It’s that time of year when we all reflect, reset, and make promises we’ll keep… at least for a week. But what if, this year, L&D actually committed to meaningful change for workplace learning? Not just new tools, but a complete mindset shift. Let’s stop measuring our success with vanity metrics and start making a real impact.
Here are my New Year’s resolutions for workplace learning—no fluff, just practical shifts L&D leaders and professionals need to make:
1. Stop measuring workplace learning with ‘clicks’ and ‘completions.’
Let’s be real—completions don’t equal learning. Clicking ‘Next’ through a course says nothing about skill growth or performance improvement. In 2025, it’s time to focus on what actually matters: behavior change, skill application, and business results. If your data stops at completion rates and smile sheets, you’re missing the bigger picture. Gather diverse data points to tell a success story, not a completion story.
When you dive below the surface, you get a much clearer look at how you are impacting the business.

Now, not all of these metrics are going to be available through your LMS. Some of these will require you to partner with stakeholders, managers, SMEs, and others to gather data that can help you form a baseline to judge the results against.
✅ Example:
What’s the difference between a story of completion and a story of success?
In the past, we might have told a story about success as, “We launched 10 courses with an 85% completion rate.”
But that doesn’t tell a stakeholder or the business anything about how you made a positive difference. If I’m the CEO, my follow up question is, “How did that translate to results in the business?” and you can’t answer that question with just completions.
So let’s start telling the story like this, ““Following the training, sales conversions increased by 12%, and first-call resolution rates improved by 15%.”
Now we’re showing the impact we’ve had on the business. We are helping to make the business generate more sales, thus creating more revenue; and we helped to make the work more efficient, thus reducing costs.
So when I say we want to tell a story of success and not completions, that’s the kind of story I’m talking about.
2. Treat learning initiatives as products, not programs.
A training program? Boring.
A product? Now we’re talking.
Products solve problems. They’re designed with care, iterated on, and provide value. So why not approach learning the same way? Build experiences that solve real problems, evolve with user feedback, and deliver measurable impact.
By treating training like a product, we can actually reduce the chances of failure.
There are a few principles of successful product design:
- Product design understands the user’s needs and challenges. We only build things that solve those.
- Products are designed with feedback in mind. Talk with your customers, look at the data, and understand them so you build the correct thing,
- Products are never static. They evolve with the user and with the times. How many learnings do you have that haven’t been updated in years? Products that don’t update cease to exist.
- Great products solve real problems. Tie your learning to business objectives to prove measurable ROI.
- The best products have high quality design and execution. Rapid development templates are great, but the best products are unique and high quality.
When we apply those principles to learning, we create experiences that drive better engagement, meaningful outcomes, and measurable business impact. It’s not just a mindset shift—it’s a way to build training that works.

✅ Example:
Consider employee onboarding. A traditional approach might roll out a generic, static program with videos, quizzes, and compliance tasks—quickly outdated and irrelevant to individual roles. But a product approach starts by understanding new hires’ pain points: confusion about tools, unclear role expectations, or feeling disconnected. It delivers a dynamic, role-specific experience, incorporating real-world practice, mentor interactions, and built-in feedback loops.
Updates are informed by user data—tracking time-to-productivity, retention, and satisfaction—ensuring the experience evolves with the business and its people. It’s onboarding that doesn’t just tick boxes but actively solves problems and drives impact.
3. Shift from content consumption to collaboration.
Enough with the content dumps. You can load your LMS with all the eLearning you want and give everyone a LinkedIn Learning subscription, but the problem generally isn’t a lack of content. It’s that people just aren’t interested in it.
People learn best when learner engagement is high—sharing ideas, reflecting, and doing. Let’s build spaces where learners contribute their insights, solve problems together, and leave not just informed but transformed by all the insights gathered from the community of learners.
✅ Example:
Take leadership training. Instead of dumping videos and quizzes into an LMS and calling it a day, imagine a space where leaders collaborate on solving real challenges. They tackle case studies together, share feedback strategies that worked (or didn’t) in their own teams, and refine their skills through group discussions and roleplays.
The learning isn’t just about consuming content—it’s about building connections, exchanging insights, and creating actionable solutions. The result? Leaders who leave empowered, not just informed, ready to apply what they’ve learned with confidence.
4. Focus on business problems, not training solutions.
Stop prescribing training as the automatic fix for every problem.
The question shouldn’t be, “What course can we build?” but rather, “What’s the business problem we’re trying to solve?”
