Beyond Content: What Behavioural Science Can Teach L&D
At the Learning Technologies Autumn Forum, online this October, Lavinia Mehedințu will explore what L&D can learn from behavioural science about how people make decisions, develop habits, respond to their environment, and translate intention into action.
Learning teams have traditionally invested significant effort in creating content, courses, and resources designed to change what people know and do. But providing information is only one part of what influences behaviour — and more learning content does not necessarily lead to better performance.
In this session, Lavinia Mehedințu will explore what L&D can learn from behavioural science about how people make decisions, develop habits, respond to their environment, and translate intention into action. She will challenge learning professionals to look beyond content and consider the wider conditions that enable or prevent people from applying what they know.
Bringing together perspectives from behavioural science, learning experience design, and contemporary L&D practice, the session will examine how a better understanding of behaviour can change the questions learning teams ask before they begin designing solutions. Attendees will leave with a broader lens for thinking about performance problems and the role learning can — and cannot — play in solving them.
Key topics include:
- Why providing more information does not necessarily change behaviour
- What behavioural science can contribute to learning and performance design
- Looking beyond the learner to the environment and conditions influencing performance
- Starting with the behaviour or performance problem rather than the learning solution
- How a behavioural lens can change the way L&D designs experiences and interventions
"Beyond Content: What Behavioural Science Can Teach L&D" takes place at the LTAF 2026 online event on Thursday, October 15, 2026 9:30 to 10:30.
The Learning Technologies Autumn Forum takes place online on 13, 15, 20 and 22 October. The conference programme is available from the Learning Technologies Autumn Forum website.
Lavinia Mehedințu, Co-founder and Learning Architect, Offbeat
Lavinia Mehedintu has been designing learning experiences and career development programs for the past 9 years both in the corporate world and in higher education. As a Co-Founder and Learning Architect @Offbeat she's applying adult learning principles so that learning & people professionals can connect, collaborate, and grow. She's passionate about social learning, behavior change, and technology and constantly puts in the work to bring these three together to drive innovation in the learning & development space.