We’ve all been there. “We need a course on…” or “Can you put together a workshop about…” And before you know it, you’re scoping out slides, activities, and maybe even booking rooms.

It’s the classic “training order-taking” scenario. The problem is, fulfilling training orders doesn’t always lead to better performance. Sometimes it just leads to more training.

The Limits of the Order-Taker Role

When we accept training requests at face value, we miss the bigger question: what’s the real problem we’re trying to solve?

Is performance lagging because people don’t know how to do something? Or is it because the process is broken, the tools are clunky, or expectations are unclear? In many cases, training isn’t the answer at all.

That’s the trap of being an order-taker. It turns us into a busy L&D function, but it doesn’t necessarily make us impactful.

The Shift: From Training to Performance

To increase impact, L&D needs to move from being an order-taker to becoming a performance enabler.

Sometimes, that means asking harder questions up front:

• What’s really getting in the way of performance?
• Is this a skills gap, a motivation gap, or an environmental issue?
• If training is part of the answer, what else needs to be in place for it to work?

It also means widening our toolkit. A course might sometimes be the right solution — but often it’s just one piece of a broader picture.

What Performance Enablement Looks Like

Performance enablement is about making it easier for people to succeed in their work. That might look like:

• A job aid that reduces reliance on memory.
• A checklist that ensures key steps aren’t missed.
• A guided conversation that helps managers coach effectively.
• A performance support tool that provides answers in the flow of work.

These may not look as impressive as a full-blown course, but their impact can be huge. They get used in the moment of need. They reduce errors. They increase confidence. And they show the business that L&D is directly connected to performance outcomes.

Why This Matters Now

People don’t always have time to attend courses, however well designed. They need solutions that fit into their flow of work, not outside it.

That’s why the order-taker mindset feels increasingly out of step. The future belongs to L&D teams who can enable performance: diagnosing real needs, designing for usability, and delivering support that works in the moment.

How This Shapes PerformaGo

This shift is also shaping the design of the AI-powered tool I’m currently working on, called PerformaGo. From the ground up, it’s being built around the principle of performance enablement.

Instead of just asking, “What training can we deliver?”, it encourages us to consider, “What support will make performance easier?”

The goal isn’t to replace courses. It’s to give those of us in L&D a way to extend learning into performance — so the business gets the impact it needs, and learners get the support they want.

A Closing Thought

The order-taker model has kept many in L&D busy for many decades. But if we want to stay relevant, we can’t just take orders. We need to enable performance, too.

That’s the shift PerformaGo is designed to support. If you would like to stay connected and receive regular updates about what we are doing, you can register your interest.

If you prefer a more personal, behind-the-scenes take on all this, check out The PerformaGo Diary.

Looking into the L&D world from the outside, it’s tempting to think that more is better. More slides, more content, more detail. After all, if learners have all the information, they’ll surely be more successful, won’t they?

But anyone who’s worked in L&D knows that is rarely true. It's information or content overwhelm that can discourage learners from implement learning successfully; too much information rather than not enough of it.

Typically, they don’t need more information, but they could surely benefit from more relevant and better-structured information. And that’s where a simple but immensely powerful design principle comes in. The principle of chunking with relevance.

My Early Introduction: Information Mapping

I was first introduced to the principle of chunking with relevance through a methodology called Information Mapping. It’s a structured way of presenting information that relies heavily on breaking content down into smaller, clearly defined units.

With good reason. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that we all (not just learners) process and understand information much more easily when it’s organised into meaningful, focused “chunks.”

Even outside of the framework of a formal methodology like Information Mapping, chunking with relevance is something all of us in L&D should be aiming to apply.

Fundamentally, chunking with relevance helps shift us from a mindset of, ‘what do I need to tell them’, to a more learner-focused approach that considers two things: ‘what do they need to know’ and ‘what will be manageable for them to process’.

 Why Chunking Works: The Cognitive View

The roots of chunking with relevance lie in cognitive psychology. We don’t have unlimited working memory. So, when information is presented in large, unstructured blocks, our brains struggle to process it.

Chunking with relevance reduces that cognitive load by grouping information into smaller, meaningful units. This makes it easier for learners to:

• Understand new material as it’s introduced.
• See the relationships between pieces of content.
• Retain and recall knowledge more successfully.

Chunking with relevance doesn’t guarantee perfect recall, but it does make initial comprehension much, much easier.

A Principle Shared with AI

Interestingly, chunking isn’t just good for us. It’s also vital for AI systems like GPTs.

For example, when you create a knowledge base for a custom GPT, dumping in a 100-page PDF won’t produce great results.

The GPT will work better when the information is broken down into smaller chunks. Each chunk gives the AI clearer context, helping it generate more accurate and relevant responses.

In other words: both humans and machines process information better when it’s structured thoughtfully. It’s a reminder that chunking is a universal design principle, not just a quirk of instructional theory.