This shift ensures that learning solutions are targeted and impactful. Sometimes, the best solution isn’t training at all—it could be improving workflows, providing better tools, or clarifying expectations.
Training should only be part of the solution when it directly contributes to solving the problem. Align your efforts with measurable business outcomes, ensuring your work delivers real value.
✅ Example:
If error rates in manufacturing are high, don’t immediately jump to creating a training module. Start by investigating the root cause. Are tools outdated? Are instructions unclear? Would shadowing senior operators or implementing process improvements reduce errors?
Imagine the impact L&D can have when we use our analytical skills to not just take orders, but become a strategic partner in the business, even when the solution may not be directly training related.
If training is necessary, create job aids, simulations, or on-the-job practice opportunities that allow employees to develop skills they can apply immediately. Focus on solutions that drive results, not just check the “training” box.
5. Stop delivering one-and-done learning in the workplace.
Learning doesn’t happen all at once. Change doesn’t happen all at once.
You don’t build muscle after one trip to the gym.
You don’t master a new language after one class.
And you don’t change behaviors after one workshop or eLearning.
So why is the majority of what we create one-and-done learning experiences and why do we expect them to create lasting change?
Sure, one-and-done learning has its place—quick compliance updates or simple how-to’s—but it’s overused to address complex challenges it was never designed to solve. Behavior change, leadership development, or culture shifts? Those require more depth and thought.
Real transformation happens through learning experiences that drive lasting change—ones that allow time to practice, reflect, and revisit key concepts in meaningful ways.
Instead of designing programs that check the box, think about creating learning ecosystems: multiple, interconnected touchpoints that integrate spaced repetition, real-world application, and moments to revisit and build on foundational concepts. This approach not only helps skills stick, but also builds learner confidence and engagement over time.
✅ Example:
A great example of this is a leadership program by Intrepid client, Grant Thornton. They developed a transformative one-year leadership program that combines collaborative learning, peer discussions, self-paced study, live coaching, feedback, practice, interactive role-plays, and more. Spaced across the year, this journey allowed participants to dive deep into topics, practice and get feedback and build it into their way of working, all while fostering skill-building, accountability, and meaningful engagement.

6. Use technology intentionally.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.
Your LMS won’t solve all your problems when it comes to workplace learning and development, and neither will a flashy new tool. The key isn’t having one platform to rule them all but creating a smart tech stack that serves your goals. Use the right tools for the right tasks—blended learning solutions, collaborative spaces, and data-driven insights—not just what’s trending.
When you try to use one system for everything, you end up with a solution that’s mediocre at best for most tasks and a complete mismatch for others. A single platform rarely excels across all areas because it’s designed to be a generalist, not a specialist. This approach can lead to:
- Gaps in functionality: Your LMS might handle basic course delivery but struggle with collaborative learning, adaptive content, or detailed analytics.
- User frustration: A “one-size-fits-all” system often complicates the user experience, with clunky interfaces or limited customization options.
- Missed opportunities: Specialized tools could enhance specific learning outcomes (like practice or coaching), but sticking to one system means you miss those possibilities.
- Wasted resources: Investing in a system that tries to do it all often costs more, both financially and in time spent trying to make it work for everything.
Instead, a smart tech stack ensures each tool serves a specific purpose, integrates seamlessly with others, and collectively aligns with your learning goals. For example, an LMS can handle course tracking, a platform like Intrepid can enable collaborative learning journeys, and a reinforcement tool like Axonify can boost retention.
No single tool can do it all—and that’s okay. The goal is to combine strengths, not force a jack-of-all-trades to fit every need.
✅ Example:
Use your LMS to handle things like course tracking, use a collaborative learning platform like Intrepid for team learning challenges, another tool for quick recall and reinforcement, and an analytics tool to track real behavior change.
7. Experiment with AI tools.
In early 2024, we could say AI was coming—now, it’s already here. If you’re not exploring how AI and learning can support personalized experiences, coaching, and feedback, you’re behind. Imagine AI-powered practice scenarios, dynamic coaching prompts, or tools that tailor content based on skill gaps. 2025 is the time to start using it to elevate what we do best: helping people grow.
✅ Example:
Use an AI-powered roleplay tool where sales reps practice pitches with a virtual customer that adjusts based on their responses. The tool could provide instant feedback on persuasion techniques, question use, and clarity. You can also use AI video assignments to validate applied skills in real-time to ensure job readiness.
