Why L&D should focus on learning impact, not ROI

“The learning course sounds great, but what's the ROI?” Hands up if this has been the response when pitching a new L&D initiative to stakeholders. Proving the ROI of a learning course is challenging. It's a question I encounter frequently. My advice? Start small, make mistakes, and keep learning. Here’s my five-step approach: 1. Pinpoint the initiatives you’re going to measure. Prioritize the initiatives that are high effort/high impact. Only once you master those, move on to the next step. 2. Identify clear and measurable goals. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, you can’t measure anything. 3. Conduct pre and post-training surveys. This will help you understand learners' expectations of the training and track learning and behavior change. 4. Strive for learner satisfaction. Use the Kirkpatrick model of training effectiveness, which includes Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results. 5. Communicate the results, regardless of whether they are positive or negative; every learning experience is valuable. What ROI tracking tips have worked for you? Share them in the comments.

☝🏼 The top reason your people aren’t finishing training? It’s not because they don’t care… it’s because your content is inefficient! I was talking with a customer recently who couldn’t figure out why their completion metrics were so low. Their content was great quality. 🔥 The problem? 🧐 It was clunky, long-form, and padded with filler. Employees didn’t have the time (or patience) to sit through 30 minutes just to extract 5 minutes of value. 🥱 We streamlined it into bitesize, accessible content. Suddenly, it wasn’t just training — it became usable reference material staff returned to again and again. 😎 Too many businesses waste hours delivering training without real learning. Audit your content. Make it concise. Respect your learners’ time — and your company’s. 📈 #LearningAndDevelopment #Efficiency #Training #LnD #Learning #BusinessMetrics

💡 Learning Skills vs. Practising Them — What Really Makes You the Best We live in a time where learning was much easier. There’s a course for everything, a YouTube tutorial for every topic, and a certificate waiting at the end of every module. But here’s what many forget — learning alone doesn’t make you great. Practising does. You can watch 10 marketing masterclasses, but unless you actually run a campaign, make mistakes, and fix them — you’ll never understand how real marketing feels. You can learn every design rule in the book, but your creativity only grows when you start designing every single day. Because the truth is simple: 👉 Learning gives you direction. 👉 Practice gives you transformation. It’s not about how much you know, but how much you apply. That’s what separates those who know from those who grow. So the next time you finish a course or complete a new skill, don’t just tick it off your list. Get your hands dirty. Try it. Fail at it. Learn again. That’s where real growth happens — and that’s what truly makes you the best. 💪 #Learning #Practice #GrowthMindset #KeepGrowing #Motivation #PersonalDevelopment

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗢𝗜 𝗗𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗮: 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚’𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙨 𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜... 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 ��𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙄𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜? That’s the heart of the ROI dilemma most L&D teams face. eLearning program is ready! The content is engaging; the platform is slick. But here’s the real challenge—how do you know if it’s actually working? Too often, we end up measuring the wrong things. Completion rates, smile sheets, or training hours look neat on a report, but they don’t tell us if learning is changing the business. The real success metric? 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. 👉 Are safety incidents going down? 👉 Are sales numbers climbing? 👉 Are customer support tickets dropping? That’s where ROI comes alive. The smarter approach is to 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁. Instead of beginning with the training, begin with the business goal. Work backward. Identify the key behaviours that will move the needle and design the learning experience to reinforce those behaviours. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about proving the value of learning—it’s about improving the performance of the business. Here’s a simple framework to keep things focused: 1. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹 – What problem are you trying to solve? 2. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 – What do you need people to do differently? 3. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 – How will you foster those behaviours? 4. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 – How will you track the change in behaviour and business outcomes? 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂: How do you measure training ROI in your organization? I’d love to hear your perspective.

“Training’s just a cost centre though, right?” Mmm… not quite. When budgets are tight (and let’s be honest, when aren’t they?), it’s easy for learning to slip into the ‘nice to have’ pile. But here’s the thing: Bad training has a cost too. One example that stuck with me: A hospital had developed an online life-saving training programme… that no one finished. Not because it wasn’t relevant, but because the design was so poor. Broken links. No progress bar. Confusing layout. The kind of experience that makes you throw your hands up and walk away. One smart internal champion put it perfectly: “If every highly paid medical professional saves five minutes, that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars saved each year. More importantly, the critical message is finally getting through.” That’s the real ROI. Good learning design isn’t about making things pretty. It’s about saving time, reducing risk, and actually making learning stick. We’ve just published a new blog with two real-world examples: one in healthcare, one in corporate, where better design delivered measurable results. Because training shouldn’t just tick a box. It should build confidence, improve clarity, and connect people to what really matters. 📖 Have a read here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gXRABPkE #LearningAndDevelopment #LND #InstructionalDesign #TrainingThatWorks #HumanCentredDesign #ROI #CorporateTraining #eLearningDesign #ComplianceTraining #PukekoLearning

