You probably have already heard of the 70-20-10 rule: 70 percent of learning is informal, 20 percent is on-the-job or experiential, and only 10 percent is formal. Given this, the LMS is already at a disadvantage to keep track of the 90 percent of learning that happens outside of it.
It isn’t that an LMS is not a valid part of learning ecosystem, but it probably shouldn’t be relied on as the only solution. In fact, Brandon Hall Group’s Chief Strategy Officer Michael Rochelle talked about in a recent podcast that there are lots of tools and technology out there for developing and delivering content, but many of those are missing the important third dimension of managing content.
Without content management in place, LMSs are woefully unprepared to move at the speed of business. Authors are stuck using rapid authoring tools for single use courses, delivered to one medium. But we know that the modern learner wants to be able to access learning content in bite-size pieces, at the moment-of-need, wherever they are.
Learning content is the heart of your learning organization. And if you don’t have the right solution in place, it can’t be your strategic advantage. You need a scalable approach that enables your organization to easily author reusable content blocks. Many organizations relying on LMSs have stale, out-of-date or duplicate content. Why is this a problem? Well, with a price tag upwards of $15,000 to author a single hour of training, you can see why having duplicate and non-reusable content can become extraordinarily expensive for organizations.
Content management is the next critical step a learning organization looking to elevate their learning content must take. By utilizing a modern LCMS in conjunction with an LMS, learning organizations can start to create great content that provides greater value to their business.
The fact is, learning organizations need to reconfigure their content strategy to ensure they provide only great, engaging and effective content. Bad content is worse than no content at all because of the potential negative consequences it can have on the business. Employees with bad information, making the wrong choices on the job can wreak havoc.
Beyond that, it is dead weight on the learning organization to maintain a library of bad content. Archiving bad content and moving forward with a single source, bite size content strategy is the way to pave the road toward becoming a high performing learning organization. And since these organizations grow profit 3x faster[1], it is imperative to stop over-relying on the LMS and move forward with the tools and technology that will bring you into the age of the modern learner.
To read more on this subject, check out our whitepaper Great Organizations Start with Great Learning Content.
[1] Bersin by Deloitte. The High-Impact Organization Series: Maturity Model and Best Practices in the Leadership, Governance and Management of Corporate Learning, Deloitte Consulting LLP/ David Mallon, Janet Clarey, Mark Vickers, September, 2012