Bonus for you reading this, we are building some AI tools for the Intrepid platform that will help our clients take learning to an entirely different level than what they or their learners have ever experienced before. Let us know if you’re interested in seeing it and talking about how it will fit in your work. It’s exciting stuff!
2025 with AI in L&D is going to be a rocket ship and you don’t want to get left behind.
8. Make learning at work more human.
Now we’ve moved from “Use AI” to “Make it more human”—how do those work together?
At its core, learning is about behavior, motivation, and connection. People don’t engage with content because it’s mandatory or because it’s there; they engage when they feel it’s relevant, relatable, and impactful. To truly make learning stick, we need to design experiences that meet learners where they are—emotionally, intellectually, and socially.
Learning isn’t just about transferring knowledge; it’s about fostering the desire to apply it. When you design with human psychology in mind, you account for:
- Intrinsic motivation: People are naturally curious. How can your learning tap into that? Use storytelling, challenges, or purpose-driven missions to spark engagement.
- Social influence: Humans are social creatures. Peer interactions, discussions, and collaborative tasks can create accountability and amplify the learner experience.
- Emotion: Emotional connections make learning memorable. A story that resonates is more likely to stick than a list of facts.
By understanding what drives human behavior and crafting experiences that focus on connection, emotion, and relevance, you turn learning from an obligation into an opportunity. Let’s stop treating learners like machines that consume content and start treating them like people who want to grow.
✅ Example:
Take compliance training, often dreaded and ignored by employees. Instead of delivering a dull checklist of policies, make it human. Start with a story about how ethical decisions have real-world consequences, highlighting both the challenges and the positive outcomes. Use interactive scenarios where learners face realistic dilemmas, discuss options with peers, and reflect on their own values.
AI can enhance the experience by adapting scenarios to the learner’s role, providing tailored feedback, and fostering deeper understanding. By connecting emotionally, encouraging social interaction, and making the content personally relevant, compliance training shifts from a chore to a meaningful, memorable experience.
9. Hold yourself accountable to outcomes.
This might be the hardest resolution of all, because it requires more than just effort—it requires transparency, discipline, and the courage to confront the truth.
For decades, L&D has leaned on easy-to-measure metrics like completions and satisfaction scores.
Why? Because they’re low-hanging fruit, and honestly, they make us look good. But here’s the problem: these metrics don’t tell us if we’re making a meaningful impact.
Accountability starts by asking the tough questions:
- Are we solving real business problems?
- Are employees applying what they’ve learned on the job?
- Are we improving business outcomes like productivity, efficiency, or retention?
Why accountability in L&D is so hard:
- Tying L&D to business metrics is complex: Many outcomes L&D influences, like performance or behavior change, are indirect and affected by other variables (e.g., leadership, processes, tools). It’s challenging to isolate the impact of training alone.
- Stakeholder buy-in is required: L&D doesn’t operate in a vacuum. To measure success effectively, you need access to data from other teams (sales, operations, HR) and their cooperation in defining measurable goals.
- The risk of revealing ineffectiveness: What if the data shows your program didn’t work? Many L&D teams avoid digging too deeply because they fear it might undermine their credibility. But without accountability, there’s no room to improve. And let’s be real, if all we’re showing is completion rates, how credible are we to begin with?
- It’s time-intensive: Measuring outcomes takes time, resources, and effort. You have to establish baselines, gather data, and evaluate results—things that often fall by the wayside in the rush to launch the next program.
How to get started with holding yourself accountable:
- Start small: You don’t need to measure everything at once. Pick one or two key programs and focus on tracking their outcomes deeply. For example, if you’re running sales training, track conversion rates, average deal size, or pipeline velocity for participants versus non-participants.
- Involve stakeholders from the beginning: Partner with business leaders to define what success looks like upfront. Ask: What are the problems we’re solving? What behaviors need to change? What KPIs will show we’ve been successful? When stakeholders see L&D as a partner in solving business challenges, they’re more likely to share data and support your measurement efforts.
- Make outcomes visible: Share progress and results regularly—not just at the end of the year. By creating a culture of visibility and transparency, you demonstrate the value of learning at work and create momentum for future initiatives.
- Embrace failure as part of growth: Not every program will achieve its goals, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s improvement. If a program doesn’t work, use the data to figure out why, adapt, and iterate. Being accountable doesn’t mean always succeeding; it means being willing to learn and do better.
