We at the OASIS Group have a prediction: 2026 will be a year of learning—together. Of course every year presents us with opportunities to expand our skills and develop new pathways of understanding. But in conversations with our colleagues, clients, and friends, we have noticed that a shift seems to be emerging. People are craving more than information. They want to sit with each other and talk. They want to share space and time, coffee and pastries. They want to learn together—because connection, not just content, is increasingly what determines whether learning actually sticks.
I saw this shift firsthand last spring when I was invited to speak at a conference in Boston organized by a national association of independent schools. My workshop, “Belonging in the Workplace: Building Trust, Resilience, and Wellbeing,” was scheduled near the end of the schedule and late in the day. The teachers, administrators, and leaders who filed in to the breakout session were all very polite, but I could tell they were tired, too. They had been listening to experts and peers from all over New England talk about leadership strategies, community collaborations, facilities assessments, HR, operational efficiencies, and more for two days.
A thought flashed through my head: how was I going to breathe enough life into our hour together for it to be engaging? Useful? Memorable?
I am an over-preparer. I had been working on my workshop, off and on, for a few weeks. It cited a dozen different books and studies, including my own dissertation, and it included a number of nuanced anecdotes that had seemed very nimbly crafted when I put the slides together. I focused on two points of information, one anecdote, and one discussion question that could bring it all together. “We all know Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” I said when I got going. “I’m going to focus on two of them—belonging and love, and psychological safety.” I could see some people look up; others leaned a little forward in their seats. They looked ready to engage.
The anecdote—about an airplane crash in the UK in 1989—was edgy enough to land them: “Investigators after the crash concluded that if some initiative had been taken by one or more of the cabin crew, this accident could have been prevented,” I said. “So let’s discuss how we make our colleagues and students feel like they ‘belong’ enough so they always feel safe to share their opinions.” And we were off—not because I had delivered new information, but because we had created enough shared trust to think together in real time. We agreed, we disagreed, we debated—all of us learned a lot from each other over the next hour.
The thing that happens when we convene for the purpose of learning—whether it’s at a conference, a professional development seminar, or even at a team meeting—is fundamentally interactive and social. It can also be magical. This magic, however, is much easier to conjure when everyone is in the same room. Together.
Social Learning Theory, developed by Albert Bandura on which I based my dissertation, suggests that people learn new behaviors, attitudes, and information by observing others, rather than solely through direct experience. It explains that learning occurs through a social context, not in isolation.
The shift we are sensing is not necessarily “away” from online learning. The video-based platforms and MOOCs that took off in the early teens and then exploded during the pandemic remain tremendously valuable resources. The ability to create customized learning opportunities, deliver specialized content, and assess knowledge acquisition are critical contributions to education. But they can’t do everything. (And they’re rarely magical.)
In other words, the shift we’re sensing is additive, not subtractive. Organizations and institutions are noticing, and asking for help with, increased demand for learning experiences—opportunities during which students, staff, and employees can connect with each other while they take in new information.
2026 is an exciting time for learning, for community, and for togetherness.
Karl W. Reid, Ed.D. CDP
Founder, The OASIS Group
