The Convenience/Efficacy Paradox - A Challenge for Learning Leaders

With the need for upskilling and reskilling hitting unprecedented levels, the role of learning leaders has equally become more critical than ever. They are tasked with building strategies and selecting products/services that drive employee performance, develop teams, and contribute to organisational goals.

However, a trend I have highlighted for several years is becoming even more prevalent: many learning leaders are prioritising convenience over efficacy. While convenience offers immediate solutions, the long-term implications of neglecting efficacy can be detrimental to both learners and organisations.

Convenience dominates societal consumption in 2025; whether it’s buying food, listening to music, watching films or booking travel, it seems the quicker the better. In the business world, we know that time is a scarce resource, too. Learning leaders, therefore, face immense pressure to deliver quick solutions that align with shrinking timelines and tight budgets. Off-the-shelf learning platforms, ready-made content libraries, and AI-powered tools promise seamless integration, instant implementation, and user-friendly interfaces. These solutions cater to the demand for speed and scalability, allowing leaders to tick boxes on training compliance or digital transformation efforts.

Moreover, convenience is often aligned with vendor promises. Products that claim to solve multiple problems with minimal effort are attractive to leaders juggling competing priorities. It is easier to choose a plug-and-play system or adopt trending tools without delving deeply into their alignment with specific business needs. Convenience-driven decisions often give the illusion of progress while masking deeper issues in the organisation’s learning ecosystem.

While convenience might satisfy immediate demands, it rarely delivers meaningful, lasting impact. Efficacy requires thoughtful alignment between learning strategies and business objectives, deep understanding of learner needs, and ongoing evaluation of outcomes. Unfortunately, these elements are often sidelined in favour of quick wins.

For example, generic e-learning libraries may offer breadth but can lack the depth necessary to address specialised skills. Similarly, one-size-fits-all platforms may not accommodate the modern desire for personalisation or integrate effectively into a company’s unique workflows. These limitations result in disengaged learners, low knowledge retention, and a poor return on investment.

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Additionally, prioritising convenience can lead to missed opportunities for innovation. Effective learning strategies demand creativity, experimentation, and collaboration between learning leaders, stakeholders, and learners. By relying solely on pre-packaged solutions, organisations risk stagnation and fail to develop the bespoke solutions that drive competitive advantage.

So, what is driving the preference for convenience? There are four key factors:

Time and Resource Constraints: Many organisations do not provide learning leaders with the time, budget, or staffing needed to design and execute robust learning strategies. Convenience becomes a necessity rather than a choice.

Pressure to Demonstrate Quick Wins: Leaders are often evaluated based on immediate metrics such as completion rates or satisfaction scores, which do not necessarily correlate with efficacy.

Vendor Influence: The learning technology market is saturated with providers marketing their products as comprehensive solutions, creating a tendency to follow industry trends without rigorous evaluation.

Lack of Expertise or Data: Some learning leaders may lack access to data or the expertise to measure and prioritise efficacy, making it easier to lean on convenience-based decisions.

To address this trend, learning leaders must adopt a balanced approach that values efficacy while maintaining agility. Here’s a quick five-point-plan:

Define Clear Objectives: Learning strategies should begin with well-defined business goals. Leaders must understand the skills and behaviours that will drive performance and ensure that learning interventions are designed to address those needs.

Prioritise Evidence-Based Solutions: Decision-making should be grounded in data and research. Leaders should evaluate products and strategies based on their demonstrated impact rather than their marketing claims.

Engage Stakeholders and Learners: By collaborating with business leaders and learners, organisations can co-create solutions that are relevant, engaging, and effective.

Invest in Evaluation: Regularly assess learning outcomes using meaningful metrics that reflect real-world performance and business impact. Evaluation should not be an afterthought but an integral part of the strategy.

Challenge the Status Quo: Learning leaders must push back against the pressure to deliver quick fixes. They should advocate for approaches that align with long-term organisational goals, even if they require more time and effort upfront.

The growing reliance on convenience-driven decisions in corporate learning strategies is a symptom of larger systemic challenges, including resource constraints, misaligned priorities, and market pressure. While convenience offers short-term gains, it often comes at the expense of efficacy, leading to disengaged learners and suboptimal outcomes.

To build a learning culture that drives performance and supports business success, learning leaders must resist the temptation of convenience for its own sake. It is time to be prioritising efficacy, leveraging evidence-based practices, and driving collaboration, as then we can create strategies that not only meet immediate needs but also deliver sustainable impact.

Let’s not sacrifice what is meaningful for what is convenient.