Why it’s worth it:
When you hold yourself accountable to outcomes, you move from being a cost center to a strategic partner. You demonstrate that L&D isn’t just about “training” but about driving business success. Yes, it’s hard—but it’s also the key to earning trust, securing resources, and proving the true value of learning in the workplace.
Let’s stop measuring what’s easy and start measuring what matters. It’s time to make accountability the foundation of everything we do in L&D.
✅ Example:
Let’s look at customer service training. Instead of measuring success by how many employees completed the course or gave it a high satisfaction rating, tie it to real business outcomes. For example, track metrics like call resolution time, customer satisfaction scores, or the percentage of issues resolved on the first call.
If the data shows no improvement, dig deeper—were employees given enough practice with real-world scenarios? Did managers reinforce the training on the floor? Use these insights to refine the program. Measuring what matters helps you move beyond surface-level success and make a real, measurable impact on business goals.
10. Cut the fluff.
We’ve all seen it—those endless, bloated training courses that exist just to check a compliance box. Or those programs stuffed with extra modules and overly complicated content to make them seem more “comprehensive.”
Let’s stop.
More isn’t better—it’s overwhelming, disengaging, and wastes valuable time for both learners and your team.
Strip away the noise and focus on what truly moves the needle. If a learning experience isn’t essential, relevant, or impactful, it doesn’t belong. Period.
Why fluff happens:
- Fear of leaving something out: There’s often pressure to include everything in a course, just in case someone might need it.
- Compliance overkill: Organizations add excessive content to ensure all bases are covered, even if it makes the training dull and repetitive.
- Lack of focus on outcomes: Without clear objectives, courses often become catch-alls with no specific purpose or goal.
What cutting the fluff looks like:
- Essentialism: Focus only on what learners need to know, not what’s “nice to have.”
- Bite-sized learning: Break down content into smaller, digestible pieces that are easier to retain and apply.
- Alternative formats: Not everything needs to be a course—sometimes, a job aid, a quick video, or an email update is all you need.
✅ Example:
The most effective cybersecurity training I’ve ever had came down to two simple emails. The first was a short, clear primer on how to spot phishing threats and what to do when you see one. A few days later, a suspicious email landed in my inbox.
Using the tips from the primer, I clicked “Report phishing” and sent it to IT. The next day, I got an email from IT congratulating me. The phishing email was a test and I passed. No logging into an LMS, no over-complicated, 1-hour eLearning. Just emails that met me where I was and where the potential threats would be, with a real, but safe, test.
That simple, practical approach has stuck with me for years—not because it was flashy or complicated, but because it was relevant, actionable, and memorable.
Make workplace learning resolutions that stick: Achievable goals for real impact
Now, I completely understand it’s not possible to overhaul your whole L&D organization and apply all 10 of these at once (or is it?). Pick one or two that you feel would make the most impact for workplace learning and development and make those your resolutions this year. Speaking of resolution…
According to research, only around 9% of people successfully maintain their New Year’s resolutions, with most giving up within the first few weeks of January. But here’s the thing—none of these resolutions are unrealistic. Every single one is achievable with the right focus and a solid plan.
Here’s how to make it happen:
- Identify which goals you want to tackle.
- Set clear, achievable objectives tied to business goals.
- Break those goals into manageable steps.
- Measure success with meaningful metrics beyond completions.
- Share results and create accountability throughout the year.
This year, let’s commit to being bolder, braver, and better in L&D. No more fluff. Let’s create experiences that change behavior, drive results, and make a difference.

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Key takeaway: What are the Top 10 tips for successful workplace learning in 2025?
The top 10 tips for how to create more impactful workplace learning in 2025 include:
- Ditch Vanity Metrics – Focus on behavior change and business results, not completions.
- Think Like a Product Designer – Treat learning as an evolving product, not a static program.
- Prioritize Collaboration Over Content – Shift from passive content consumption to active engagement.
- Solve Business Problems, Not Just Deliver Training – Align learning with real business needs.
- Move Beyond One-and-Done Learning – Build continuous learning ecosystems with reinforcement.
- Use Technology Intentionally – Choose tools strategically to support goals, not just trends.
- Experiment with AI – Leverage AI for personalized learning, coaching, and feedback.
- Make Learning More Human – Design experiences that connect emotionally and motivate behavior change.
- Hold Yourself Accountable to Outcomes – Measure success by performance improvements, not participation rates.
- Cut the Fluff – Remove unnecessary content and focus on what truly drives impact.