What does “learning” really mean in French?

Everyone knows the idea of a learning organisation or a learning company — but do you know that in French, “learning” is translated in two different ways, and that this nuance changes everything?

🎯 Becoming aware of this is already a shift in mindset: in French, learning can mean “formation” (training) or “apprentissage” (learning through experience). Two translations, two logics — and two very different outcomes.

Learning in French: truly learning — everywhere, all the time — not just “being trained”.

We are living through a paradox: never have we invested so much in training, and yet many people feel they are being trained without really learning.

This gap between intention (training) and effect (learning) lies at the heart of what Soufyane Frimousse calls a “global learning crisis”. Naming this gap is essential — because we cannot improve what we do not distinguish.

The challenge is simple: moving from a device-centred logic (training programmes, platforms, modules) to a learner-centred logic (the act of learning in real situations).

From this perspective, individuals (and collectives) are no longer receivers, but authors of their learning.

1) Defining the two French translations of “learning”: two complementary lenses

Philippe Carre’s contribution (2000): a lasting disposition to learn

Philippe Carre offers a definition that is both broad and precise: learning depends on a lasting set of dispositions (affective, cognitive, conative) that support the act of learning in all kinds of situations — formal or informal, experiential or didactic, self-directed or not, intentional or accidental.

In other words, what matters is not the system (a course, a platform, a module), but a stance and an active relationship to knowledge.

This is exactly where French makes a difference: “formation” refers to a training device, while “apprentissage” points to a living process that depends on dispositions, context, and activity.

Severine Besson’s contribution (2023): learning as a culture that can be organised

Beyond the individual, learning can also be understood as a collective and organisational capability: the ability of a group, an organisation, or even a territory to put in place practices that enable the extraction of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and action capabilities, in both formal and informal contexts.

This is a decisive point in organisational momentum: learning as a culture.

A learning culture is shared, prepared, and collectively organised. It rests on a mindset of trust and openness — inclusion, active listening, non-judgement, the right to make mistakes, autonomy, mutual support… making continuous learning possible.

In practice, this means learning is not only an individual quality (“being curious”): it is also a collective design that creates the conditions, rituals, and spaces to learn.

Within a learning organisation, this distinction is central:training is something you deliver; learning is something you enable.

2) What this French nuance implies: a shift in perspective

Talking about learning through the French lens forces us to take seriously a fundamental shift:

• With training (formation), “someone acts on someone” (a programme is supposed to mechanically produce transformation).

• With learning (apprentissage), the learner becomes the main actor again: the trainer, manager, peer… stands alongside to support a learning ecosystem.

  
  

This shift has 3 practical implications:

1) Learning cannot be commanded: it must be cultivated

You can go through rich situations (a meeting, a project, a crisis, a success, a failure) without learning anything, if you do not make the effort to become aware of it. Hence the importance of a frequently overlooked capability: reflective practice — stepping back to make sense of experience.

2) Training is only one case of learning

Classroom training becomes one support among others — and sometimes one of the least powerful if it is not connected to real work and the collective. The most structuring learnings often emerge in action: observation, imitation, trial and error, informal exchanges, and peer-to-peer transmission.

3) Learning is multi-level: individual, collective, organisation

Learning concerns:

• the individual (I develop my dispositions, self-train, question, unlearn);

• the collective (I co-learn, share, transmit, benefit from others);

• the organisation (it captures, redistributes, improves its processes, and learns “as a living entity”).

3) How it works: the mechanisms of learning in real life

Learning can be seen as a three-step dynamic:dispositions → situations → loops.

1. Dispositions: the mindset (the fuel)

Without favourable dispositions (curiosity, trust, the right to make mistakes, autonomy…), even the best training systems remain sterile. In practice, the right to make mistakes, positive feedback, mutual help, and autonomy clearly affect the ability to test, learn, and progress.

Example: a site manager explains that they encourage people to “do things differently” as long as quality and safety are respected: an explicit authorisation to learn through action.

2. Situations: learning “in real life”

We learn all the time, often informally and sometimes unconsciously — provided we create opportunities to recognise and share it. This is structured by the logic of learning situations, where the informal (exchanges, mutual support, serendipity) plays a central role.

Example: learning “at the coffee machine” is not a cliché: it is a place where micro-exchanges of experience crystallise — often more effective than a formal module because they are situated, useful, and tied to a moment of availability.

3. A systemic approach: learning through overall coherence

At organisational level, learning only lasts when it is designed as a system: a set of interacting elements (strategy, management, processes, tools, spaces, culture, skills, governance) whose coherence enables — or prevents — learning.

In other words, you do not create a learning organisation by adding one isolated system (an LMS, a corporate university, a mentoring programme). You build it by aligning the conditions that make learning possible and desirable.

Concretely, a systemic approach looks at feedback loops: what reinforces learning (feedback, the right to make mistakes, cooperation, recognition) and what blocks it (silos, overload, contradictory demands, lack of reflective time).

It also considers second-order effects: overly tight control can reduce initiative, experimentation, and therefore learning; conversely, autonomy without a framework can create dispersion and demotivation.

