Last week, we launched our brand-new newsletter for anyone who’s ever presented a completion rate and been met with two words: “So what?”
Each edition of So What? tackles one real challenge L&D is wrestling with, bringing together research, practical ideas and expert perspectives to answer the questions that don’t have a neat, off-the-shelf response. No vague calls to “be more strategic” – just the useful stuff in between.
In our first issue, we started with the challenge sitting underneath so much of what we hear from L&D teams: We can’t prove that learning is making a difference.
Enter The Activity Trap
Earlier this year at Kallidus, we put a name to something L&D has been wrestling with for years: The Activity Trap.
It’s what happens when learning activity becomes a proxy for learning impact. A course gets completed, so we assume learning happened. A workshop gets positive feedback, so we assume it was effective. A content library racks up thousands of views, so we assume we’re creating value.
Except the business hasn’t necessarily changed at all.
A completed course tells you someone sat through fire safety training. It doesn’t tell you whether incident rates went down. A workshop with great feedback scores doesn’t tell you whether managers are having better conversations six months later.
The trap isn’t that we’re measuring activity. The trap is believing activity is the outcome.
And apparently, we’ve struck a nerve. The Activity Trap has been having a bit of a moment this year. Let’s just say we’ve seen the phrase popping up in rather more places than we expected since we coined it. Flattery is one way of putting it.
But more importantly, it’s resonating. The problem is real, and the research backs it up.
3 things you need to know about The Activity Trap
Here are three things worth knowing.
1. We’re much better at measuring activity than impact
According our research report with Fosway into L&D measurement maturity, only 2% of L&D professionals consider themselves advanced at measuring the impact and value they deliver.
Compare that with the 51% who measure learning solution usage and 51% who use learning satisfaction surveys.
We’re clearly not short of measurement. We’re just measuring what’s easiest to count, rather than what the business most needs to know.
2. The business wants outcomes. L&D is still reporting activity.
In our research report with Fosway, 56% of organisations stated that upskilling and reskilling is a top priority, yet only 11% of L&D teams are consistently focused on skills growth.
That’s a pretty sizeable gap between what the business says it needs and what L&D is consistently measuring.
If the business wants capability, performance and growth, a dashboard full of completions isn’t going to get you there.
3. The answer isn’t more data. It’s better questions.
This might be the most important one.
Escaping The Activity Trap isn’t about throwing away completion rates or building an even bigger dashboard. It’s about starting somewhere different.
Instead of asking, “How many people completed the training?”, start with, “What are we trying to change?”
That’s the thinking behind the CORE framework: Context, Outcomes, Route and Evidence.
Understand the business problem. Define the outcome. Work out the route to achieving it. Then decide what evidence will prove you’ve made a difference.
The crucial bit? Evidence starts before the learning does.
So, what now?
This is what So What? is going to explore.
‘Outcome’ isn’t one thing. For most organisations we talk to, it shows up as risk reduced, people retained, productivity increased, or revenue protected or grown.
We’re not here to tell L&D to “be more strategic” and leave you to figure out what that actually means. We’re going to get into the messy, practical questions: how do you connect learning to business priorities? What should you measure when completion isn’t enough? How do you build credible evidence? And how do you prove value without turning every learning initiative into a six-month research project?
Because activity isn’t useless. It just needs to stop pretending it’s impact.
And if we’re going to ask senior leaders to take learning seriously, we need to get comfortable asking ourselves the question first.
So What?
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Claire Moloney
