Overseeing upskilling, leadership development, and career growth at a learning organization has eliminated a very specific occupational hazard of mine: involuntary eye-twitching during budget season. It still happens every time I hear or read the phrase “learning is discretionary spending”, usually written apologetically or shrugged matter-o-factly in an industry webinar as my peers share stories of their training budgets being cut by 40 percent to facilitate five-figure savings that fund half a role and/or pay for another productivity tool that nobody will know how to use. Leaders everywhere heed my call (or just look at the data): learning is a non-discretionary function for all organizations.

One of the many things I love about working at BC Pension Corporation is that I don’t have to write a business case to show the value of learning (it’s baked into the culture). This hasn’t always been the way – here’s what happened pretty much every year in past organizations: the same executives who slashed learning budgets in January were the ones summoning me to their offices by March, bewildered expressions etched on their faces, asking why their teams can’t pivot faster, adapt to new technologies, or meet emerging demands of new markets. I’ve sat through enough strategic planning sessions to wallpaper my office with flip charts declaring learning “essential to our future” while simultaneously watching it get categorized as optional when the spreadsheets come out. It’s like declaring oxygen important while treating it as negotiable.

Let me be clear: learning isn’t discretionary. This post dives into why organizational learning is often considered a discretionary function, which is a fancy way of saying, “You don’t have to, but it’d be nice if you did.” From inoculating us against disruption to improving mental fitness, learning is literally the solution to almost every community’s challenge – and the companies, non-profits, and teams that figure this out will be light years ahead of their competition.

What are discretionary and non-discretionary functions?

A discretionary function is something an organization can do, but isn’t legally required to do. Unlike mandatory activities – think payroll, paying pensions accurately and on time, keeping workers safe, or paying taxes (unless you enjoy conversations with CRA) – discretionary functions are up to the organization. Want to redecorate the break room? Discretionary. Mandate everyone wears matching jumpsuits? Also discretionary (and possibly a questionable fashion move unless you ask me and my awesome colleague Gillian).

Discretionary functions involve management choices based on judgment, preferences, or policy, rather than external compulsion or legal necessity. For instance, if leadership decides to transition the company to a hybrid work model or relocate the office to a new building, these are discretionary decisions – they’re choices the organization can make but isn’t required by law or policy to do.

The great rupture (in work and life)

Responding to the great rupture is not discretionary because it’s super-complex and it is always here. Consider this: where in your 2024 development plans was training people to write effective AI prompts or use PowerApps to automate repetitive business processes? Exactly. The skills we need are evolving faster than our budget cycles can accommodate, which means learning can’t be an annual event or a nice-to-have intervention. It’s the continuous adaptation mechanism that keeps organizations from becoming corporate fossils. Moreover, learning mitigates risk and drives compliance by ensuring that workers unlearn what they don’t need anymore and upskill themselves to keep your organization relevant in the new age of technological augmentation and automation.

As Tim Tiryaki and Stefano Zamagni infer, learning is a catalytic force that enables humans to work effectively in the “hourglass” economic model that is emerging (Figure 1).

For the record, I made a cool drawing of this concept when Stefano Zamagni taught a group of cooperative leaders about the “cylinder” in 2018 during a study tour in Bologna, Italy (Figure 2).

So why learn at all? The main reason: competitive advantage. When organizations choose to learn – by analyzing mistakes, sharing knowledge, or trying new ideas – they can outperform the competition. My diagram of the “infinite loop” between “generalism” and “specialism” borrows from Kenneth Mikkelsen and Richard Martin’s masterpiece, The Neo-Generalist, which highlights that learning organizations are constantly upskilling their workforce with evolving foundational skills, like how to learn, digital literacy, sense-making, design, intercultural communication, critical thinking. These strong foundational skills and mindsets allow workers to “pivot” into specialist functions to meet member or market demands with more agility and resilience.

I’m very proud of the work our BC Pension Corporation learning team is doing to bring aspects of this model to life – as we use technology to augment and automate work we are freeing up peoples’ time to add more value to our business as advisors, coaches, and problem-solvers. While my very ambitious “#InfiniteTalent” model (Figure 3) hasn’t come to life beyond the Cooperative Talent Cloud© concept (which is pretty badass), a lot of the ideas that I synthesized in 2018 are flourishing where I work today.

Towards agile learning

Learning delivers a competitive advantage amidst complexity, which is captured nicely by Heather McGowan (Figure 4). The thing is, learning takes time, money, and humility (yes, senior leaders, this means admitting that we don’t know everything).

Barriers to organizational learning that folks in my field hear are lack of resources, resistance to change, and the classic “we’ve always done it this way and it’s working!”. These factors make learning discretionary, like the gym membership you never use but feel good about having.

Theorists like Chris Argyris, Donald Schön, and Peter Senge have all argued that learning in organizations is a conscious choice, shaped by culture, leadership, and circumstances. Senge’s “learning organization” framework, for example, emphasizes that companies must actively decide to foster learning – no one’s going to force them, unless “the culture police” become a real thing (note this comment has not aged well in our modern context of 2026). As more and more shareholders and interest partners expect agility and adaptation to maximize profits, return-on-investment, and/or impact, I will not be surprised if learning agility becomes compliant in the way that human rights and privacy training is a regulatory requirement in most organizations, especially publicly-controlled ones.

As Heather McGowan brilliantly articulates (Figure 5), organizational performance is now measured by the ability to absorb and process change through constant learning. Her research shows that productivity and value creation are byproducts of learning energy. Value-creation for clients and community comes from the exhaust left over from the engine of continuous development. This flips our traditional model on its head. We’re not learning because it’s a nice-to-have feature of employee engagement practices. We’re learning because it’s a business imperative. Organizations that treat learning as discretionary are essentially choosing to measure success using yesterday’s metrics in tomorrow’s world.

The new role of leaders

Leadership has fundamentally changed. Leaders can no longer just manage people and shape strategy from their experience alone. They must co-create strategy, product and service innovation, experience design, and financial performance with cross-functional teams, then translate these into both business and learning outcomes amidst unprecedented uncertainty. At a never-before-experienced-pace (oh, there is now a 6000% tariff on soybeans, granite, and tuna that we need to build into our new market strategy).

Leaders need to enable and empower teams by co-creating personalized learning plans for regions, divisions, and individuals using a “one size fits one” approach. This isn’t the leadership development of five years ago; it’s a catalytic role that requires leaders to be learning architects for their organizations.

Learning happens everywhere, always

Learning happens everywhere and all the time when we reflect on our experiences. So, the next time someone calls learning discretionary, smile politely and ask them how they plan to compete tomorrow using only what they knew yesterday. Then watch the confusion set in.

It’s my favorite part of budget season.