You may have heard it from your high school math teacher: You can't use a calculator on the test. You think you'll have a calculator in your pocket at your job? If only my cell phone could fly back in time and have a chat about that!

In telecommunications, the term “last mile” is used to describe the challenge of connecting the final leg in a communications network, typically describing the distance between the last hub and a consumer’s home. The “last mile,” although the shortest leg, is often the hardest to put together. In the world of performance support, the “last meter,” the distance between a learner’s eyes and their computer, is an appropriate comparison. In theory, creating a great resource library should be the bulk of the work, but too often, overcoming the “last meter” ends up being the ultimate nemesis. The challenges are to get the learner to recognize the need for support resources, remember where to access them, and utilize them as necessary.

The majority of what people learn comes from practical experience on the job. However, they don’t learn everything they need just by doing their jobs. You have to be ready for exceptions when they arise. Learners need reinforcement of important topics to help avoid bad habits. They look for opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills beyond their current roles to further their careers. Unfortunately, with limited time and competing priorities, employees often are unable to make continuous, targeted learning part of their work.

Good courseware engages the user with multiple elements. From video to audio to the venerable drag-and-drop, you need to make sure your content is doing the job. But is your audience actually learning anything? More importantly, are they learning the lessons you need them to? And if they are, do you have the tools to prove that to your leadership?

Training alone cannot drive performance, only contribute to it; that’s the root of the problem. L&D already excels within long-held training paradigms to deliver effective knowledge transfer—it’s not wrong, it’s just not enough! The business needs workforce productivity, meaning consistent performance at Point-of-Work, where performance represents the productivity end of a learning-performance continuum. In the current training paradigm, Point-of-Work is out of scope. Traditional training needs assessments cannot inform “intentional design” frameworks like the Five Moments of Need or even 70:20:10, both of which enable convergence of learning with work. Point-of-Work and moments of need are also out of scope for existing LMS technology. Both the conversation and tactics must change, because stakeholders have a blind spot—they expect one thing, training, and it’s not enough.