THE LMS IS NOT ENOUGH

The Learning Management System tracks completion.

It does not build capability.

And in the AI era…

That gap is becoming impossible to ignore.

Organizations are asking:

“Did they complete the training?”

The real question is:

“What can they actually do?”

According to World Economic Forum:

→ 77% of employers are investing in AI-driven learning
 → Yet 63% still cite skill gaps as their biggest barrier

That’s not a technology issue.

That’s a design issue.

We need to move from:

Learning Management → Learning Intelligence

Completion is not a capability.

Stay connected with 2 Doctors & A Twist – Just What the Doctor Ordered!

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
• Follow us on LinkedIn for clips, insights, and upcoming episodes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, welcome back to the show, guys. This is Two Doctors in a Twist. And as I stated to you before, Dr. Jamie um had to take a quarter break because of projects she's working on. And so we've been doing this special series on AI totally. So this is episode seven of 12. Now listen, I want you to pull up a chair, get you a nice beverage of choice, especially if you're in education, because I am going to say some things to you today that you may not like. So let's paint the picture here. So today I just finished with my midterm grades and turned those in. And looking at that, during the quarter, we had some new processes and stuff that were put in place. And it just opened my eyes even wider to other possibilities once that new process was put in place. And I came to the conclusion that as we prepare for a lot of the companies that are asking us questions about training and development and skills, all of that. I think I even posted a paper last week about this. And because this is I I didn't know. And I built this authority system, authority OS. I built this system, it has an API, and it actually helps you to gauge what happened. And I took that a step further and put it with education. I've done it with accounting and finance. I did it with just overall uh HR things, and then I decided to do it in education. And boy, oh boy, I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And a lot of you may hate AI. I'm telling you, I have learned how to utilize the tools that AI provides us with. So here goes. We're gonna talk about the learning management system. As you know, learning management systems, those of us who are in education, training and development, HR, whatever the case may be, when we're teaching people um new knowledge or expanding their knowledge. The LMS tracks completion, as we know. It does not build capability. Get it? It tracks completion, but it does not build capability. And as I was looking through this, I had to pour my favorite beverage this time because I was like, oh wow, this is gonna hit them hard. So LMS is not enough, and many HR offices have been telling us this all along. The learning management system, again, tracks completion, it does not build capability. And in the AI era, guys, that gap is becoming impossible to ignore. I tell you, organizations are asking, did they complete the training? The real question is, what can they actually do? And I asked this as a manager years ago. According to the World Economic Forum, 77% of employers are investing in AI era uh driven training. Yet 60 percent 63, 63 percent of those 77 still cite skills gaps as their biggest barrier. That's not a technology issue, guys. That is a design issue. We need to move from learning management to learning intelligence, and this is where my authority OS came in because it provides me with everything else I have been building with empowered ed, the um um holographic professor, all those things just started. The more you you mess and play with this thing, the better picture you get of what could possibly be. I declare it's like being in the kitchen cooking a gourmet meal out of nothing. And then all of a sudden you realize, my gosh, I got something that'll keep people coming back, saying, Marilyn, cook that again. Yeah, it's that real, guys. And so, if completion is not a capability, this is what we're going to talk about on today's episode. So, as we know it, the learning management system was built for a world that no longer exists, guys. It no longer exists. A world where learning was an event. It was an event. You took a course, you completed a module, you checked a box. Okay, that was an event, and the system tracked the event. Completion, but here's the problem: completion is does not represent capability. And in the AI era, that gap is becoming impossible to ignore. I remember I was part of a competition at uh the college I worked for, and it was bright idea, and I was talking about this new program that could do, I won the bright idea. I won't say what that was because that was with the school. But anyway, the president um of that particular area said to me, and the rest of the group that's in the room, it doesn't tell me what the skills are. How do I know someone has the skills you're saying that they have? Well, if you're listening to me, Mr. President, where you are, check this out. This is real talk. For years, organizations measured learning through attendance, completion rates, certificates, certification, compliance matrix. And for a while, that felt significant, but AI changes the equation because once information becomes abundant, the