Our current training paradigm does an admirable job of transferring knowledge, but no matter how well we accomplish this transfer, knowledge retention works against us when what we really need is flawless performance at the point of work. In short, our training paradigm was never intended to support performers at the point of work. It never was, and it never will be. It’s time for a little disruption!

As valuable as courses are, there will always be times when performance support is more appropriate. But in order to have really effective just-in-time learning support, people need to be able find and use it quickly and effortlessly. Performance support needs to be available wherever you are and whenever you need it. More importantly, the performance-support tools of the future are hands free.

Chances are that your organization already has one or more learning management system in place. Chances are that you also have a learning content management system, enterprise resource planning, a human resource management system, knowledge management, and/or customer relationship management systems in place. Now you are looking at adding performance support to the mix. Technology can be an enabler and driver of efficiency, but it can also be complex, cumbersome, and confusing. But all systems have one primary intent: To increase the performance of employees.

Technological advances disrupt the status quo. We’ve seen this happen a number of times in the way we address learning and performance interventions. In the last few decades, the emergence of home computers brought us eLearning, and the proliferation of mobile and smartphones have brought us mLearning. Both of these technological advances have fundamentally changed how we look at learning and performance programs. Another technological advance is coming—one that will once again change some of our definitions and how we address performance issues: wearable technology.