 Why This Matters for L&D Now

Learners often face information overload at every turn — in their jobs, in their inboxes, and even in the learning materials we create. If we want our learning interventions to be effective, we can’t add to that overload.

Applying chunking with relevance is one of the simplest ways to reduce the cognitive burden. It helps learners see the signal in the noise. It makes content usable rather than intimidating. And crucially, it demonstrates the value that L&D brings: not by producing more information, but by structuring it in a way that is meaningful and relevant.

And if you’re curious to find out a bit more about the importance of chunking for AI, take a look at this week’s diary post 

Indulge me for a second and let’s try a little thought experiment.

Imagine your colleagues outside of L&D — managers, frontline staff, sales reps, new hires etc — each had their own always-available, always-supportive AI performance coach. No set-up time, no searching for materials, just instant, intelligent support in the moment they need it.

What would you want that coach to do for each of those colleagues?

• Offer reminders on key tasks?

• Help them prepare for or reflect on a difficult conversation or meeting?

• Serve up step-by-step guidance during their first few weeks in a new role?

This isn’t the stuff of fantasy anymore. AI is becoming sophisticated enough to do all of that — and more. But let's not get carried away.

Your answers to the 'learner need' question matter more than any tech solution. Because performance support is about learner need first and tech delivery second — not the other way around.

That's why the PerformaGo AI tool that we are developing, starts with performer needs, not content or clever tech. It help's you to think through: What do learners struggle with most, post-training? What’s hard for them to remember? What gets skipped when things get busy? What barriers exist in the workplace that might be holding them back or discouraging them from applying their new skills?

Then we make it super-easy for you to design lightweight, AI-powered assistants that:

• Provide authentic and accurate help, advice and reminders

• Reference the specific skill sets and content that an individual learner needs to complete a specific task 

• Prompt the learner to plan, complete or reflect, based on real-world application and challenges

This is about providing real-time learning and support that lives in the workplace — not inside the LMS.

So, what would you want an AI coach to help your learners do? 

Interested in finding out more about how PerformaGo could help your learners achieve more successful workplace application? Register your interest at pacificblue.ai -  help us shape the tool and get early access.

One of the things that we cover in the e-learning modules in our impact and instructional design training is the difference between user interface design (UID) and learner interface design. I first came across this distinction courtesy of all-round e-learning genius Michael Allen.

Without getting into the weeds, it’s the difference between what you might call the basic high-level global interface settings you provide to your learners – navigation being the most obvious and probably the best example.

As with all things UID, the aim is to make this as simple, consistent and intuitive as possible. However, Allen makes the point that within that global UID it’s likely you’ll have an entirely separate set of design principles that relate specifically to the task-focused practice activities that you are building into your e-learning.

The interesting point here, is that your learner interface design (LID) might not be consistent with your user interface design. In fact, in extreme cases, it might effectively ‘go against’ your UID.

In other words, for the purposes of making your practice activity authentic and a reflection of the real-world situation it is aiming to replicate, if that real-world activity is messy and complicated to complete, that may need to be reflected in the design of the activity. Meaning that from a learner perspective, it might not be simple, consistent and intuitive.

Diving into that in a bit more detail is probably a good topic for another day. Today I really do want to focus on simple, consistent and intuitive UID. Because endless unnecessary clicks can be a quiet killer of learner engagement.

Every extra click — the extra “Next” button, the redundant confirmation screen, the maze-like menu — acts as micro-barrier. It slows learners down, interrupts flow, and chips away at motivation. It may not seem like much, but multiplied across an entire course or module, the hidden cost is high: lost learners, missed outcomes, and frustrated managers.

E-Learning is a particularly problematic delivery medium in this respect; but the hidden cost of too many clicks or actions is not restricted to e-learning.

Performance support provided in a digital/electronic format is no different. If we want support tools to be genuinely used in the flow of work, they need to feel like they fit perfectly in that flow. That means eliminating friction at every step. Every second counts when someone is trying to solve a problem or apply a skill on the job.

The principle is simple: the easier the journey to the required solution, the more likely the learner is to stick with it — and the more likely performance will actually improve.

If you’ve been following my posts recently, you’ll know that I’m very focused on supporting performance in the flow of work just at the moment. So well-contextualised performance support tools built around well-defined and contextualised moments of need are very much top of mind at the moment.

That’s why, as I continue building performance support-focused tools like PerformaGo, one of my guiding principles is simplicity. Because every unnecessary click isn’t just wasted effort — it’s a lost opportunity for impact.

If you are interested in reading a little behind the scenes story of my obsession with UID, you can read the latest entry from my PerformaGo diary here.

I think there are many people in an L&D role who spend their days quietly tearing their hair out in frustration. They are what I call the order-takers. They came into the profession, like most of us do, because they like and care about people. They believe that learning can (and should) make a meaningful difference in someone’s professional life and career. Perhaps they experienced this in their own lives and wanted to help others achieve the same.

But somewhere along the way, something went horribly wrong. The job they thought they would be doing wasn’t the job they actually found themselves doing.

