Learning and development (L&D) has a problem: too much training and not enough performance. How many of you have seen a course launch that had no impact on the job? It’s an uncomfortable truth in our field. We measure success by the number of courses delivered, hours logged, or completion rates, but those numbers don’t tell us if people are actually doing their work better. The real measure of learning isn’t what happens in the classroom or the learning management system (LMS); it’s what happens in the workflow, in the cubicles, on the floor, or in the field. That means the answer isn’t more training, it’s smarter support in the workflow. And too often, that’s where the support is missing.
The Problem with Training-First Thinking
For decades, L&D has defaulted to training as the solution for nearly every performance gap. If employees struggle, the instinct is to add another course, another module, or another round of training sessions. But more training doesn’t guarantee better results. We all know it often adds to the problem. Learners are overloaded with content they can’t recall when it matters most. Organizations spend months building courses only to watch employees forget most of what they learned within weeks. Yep, research shows up to 70% is gone within a month. Meanwhile, business leaders see little change in productivity or performance, leading them to question the value of L&D. The disconnect is clear: training isn’t the same as performance.
The Mindset Shift—The 5 Moments of Need
Here’s the good news: we have a way to break out of the training trap. The 5 Moments of Learning Need, developed by Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson, gives us a framework to design support around the realities of work.
The 5 Moments are:
- New: Learning how to use a new customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
- More: Deepening knowledge of advanced functions.
- Apply: Using a checklist to onboard a client correctly.
- Solve: Troubleshooting a login issue on the spot.
- Change: Adapting to a new compliance regulation.
Most training programs focus almost exclusively on the first two: when people are learning something new or expanding their knowledge further. This is L&D’s wheelhouse, and we know how to do this.
But the real world is dominated by the other three: applying skills on the job, solving problems when things go wrong, and changing how we work when processes, tools, or expectations shift. We’ve been calling this “informal learning” and often treat it as someone else’s responsibility.
If our solutions stop at New and More, we abandon learners at the very moments they need us most. When we design for all five, especially Apply, Solve, and Change, we start closing the gap between learning and performance.
Of course, not every skill is equally critical. That raises an important question: when should we pull people out of the workflow for training, and when can we safely rely on performance support in the flow of work? This is where the Critical Impact of Failure (CIF) comes in.
When Mistakes Really Matter—The Critical Impact of Failure (CIF)
The Critical Impact of Failure framework helps us decide what really warrants formal training. CIF is about identifying risk. If someone makes a mistake, what is the potential consequence?
- Low CIF tasks (1-3): Mistakes have minor or recoverable consequences. These can safely be left in performance support, allowing people to learn while doing without major risk.
- Moderate CIF tasks (3-5): These live in the gray zone. You may choose targeted training or keep them in performance support, depending on the context.
- High CIF tasks (5-7): Errors carry serious or catastrophic consequences: safety hazards, financial losses, reputational damage. These require pulling people out of the workflow to practice in a safe environment where mistakes don’t harm the business.
Think about it this way: teaching a pilot to land a plane is a high-CIF task, and errors aren’t an option. Navigating a new HR software form? That’s low CIF, where performance support is enough.
The CIF scale reframes training as a scarce resource. Instead of spreading training thin across everything, we concentrate formal learning where it truly matters. Everything else still gets support in the workflow, either through trial and error on the job or (better) with a digital coach or other performance support tools.
The Tools That Make It Possible
If CIF tells us where to focus our formal learning attention, the Rapid Workflow Analysis (RWA) shows us how to design performance support that covers all five moments of need. By breaking work down into tasks, processes, and supporting knowledge, RWA creates the blueprint for building a digital coach.
The digital coach is a structured performance support system that provides two-click, ten-second access to exactly what someone needs (steps, job aids, reference guides, and more) embedded directly in the workflow. It covers the full range of tasks, from low CIF items that can be safely supported in the flow of work to high CIF tasks where mistakes carry serious consequences.
Because RWA starts with the workflow itself, it aligns learning solutions directly to business processes and results. This ensures that what L&D creates is tied to performance outcomes, not just learning inputs.
When paired with targeted training for those high-CIF tasks, the result is a powerful combination: learners get formal practice where failure isn’t safe, and ongoing support everywhere else. This approach frees us from having to cover it all in formal learning. It streamlines the curriculum, reduces time to proficiency, and ensures that people can perform successfully in the moments that matter most.
Bottom Line: Less Training, More Performance
At the start, I said L&D has a problem: too much training and not enough performance. The solution isn’t piling on more courses; it’s rethinking how we support our learners in the flow of work. By combining targeted training where failure isn’t safe with a digital coach everywhere else, we can finally measure success by performance, not completions.
So here’s the challenge: pick one workflow this month and put it to the test. Map the work, rate it with CIF, and build a small proof of concept. Show your stakeholders that training hours can shrink even as performance improves.
This is our moment to lead. To stop equating effort with impact. To move beyond courses and start owning results. It’s time for L&D to stop training more and start delivering better performance—that’s how we train less and achieve more.
_______________
Disclaimer: If you’d like to hear more from Christopher King, be sure to follow him on LinkedIn.
