The Line Between a Nudge and a Push

In Learning & Development, we often talk about nudge, small, gentle ways to help people learn and grow.

A reminder message.

A quiz challenge.

A leader board to make things fun.

They sound harmless. Until they’re not.

During the pre-opening of a new property, we introduced a “Learning Leader board.”

The goal was simple, encourage teams to complete their training early.

Within a week, numbers looked great.

Within two, fatigue had set in.

One team member said quietly, “Sir, I skipped lunch twice just to stay on top.”

That’s when I realised, We hadn’t built motivation.

We’d built pressure.

A few months later, we ran a “Guest Service Smile Challenge.”

It began as a fun activity to celebrate warmth and positivity.

Soon, smiles turned mechanical.

People weren’t connecting, they were competing.

That’s the line every L&D leader must watch — the line between a nudge and a push.

A good nudge encourages effort.

A bad one enforces behaviour.

One builds trust. The other breeds fatigue.

Before launching any learning initiative now, I ask one simple question:

“Will this make people feel trusted, or tested?”

Because learning should never feel like control.

It should feel like choice.

And real growth only happens when people choose to learn, not when they’re pushed to.

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