value of learning shifts. And so information has, would you agree, become abundant to us, right? The question is no longer, did they finish the training? The question is what can they actually do now? Because AI can sh can now generate information, summarize knowledge, answer questions instantly. So if learning is still centered around information transfer alone, we are designing systems for reality that no longer exists, guys. It no longer exists. So the proof, here you go. Let's ground this in what we're seeing. According to the World Economic Forum, again, 77% of employers are investing in AI-driven learning and upskilling. But at the same time, 63% still cite skills gap as their biggest barrier to transformation. Now, pause there for a moment. Pause for me. So organizations are investing more into learning than they ever have before, yet capability gaps continue to widen. That tells us something important. The issue is not access to learning, the issue is the design of the learning itself. And research from LinkedIn shows employers are significantly more likely to stay at organizations that invest in their growth. You get that? Employees are significantly, employees are more significantly likely to stay at organizations that invest in their growth. So this isn't simply a learning issue, it's a workforce issue. Would you agree? A retention issue, a competitiveness issue. I know we get funny around competitiveness, right? We are all competitive. We live in America. The shift from LMS, learning intelligence to learning intelligence is where we're going to go. And I'm not trying to sell you on anything. Everybody knows that listen to me, that I am about learning and offering learning to others, building knowledge and capability. But not only that, showing you how to implement that learning you have gleaned, learned or from into your life to improve your life. Okay. So this is where organizations must evolve into learning as an intelligence. We need to move from that learning management to learning intelligence. And so learning intelligence is my view of what authority OS can provide to individuals. So learning management acts, did they complete it? Did they attend? Did they pass the assessment? Learning intelligence asks, can they apply it? Has behavior changed? Can they perform under pressure? And are they adapting in real time? Those are very important questions. Again, learning management acts, did they complete it? Did they attend? Did they pass the assessment? As a matter of fact, did they attend? Did they complete it? And did they pass assessment? Is what uh education departments are grading schools on. But they're also grading schools on learning intelligence. Can they apply it? Has behavior changed? Can they perform under pressure? Are they adapting in real time? Guys, that's a fundamentally different model. And that is exactly what I define in my human-centered performance architecture framework as the learning intelligence engine, because capability is not accidental. If you want to know what I'm talking about with the human-centered performance authority framework, as it's a part of the authority OS system, it's part of the human governance system. You need to check out my book that's coming up come, I think it's May 27th. We've been waiting on the some of the materials to come back from the uh copyright office, but once we get those, we can release the book. Now, why are you doing this, Marilyn? Because capability is not accidental, it is design. What is what AI actually enables us to do? Let's talk about that. Why we're here, why we're here at a learning intelligence engine. Now, here's the opportunity, guys. AI actually gives us the ability to build learning systems we could never build before. Systems that are adaptive, personalized, continuous, embedded in work itself. Um, when I went out with Empowered Ed Pro and the Learning Archetype Assessments, Coach Mayer, I presented to several VCs, and they said, Oh, personalized learning, that's not a thing. That can't be. We've tried, we've all tried, and it doesn't happen. Adaptive, continuous, embedded in work itself. That's not possible, Marilyn. That is not possible. Well, I hate to tell you, VCs, this. Well, I really don't hate to tell you, I was right. I was right all along, and I can prove that I was right. Because AI can identify where someone struggles, adjust pathways in real time, personalized support, the tech capability gaps early. I have witnessed it, I've seen it, and I've used it myself. That's incredibly powerful, right? But most organizations are using AI to automate bad learning designs. You hear me? They're automating bad learning designs. They're building off what was already there. Maybe because in education, we're copycat people sometimes. In teaching, nobody wants to reinvent the wheel, so they find what's working and then they use it. We are not in that world anymore, educators. I hate to tell you, you now have to invent based on what you have available to you. So, yes, we are going to start looking at different types of people in the education world. So, we are now digitizing passive learning, compliance modules, and content delivery. Instead of redesigning capability development itself so that they get faster learning systems without stronger capabilities. That's what we're doing. Passive learning, compliance modules, content delivery. We're still doing the same thing. It's not