The goal is to design an environment in which learning practices reinforce and sustain each other, rather than depending on individual effort alone. The learning environment is key and must be designed according to issues at every level: individuals, teams, and the organisation.

Loops: capturing, adjusting, transforming

A learning organisation stands out when it can turn experience into shareable knowledge, and then reinject that knowledge into action. This is the logic of learning loops: feedback, knowledge capture, continuous improvement — where knowledge is renewed, circulated, and comes back enriched.

We can distinguish:

• single-loop learning: correcting an immediate problem (adjust a parameter, fix a malfunction);

• double-loop learning: questioning the rules of the game (processes, policies, structural choices) to avoid repetition and build robustness.
  

4) Three “signature” practices to bring learning to life tomorrow

1) “Learning time”: ritualising reflection

After a meeting, a visit, a training session, mentoring, a decision: what do we take away? What do we change? This ritual formalises learning and makes it transferable.

👉 Very simple version (5 minutes):

• Key facts

• What I learned

• What I will do differently

• What I will share with the group.
  

2) Managers as learning facilitators

The manager’s role becomes central: creating a framework of trust, making the distinction between training and learning explicit, and giving examples of situational learning (customer feedback, cross-team meeting, success/failure).

👉 Example: in team meetings, systematically asking: “Could we do it differently?” opens a space for learning and innovation.

3) Transmission as a skill, not an obvious given

Fieldwork often shows a recurring discomfort: “I know how to do it, but I don’t know how to transmit it.” Hence the value of organising learning sessions that go all the way to operational mastery: understand, appropriate, do, repeat, learn from mistakes, improve, master.

👉 Key: run workshops on learning-to-learn / learning-to-transmit, so your experts become effective occasional trainers who can onboard the next generation. Pilot sessions help test new approaches to knowledge transmission.

Conclusion: two translations, two choices — and a deeply human promise

In French, learning can refer to training (formation) or to learning through lived experience (apprentissage).

This is not just a linguistic detail. It reveals two ways of thinking about development:

• one that focuses on delivering programmes,

• and one that focuses on enabling people and teams to learn continuously from real work.

It invites us to reject a passive stance towards change, and to become — individually and collectively — creators of our trajectories in a world where “standing still” has become the greatest risk.

It also integrates new AI tools that can reinforce learning and knowledge transmission: AI as a facilitator of collective learning.

We could summarise it in one sentence:learning is not what we deliver — it is what we enable, make explicit, share, and transform into action.

Interested in:

• joining wave 3 of our exploration of learning organisations and seeing where your organisation stands?

• discovering how to capture your knowledge and train your AI to transmit it?

• learning more about the systemic approach and how to map it within your company/organisation?

• building a learning pathway to “learn how to learn”?

• running an action-research project on intergenerational knowledge transmission?

• …any other collaboration aligned with your challenges is welcome! Contact: Severine Besson : first name (at) act4talents.fr #apprenance #learning #organisationapprenante #learningorganization #entrepriseapprenante #learningcompany

Selected bibliography (non-exhaustive)

· Argyris, C. (1995). Savoir pour agir : Surmonter les obstacles à l’apprentissage organisationnel. Dunod, Paris.

· Argyris, C., & Schön, D. (2001). Apprentissage organisationnel – Théorie, méthode, pratique. Collection Management, Paris.

· Besson, S. (2023). Mise en action de l’organisation apprenante. Des concepts foisonnants vers une démarche concrète orientée parties prenantes internes. Thèse, Université Paris Dauphine.

· Besson, S., Gabriagues, A., Garreau, L. (2024). Reimagining the Learning Organization: Unveiling the Untapped Potential of a Fundamentally Systemic Approach. Conférence AIMS.

· Besson, S. & Picq T. (2025). Ouvrage : Voyage en apprenance, Paris, Editeur Pearson.

· Carré, P. (2005). L’apprenance : un nouveau rapport au savoir. Dunod, Paris.

· Carré, P. (2020). Pourquoi et Comment les adultes apprennent. De la formation à l’apprenance. Dunod, Paris.

· Frimousse, S., & Peretti, J.-M. (2019). L’apprenance au service de la performance. EMS Editions, Paris.

· Frimousse, S., & Peretti, J.-M. (2020). « Apprenance : serial learner et rebel talent ». Revue Management & Innovation, n°1, p. 27-37.

· Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E. (1999). “Looking again at learning in the learning organization: a tool that can turn into a weapon!”. The Learning Organization, Vol. 6 No. 5, pp. 207-211.

· Örtenblad, A. (2013). Handbook of Research on the Learning Organization: Adaptation and Context. Edward Elgar Publishing.

· Örtenblad, A. (2019). The Oxford Handbook of the Learning Organization. Oxford University Press.

· Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J., & Boydell, T. (1997). The learning company: a strategy for sustainable development. McGrawHill Education.

· Pedler, M., & Burgoyne, J. (2017). “Is the learning organization still alive?”. The Learning Organization, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 119-126.