Why Your People Forget 90% of Training by Monday Morning

By Monday morning, most of last week’s training is gone. 

Studies show people forget 70% of new knowledge within 24 hours and up to 90% within a week. Which means the inspiring session on Friday becomes irrelevant noise by the time teams sit down to work. 

This isn’t just a learning issue. It’s a collaboration and performance issue. 

Image Source: LearnUpon

The Forgetting Curve at Work 

The forgetting curve shows how knowledge fades fast without reinforcement: 

• 50% lost within an hour 

• 70% gone within a day 

• 90% forgotten within a week 

For teams, that means they leave training aligned,  but within days, the shared language and methods vanish. They fall back into silos, old habits, and missed deadlines. 

 

Why It Happens 

Teams don’t forget because they’re unmotivated. They forget because training is built to be forgotten: 

• Passive delivery. Slides and lectures don’t change behaviour. 

• Information overload. Too much at once leaves nothing that sticks. 

• No context. If training doesn’t connect to real work, it gets discarded. 

• No reinforcement. Without follow-up, retention collapses. 

• Generic design. Programs ignore team dynamics and real challenges. 

The design is broken. Not the people. 

The Cost for Teams 

When training fades, teams don’t just lose knowledge: 

• Collaboration breaks. Without a shared foundation, silos reappear. 

• Performance slows. Execution drags when no one remembers the “how.” 

• Adoption fails. New systems and processes never embed. 

• Morale dips. People disengage when training feels like a waste of time. 

The forgetting curve doesn’t just erode memory.  It erodes momentum. 

What Makes Training Stick 

Teams retain knowledge when learning is designed to last: 

• Spaced repetition. Revisiting at intervals cements memory. 

• Microlearning. Small, sharp bursts fit daily rhythms. 

• Active recall. Pulling knowledge out, not just reviewing it. 

• Contextual practice. Applying learning immediately to live projects. 

• Shared reinforcement. Teams learning together, creating accountability and consistency. 

When retention is built in, collaboration strengthens and performance accelerates. 

So why do your people forget 90% of training by Monday morning? Because training wasn’t designed to survive Monday. 

The forgetting curve is real, but it doesn’t have to define your teams. When learning sticks, collaboration flows-and performance follows.