working, it's not working, okay? Maybe for a few, but it's not really working. And that's what students have been trying to tell us all along. But we have not wanted to listen. I'm gonna pause for a moment and talk about how I even got to this point. We I started this doing COVID-19, and I started telling my friends, my teachers, my grand uh uh daughters, a teacher, I think that was involved in this process, or her parents, hey, we can continue this on. And they would say, Oh, Marilyn, we'll never do online. That's for no, no, no, go on. Uh, that's never gonna work. Yes, I am an online professor and I've learned a lot from that. But I've also been a student in a brick and mortar classroom several times, and I know that process as well. See, you gotta sit in a seat, as I talked about the three seats. You need to sit in those three seats before you can come up with conclusive decisions. And some people haven't sat in neither of the three seats, the executive, the researcher, or the professor. They've only sat in one seat, maybe, and that may be the executive or the professor or the researcher, but never all three. You're talking to someone who's set in all three tonight, or listening rather. Here's the real design failure, guys. This is not a technology problem, it's a system design problem. Because historically, learning has been treated as an HR function, a department responsibility, an event outside of work. You got that? An event, an event is outside of work. But in the AI era, come closer because I want you to pay attention and listen to this. Learning becomes operational infrastructure. Yes, operational infrastructure. It becomes continuous, strategic, and leadership owned. Yes. And if leaders do not own learning, their workforce will not evolve fast enough to survive the environment they are creating. True statement. I see it. I see it when somebody comes to me for coaching, executive coaching. I see it when I see students, I see it when uh some of my friends or clients, company clients call me and ask questions. I see it. Now, let's let's make this real. An organization launches a training initiative. Completion rates are excellent. People finish the modules, assessments look strong, leadership celebrates the rollout. Three months later, performance hasn't changed. It's the same thing they had before. Why? Why, why, why? Because the system measured completion, not capability. Now imagine a different environment if you want to for a moment, please. A system that tracks behavior shifts, decision quality, adaption, real-world application. That's not learning management, that's learning intelligence. Yes. And that difference changes everything. How do you know, Marilyn? I see it. When I changed the way my classroom worked and started adding in these learning architecture, learning archetype assessments, behavior assessments at the beginning and then midway, and then basing how I adapted to my students based on the response they had and based on using AI to help me through these scenarios, I found a huge difference. Whether that be a classroom at scale or a classroom at scale that I'm teaching outside of the normal brick and mortar, or teaching students how to utilize AI and get certifications in that, or teaching the CFO's office how to utilize it, or working with doctors and nurses at a hospital, or giving a lecture, or presenting at a conference where I'm writing a paper and having to research it to see how this is really going to do it. When you can get through this at scale, and people say, Well, what are you waiting on? Why don't you just launch? Why don't you just do this? Why are you not moving? I had to get the final ingredient to bake the cake with. When I say bake the cake, the cake is the dessert that's going with the gourmet meal that makes it complete with the gourmet. I had to have the white wine, the white cheese, the right appetizers, the right meal, the right beginning, ending, middle, and end before I could say, without a shadow of a doubt, this is it. And I'm telling you guys, this is it. Now the four shifts organizations must make are these four event-based continuous learning. Learning no longer is something employees attend occasionally, it must exist continuously inside of work. Number two, completion matrix. Now become capability matrix. Stop measuring what people finish and start measuring what they can do. All right. Centralized learning becomes embedded learning. Capability must be developed in the workflow, not outside of it. And four, learning and development used to be owned. Now leadership owns learning and development. This is critical. Learning strategy is not just an HR issue, it's a business strategy. Because your future organizational capability depends on how quickly your people can adapt. Right? That's what we have been saying. As I move through this, as I read RFPs for school districts, as I read RFPs for companies, as I've read RFPs for organizations and what they're going through, as I looked at the financial statements of businesses and what's happening, those I want to invest in or I don't invest in. I can see as I listen and read more commentary, look at their employees on LinkedIn to see what the heck they're doing, as well as look at them on Facebook and other things. I see a lot of noise. I don't see a lot of action. If you are proud of what you do, you don't you're not afraid to talk about it. You're not afraid to put it out