The Activity Trap: Why learning metrics are undermining L&D’s credibility

Thursday 21st May | 2pm BST

Learning & Development is still largely judged by activity: completions, attendance, engagement, and course volumes. These metrics are familiar and easy to report, but increasingly disconnected from what business leaders actually care about.

This creates what we’ve named The Activity Trap: where L&D measures what’s easy to count rather than what’s meaningful to the organisation. The result is a growing credibility gap – when executives ask “what impact did this have?”, activity metrics can’t answer.

In this live episode of Kallidus’ Mind the Gap, host Harry Chapman-Walker is joined by special guest Lavinia Mehedintu, Founder of Offbeat, to unpack why this trap exists, and how organisations can start moving beyond it.

This session will cover:

• Why completion metrics feel safe, but fail to prove impact
• How The Activity Trap quietly erodes L&D’s influence at executive level
• Why “more reporting” is not the same as “better insight”
• What leaders are actually looking for when they ask for learning value
• How to shift from activity-based reporting to outcomes that matter to the business

The conversation will challenge the assumption that more learning activity equals more value, and explore why that logic is breaking down in modern organisations under pressure to improve performance, retain talent, and demonstrate clear ROI from every investment.

This isn’t a presentation – this is your chance to have your say. We’ll be shaping the conversation around your questions and challenges throughout the session. Have your say on what’s really holding L&D back, what’s changing in your organisation, and what “value” should actually look like in practice.