They became a harassed (and not very well-respected) internal supplier. Taking orders for courses and workshops others demanded from them. Courses and workshops that satisfy the demands of the order-giver but don’t do much to benefit the learners or the organisation they work in.

Perhaps this describes your situation right now. Or perhaps you’ve been there, done that and escaped to pastures new. Either way, being caught in a cycle of delivering training that doesn’t really solve problems and doesn’t really improve workplace performance is deeply frustrating and ultimately, very demotivating.

I’ve worked with scores of L&D teams over the years and witnessed people caught in the order-taking trap in a variety of sectors and industries. Almost everyone wants change. But how? How can we make the impact and build the influence that we keep saying we want, if just delivering excellent training is not enough.

The truth is, we need to get better at enabling performance. Which means getting much, much closer to our learners’ real moments of need. For example, when someone is:

• facing a new challenge on the job
• making a decision under pressure, or
• trying to apply a skill they should remember, but can’t quite recall

Those are the moments where performance can either bumble along as always or start to excel given the right support. Things like a timely nudge; a helpful prompt; a short, smart answer that moves someone forward, in the flow of work.

I learnt the importance of supporting those moments of need about 15 years ago, during a workshop run by Jim Kirkpatrick. And since then, I’ve spent years deeply frustrated by the fact that the concept is simple; but effective implementation of that concept is not.

However, that frustration is no more. Right now, I’ve finally found a way to do something I’ve wanted to do for years. A way to help L&D professionals design and deliver intelligent, contextual support for those very moments of learner need just described above.

This is not about trying to replace the learning experiences we already do well. It’s about adding a layer of performance-first thinking that gives our work more credibility, more relevance, and yes, more respect.

The future of L&D isn’t about smarter content. It’s about smarter integration with how workplace performance actually flows.

So, this is my new mission. And over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about the journey that’s got me here — and the tools we’re building to help others add that layer of performance-first thinking.

If any of this resonates and you’ve felt the same frustrations, then I hope you’ll come along with me.

And if you would like a more personal take on this new mission of mine? I’m keeping a ‘behind the scenes’ diary of this new journey. You can follow the story here. 

What I really want, what I’ve always wanted, is for L&D to actually make a difference.
To stop being side-lined. To stop doing good, hard work that goes unrecognised.

L&D professionals genuinely care about helping others grow. We want to have impact. We want to make a difference. But time and again, we share the same frustration:

“We’re doing all this work and the business still doesn’t recognise our effort.”

It’s a painful feeling. One I’ve heard expressed countless times across countless courses and workshops. But over the years, I’ve also had to face up to an uncomfortable truth:

That lack of respect feels unfair but sometimes, it might be the symptom of a deeper problem we haven’t fully acknowledged.

What do I mean by that? Well, people come to us with a ‘training’ need and ask us to create a course. If we see ourselves as the “training people” then, naturally, we want to oblige. So, we design workshops. Build e-learning. Roll out programmes. And then we wait for results - that rarely come.

And the reason those results rarely come? Because, I believe, we’re focusing too much on delivering learning solutions… rather than supporting workplace performance.

It’s not that training we are providing is bad. Far from it. But training alone doesn’t move the needle - especially when people forget most of what they’ve learnt before they get a chance to use it. What actually makes a difference is what happens after the training: in the messy, unpredictable reality of work. The part L&D rarely reaches. The part where support and follow-up could really make a difference.

Now, let’s be honest, the idea of supporting learner performance in the workplace is hardly a new idea. In fact, it’s been around for decades. And we are already very familiar with this kind of ‘just-in-time support’ when using apps and systems.

But the ways and means to make this kind of support simple, scalable, and genuinely useful in other areas of the workplace just hasn’t been there. Until now.

Because the arrival of AI, I believe, completely changes the performance support game.

Of course, AI is being widely used in L&D already. But most of that use is focused on content production. Quicker instructional design. Faster course creation. Automating aspects of e-learning production.

Useful? Absolutely. Transformational? Probably not. Because speeding up training design and production doesn’t fix the core problem. We don’t need more training, created more rapidly. We need smarter workplace support.

We need tools that help people in the flow of their real work, not just when they happen to have time for a course.

We need smarter ways to support problem solving, decision-making, and action-taking
right at the moment of need.

Over the last 12 months, I’ve become a bit obsessed with all this and with thinking about how we can turn this new technology into a practical, performance focused solution. One that L&D teams can deploy easily. One that’s practical, low-friction, and grounded in the work people are actually doing.

So, I’m working on a new approach. A new platform I’m calling PerformaGo that puts performance support at the heart of L&D.

If you’re ready to move beyond training delivery and start designing for real-world results,
join the waitlist and be the first to know more about PerformaGo and when it goes live.

P.S. Curious about the journey behind this shift in focus?
You can follow my personal diary, where I share the highs, lows, and learning curve of building an AI-first product from the ground up.

Read my diary here