Why Time Ran Out on the Traditional LMS Enabling Business Performance

This article first appeared on Acorn Resources in August 2023.

Since their invention almost a century ago, the learning management system (LMS) has undergone substantial development. In the 2000s, the LMS industry as we know it experienced a lot of growth. Now, the learning technology market is flooded with LMSs, and its technical features have continued to advance.

How did the LMS perform?

Love or hate it, the LMS has outlived swing dancing, the hippie movement and Y2K panic. It did this by presenting a comprehensive solution to numerous training and learning challenges encountered in L&D.

• To counteract the absence of personalized learning programs, LMSs offered individualized learning plans tailored to the specific needs and preferences of each student.
• In answer to the lack of reporting and analytics for learning data, LMSs are able to monitor learner interactions, analyze statistics, generate reports, grade assessments, and issue certificates.
• To ensure that trainers and facilitators are equipped to deliver high-quality instruction, LMSs offer efficient training resources for educators.

Yesterday’s solutions are today’s problems

When you ask if the LMSs put in place have solved the problems organizations face, you get a resounding no. People crave paths to excellence but are sick of wasting time sifting through mountains of content just because someone said to.

These problems include:

• Negative perceptions of L&D by leaders
• Lack of organization and employee engagement
• Inability to show concrete benefits or prove ROI.

Enter the LXP

The LXP appeared in the early 2010s. It was steadily adopted, but didn’t reach the heights of the LMS. By 2017, the LXP’s market appeal had experienced 50% growth as reported by G2. In the 2020s, the LXP continued with a strong emphasis on integrating AI and machine learning technologies. It aimed to enhance learning experiences by tailoring content and interactions to individual preferences, fostering engagement.

LXPs focus on continuous learning by creating opportunities for learners to interact, share insights, and glean knowledge from peers in a relevant context. It also presents a demonstrable return on investment to stakeholders.

But there’s always a “but”. While the LXP does indeed offer a range of advantages for corporate learning advancement, they don’t directly resolve the prevailing negative perception of learning and development held by business leaders.

This is for a few reasons. Most notably is the perception gap between L&D goals and business leaders’ priorities. The first reason for this is a lack of learning infrastructure, which prevents learning from addressing business pain points. The second is inadequate evaluation and measurement of the impact and effectiveness of learning programs on business outcomes. And the third is complex organizational dynamics that contribute to disorganization and misalignment between L&D and other departments.

It’s fair to say that LXPs do not directly tackle the intricate web of challenges that underpin the perception of L&D by business leaders. Addressing this issues requires a holistic approach that encompasses not only improved learning experiences, but also a deeper alignment with organizational objectives and priorities.

The solution

Enter the performance learning management system. A performance learning management system (PLMS) allows organizations to address the topics of performance and learning in one platform. With a PLMS leaders can continually assess and improve learners based on their specific company and role-based capabilities.

A PLMS is used by organizations in six core ways:

1. Before learning, to discover, define, assess and map organizational and role-based capabilities
2. Manage learning, such as facilitating and managing all learning opportunities, including coaching, mentoring, in-person courses, and shareable learning interactions
3. Assess learning, by identifying and measuring role-based capabilities to ensure alignment between capabilities and organizational performance
4. Embedded performance management, to demonstrate where learning is applied in real world scenarios
5. Multi-stakeholder learning, which allows organizations to create targeted learning experiences for different groups within the same learner profile
6. Workflow automation, to automate the recommendation of learning, capability assignments, and administration of regular tasks such as onboarding.

Business leaders, HR, organizational development, and L&D have for decades sought a solution to truly link learning and performance. They’ve searched for a platform designed with this principle at its core, not some marketing spin from a traditional LMS or LXP. Now, that time has arrived in the form of a performance learning management system.