there and show it in examples without saying, this is what I'm doing. Or this is what I did. You're talking about it and you're helping people. You're helping people to learn because when you help others learn, you're also learning. You're all that helps you, that completes the village, and it's a village type thing sometimes. When I look at this all together, I can really see that the learning management system is not failing because of technology change, because the technology changed itself. And we see a lot of things happening with the learning management system. A lot of people have jumped on to various learning management systems. I'm not saying that's wrong. We have to adjust those systems that we're using. We need the completion and we need the other things, but we also need to know that what they learn they can actually carry forward and have demonstrated that in carrying it forward. So learning management is not failing because technology changed, it's failing because the problem changed, guys. Our problem has changed and it's been changing for a while. As a manager, I remember having people come into my office, and this is why one of the reasons why I decided to take a stab at education when I probably should have continued on the other way. I would have made, I would have been able to take care of my family a little bit better if I had not gone to education full time and went the other way. But at the same time, I would not have been able to get what God has given me to help people in their learning journey, the next wave, because I too had challenges in that learning journal when you don't come from a family that has been exposed to the various things that certain learners have been exposed to and the way that learning was done. Before. So the technology didn't change it. It's failing because the problem changed. Organizations no longer need systems that simply track learning. Okay? That's why your grades and stuff don't matter anymore. It's it is good, but it doesn't, it's not, it doesn't get the highest level of attention that many people think that learning should receive. They need systems that produce capability. They need a system that told us what capabilities does this person have now. Because in the AI era, your competitive advantage is not what your people know, it's what they can actually do. Not what they know, but what they can actually do. Why do you think that people are saying, I don't care about what degree you have? What I care about is what you can do, what you have proven you can do, what are your skills? This is why, guys, we don't devalue education. We just saying that, or the companies are saying to us, educators, we need to know that these people are capable of doing what you're teaching. And we have told you that for years. Now, here comes AI that can do everything that you were doing as far as transferring of knowledge or providing that. They can do the same thing you were doing. They can tell us that somebody took something, put a stamp on it, yeah, they completed it, they went through this module. But what it can't do is tell us if they have the capability of doing it just by itself. That's where you come in. That's the importance of your role now and in the future until such things change. Because in the AI era, your competitive advantage is not what your people know. It's what your people can actually do. Before the next episode, ask yourself: are we measuring completion or capability? Is learning embedded into the work or separated from it? And are we designing development or simply delivering content? Because the answers to those questions determine whether your organization evolves or falls behind. Now, listen, there are some things, some positions that we do need this continuous way of learning. But even at that, we also need to see that people are capable. Yes, we also need to see if doctors are capable of doing what they say they learn. That's why they go to an internship program. We need musicians who know who can show they know what they're doing. Not that they can just make some music, but what does it mean? How do you get there? What's involved? What's the the process? We even train little kids in little league football, baseball, volleyball, cheerleading, things of that nature. We start them young. We start them in uh uh uh fifth grade, they go through middle school, they go through high school, and then those that choose to move on to college go there. But they know the process, they have proven they have capabilities. We teach them and they show they have capability. Why, oh, why, oh, why would we not do the same thing in education for college, high school, adults, and so on and so forth, any type of learning. So just sit with that for a moment, and I hope I didn't upset you because I'm real excited about this one. Yes, I am. The next episode, we move from learning to workforce to the workforce itself. Yes, we're gonna work on the workforce too. We're talking about everything in these 12 series because organizations keep talking about workforce transformation while failing to design the reality that's already arriving, and that's the gap. And I'm gonna share with you what that gap is, is where leadership will either emerge or collapse, and you want to pay attention to that one as well. So I'll see you on the next episode of Two Doctors and a Twist. I'm Dr. Marilyn Carroll, and thank you for joining me this evening.