Did you know only 8% of L&D teams measure ROI, and out of those just 8% of execs say they see any business impact. It’s a shocking stat and one that says a lot about where the industry’s focus has drifted. Too often, learning becomes a treadmill of content delivery rather than measurable change. Caleb, Lily Winslow, and Owen dig into why ROI in learning matters, what’s gone wrong, and how we can start reconnecting learning with genuine business impact. How do you prove the real value of learning in your organisation? 🚀 Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/er9tHmZ8 #obliteratingmindnumbingelearning

💬 “I think the content is too general. But we need it simplified.” We often hear both — sometimes in the same sentence. It sounds contradictory… but it isn’t. Because general vs. specific and simple vs. complex are not the same thing. 👉 “General” tells us how broad the topic is. 👉 “Simple” tells us how easy it is to understand. A session can be specialised but simple — focusing deeply on the business context, yet explained in a way that everyone gets it. It can also be general but complex — full of abstract frameworks no one can apply. 🎯 The goal isn’t to simplify by removing value. It’s to make specialized concepts accessible and usable. That’s where learning impact happens. 🧩 At E3, we call this Smart Simplification — translating expertise into clarity that drives real behavior change. 👉 What kind of learning content works best in your organization: broad and inspiring, or focused and practical?

💬 “The client said our content was too general - and too complicated.” My teammate stared at me and said, “How can something general be complicated?” That moment stuck with me. Because he’s right - it sounds impossible. But it happens all the time. General means it tries to cover everything. Complicated means it’s hard to follow. Put them together and you get content that feels distant - broad enough to miss everyone, heavy enough to exhaust everyone. Over the years, I’ve learned that great learning design isn’t about making things simple by cutting corners. It’s about making them clear and specific enough that learners see their world reflected in it. At E3, that’s what we call Smart Simplification - taking something complex, keeping the depth, but translating it into real language, real context, and real behavior change. Every time I design a session now, I ask myself: “Will this make sense to them the way they live and work - not the way I teach?” That’s the difference between content that gets polite nods and content that sticks. 👉 If your organization struggles with “too general but too complicated,” maybe it’s time to rethink how learning is designed. We’d love to show you what Smart Simplification looks like in action. #E3Consulting #LearningAndDevelopment #CorporateTraining #InstructionalDesign #TalentDevelopment #HRLeadership #LearningDesign #SmartSimplification #BehaviorChange #E3Learning #LeadershipDevelopment

𝗣𝗠𝗙 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 | 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻-𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗶𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 Product for Learning explores how PMF must be adapted for education products. Takeaway: EdTech PMF ≠ B2B PMF: • Track learning outcomes • Map user intent to persistence • Fit = value proven through improvement https://lnkd.in/ef3MQcnG

Maybe I am biased, but here’s what I believe a good training program should include if you’re going to spend your money on one… 1. Tactical training and tools to improve your efficiency so you can get your time back and have the time and energy to go through the program to fruition in the first place. 2. Tactical training and tools to immediately increase your ROI so that the program doesn’t remain a negative cost load for more than 30-60 days. 3. Tactical training and tools that improve your monthly cashflow by 10-100x the cost of that program within 12 months. This has to be so clean and proven that it has a money back guarantee on it if people actually follow through. If the program isn’t fool proof enough to put a guarantee on… then why buy it in the 1st place? 4. A logical conclusion… a training program shouldn’t last forever… a mastermind and community that continues to innovate should be perpetual but a training program needs a logical jumping up or jumping off point. That’s why REV Pro and REV Inner Circle are a 1 year fee and then the price to stay drops by 80%… because the base program is complete… the investment has been made. From there it’s a “maintenance fee” to keep access to everything, keep access to the ongoing innovation and new stuff, and keep access to the community and mastermind. Don’t get me wrong… we aren’t perfect either… but whether it’s REV, or pretty much anything else I invest my time and money into… I loook for these benchmarks to help guide me on where it’s worth spending my money and where it isn’t.