart of Kolb’s theory is the idea that learning is “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” He emphasized that this transformation depended on a complete cycle of four interrelated stages, each essential to the process. Kolb argued that true learning doesn’t come from experience alone. Without engaging in all four stages, an experience remains just an activity. What makes it learning is how we reflect on it, make sense of it, and apply it.
One of Kolb's most important insights was the role of Reflective Observation. This stage acts as a bridge between doing and learning–where raw experiences are examined, compared, and interpreted. It's through reflection that learners begin to extract meaning and develop insight.
In Abstract Conceptualization, those insights are turned into understanding. Learners develop theories or mental models–grasping not just what happened, but why it happened, and how it connects to what they already know. Kolb saw this stage as elevating Experiential Learning from basic trial-and-error, to genuine knowledge building.
Finally, Active Experimentation brings the cycle full circle. Learners test their new ideas, trying out different approaches and refining their understanding through action. This makes learning dynamic, adaptive, and self-correcting–not just theoretical, but applied.
Kolb's key contribution was to show that experinece isn't just a tool for learning–it's the raw material learning is made from.
Source: Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development.
While Kolb showed us how experience creates knowledge, Albert Bandura, the renowned Stanford psychologist and pioneer of Social Learning Theory, revealed why that knowledge actually gets applied.
Bandudra's research on self-efficacy explains the crucial gap between learning and performance, and provides a roadmap for designing training that actually changes behavior.
Self-efficacy goes much deeper than surface-level confidence or positive thinking. It's a person's fundamental belief about what they can do—their capability to perform specific tasks and achieve desired outcomes. Unlike generalized confidence, self-efficacy is task specific and action oriented. As Bandura explained, "Unless people believe they can produce desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act.” In fact, Bandura found that people’s beliefs in their capabilities affect their behavior more than what is objectively true. This makes self-efficacy the crucial bridge between learning something new and actually using it when it matters.
Learners with high self-efficacy take on more challenges, persist through difficulty, and bounce back from failure. Those with low self-efficacy avoid challenges, get discouraged quickly, and show limited growth. Without this belief in one’s ability to succeed, even the most comprehensive training falls flat—explaining why traditional methods that build knowledge, but not self-efficacy, achieve such poor application rates.
Bandura identified two types of experiences that build the confidence needed for real-world application.
IMPLICATION:
Feedback and reflection during experiential learning becomes crucial.
This requires intentional design—building in time for reflection, structured peer discussion, and opportunities for learners to iterate and improve.
Mastery experiences are the most powerful source of self-efficacy. These are direct personal experiences where learners perform tasks successfully and gain confidence in their ability to handle similar challenges. Success builds robust self-efficacy, and repeated success only strengthens that sense of competence.
Vicarious experiences occur when people observe others
succeed, especially those similar to themselves—creating the
"if they can do it, so can I" effect. Through watching others
navigate challenges successfully, people adjust their own
efficacy beliefs and visualize success before attempting
something new. This mental rehearsal reduces fear of failure
and builds confidence, particularly when tackling unfamiliar tasks.
Bandura's insights reveal why experiential learning works: it's not just about delivering content—it's about providing learners opportunities to experience success and observe others succeed, building the confidence foundation that enables real-world application.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W.H. Freeman; Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall; Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37(2), 122–147; Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215.
Taken together, Kolb and Bandura paint a picture of a paradigm that starts with experience, and where learners create knowledge through its transformation.
Experiential learning achieves dramatically higher application rates because learners don't just hear about concepts—they practice them, reflect on their performance, develop personal understanding, and build confidence through both their own successes and observing others navigate similar challenges.
While traditional learning tells learners what to think about, experiential learning crafts experiences that provoke the thinking learners need to do.
The result is learning that doesn’t have to “stick” because it isn’t coming at them from the outside—it’s emerging from within the learner. Making this paradigm shift requires understanding what it means for each stakeholder group in your organization.
The shift to experiential learning is a fundamental transformation in how many organizations approach human development. Unlocking its potential requires leaders, designers, and facilitators to reimagine their roles and success metrics.
Transform how they think about learning investment and success:
✅ Define impactful projects - Understand the organization's biggest opportunities and define learning projects that take direct aim. Use a Project Charter to align stakeholders on scope, objectives, budget and timing. <link to Project Charter>
✅ Measure needle-moving impact, not topic coverage - Connect learning projects to measurable outcomes that advance the organization's vision, mission, and strategic goals. These impacts form the "benefits" side of your business case and estimating and measuring them allows a clear ROI calculation. Learn more about ROI including a calculator to use with your projects.
✅ Provide the technological foundation for experiential learning - Experiential learning requires tools that can support interaction, real-time collaboration, scenario-based challenges, integrated reflection, and meaningful feedback. While paper-based simulations can be effective, they're difficult to scale and track. Audit your current approach—whether analog or digital—and consider investing in technology designed for interactive, immersive learning experiences that can grow with your organization. <link to Experiential Learning Technology Checklist>
Use an experience first design approach:
✅ Design for knowledge emergence, not topic delivery - Identify experiences that will provoke the thinking and doing necessary to spark learning. Then design relevant context (characters, storylines, scenarios) as the backdrop for those experiences.
✅ Design for the complete learning cycle - Experience alone isn't learning. Weave in reflection, sense-making, and application —this integration separates experiential learning from simple hands-on activities or isolated simulations.
✅ Embed facilitation as a core design element - Whether in-person, virtual, or asynchronous, facilitation drives experiential learning. Specify debrief processes, feedback mechanisms, and guidance approaches to equip facilitators for success.
<Link to "Let them Learn: Designing with an Experience First Approach"
Become facilitators and experience guides.
✅ Guide discovery rather than deliver content - Shift from the sage-on-the-stage to the guide-on-the-side.
✅ Master the art of strategic questioning- Use inquiry to drive reflection and insight.
✅ Get in the boat with learners - You've been down the river before but each time is different. Like an outdoor adventure guide, stay close, keep people safe, but don't rob them of their own experience.
<Link to "Let Them Learn: A Facilitator's guide to Experiential Learning"
IMPLICATION:
Immersion in believable situations involving relatable characters,
spark powerful vicarious experiences that raise self-efficacy.