The Decentralized LMS and How It Drives Growth
You know that moment when you join a new company, and on day one, someone sends you a giant list of training modules to complete? And then someone else shares a folder called “Resources” that turns out to have 48 nested subfolders, all with vague names like “Final_v2_Marketing_Process_NEW”? And you think to yourself: I’ll never find anything in here when I actually need it. Most of us have been there.
The idea behind centralized learning systems is solid in theory: have one place where everyone goes to learn. But in practice, it often becomes a dumping ground for outdated SOPs, disconnected trainings, and content written by people who are pretty far removed from the actual work. The result is something that’s technically “comprehensive,” but not particularly useful.
And when it’s not useful, people tune out.
The Problem with Traditional LMS Systems
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: most LMS platforms are built for compliance, not performance. They check the box. They prove you watched the video. But they rarely help you get better at your job. Research backs this up. A recent report by the Brandon Hall Group found that only 38% of organizations believe their LMS meets their business needs. Even worse, less than half of employees say the learning they receive actually helps them do their job better (source).
Why the gap? Because static, top-down training doesn't reflect the pace or complexity of real work. And let’s be honest, learning that’s disconnected from the moment it’s needed almost never sticks. Real Learning Happens on the Job. The most valuable knowledge in any organization isn’t usually stored in a training module. It’s in the heads of the people doing the work. It's:
The workaround someone used to fix a data import issue last week.
The exact phrasing in a tricky client email that finally got approval.
The lesson learned after a failed rollout that no one wants to repeat.
That’s the gold. That’s the kind of learning that drives performance, avoids mistakes, and helps people ramp up faster.
But it’s rarely captured. Why? Because traditional learning systems aren’t built for it. There’s no clear way to log those micro-insights, and no structured way to share them across the team in context. Education teams do incredible work, but they can’t be everywhere at once. They’re often tasked with creating scalable training for every department, and they usually aren’t the ones figuring out how to navigate real-world problems under deadline pressure.
What Happens When You Decentralize Learning
Decentralizing doesn’t mean chaos. It means giving the people who are actually doing the work a voice in the learning process. When frontline employees can contribute what they know, learning becomes:
More timely
More relevant
More grounded in reality
This doesn’t replace formal training - it enhances it. Centralized resources are still important for consistent onboarding, core values, and compliance. But decentralized learning fills in the blanks with the how, why, and what to watch for. According to McKinsey & Company, companies that integrate learning into daily workflows are 30% more likely to be top performers in their industry (source). The key is not just what you teach, but when and how you deliver it.
Learning That Happens at the Moment of Need
Here’s what we’ve seen again and again: people retain information best when they learn it while doing the actual task. That’s why we built Tohdo the way we did.
Instead of overwhelming new hires with information they might need in three months, we give them tools that surface the right knowledge at the right moment. Every task or deliverable comes with its own context: linked trainings, notes from others who’ve done it, and relevant examples from past projects. When someone figures out something new, it doesn’t get buried in Slack or lost in someone’s memory. It gets captured and tied to the task so the next person benefits automatically.
This creates a living knowledge loop - one where insights don’t just flow down from a central source, but bubble up from the people actually doing the work.
The Business Case for In-Context Learning
Let’s look at the upside.
According to a report from Degreed, 55% of employees turn to their peers first when they need help at work - more than any LMS, manager, or formal training system (source). That’s a clear sign that people value learning from others who’ve done the work.
If you make it easier for your team to share what they know - in structured, searchable, repeatable ways - you reduce dependency on tribal knowledge and avoid repeating the same mistakes. You also reduce time to productivity. Studies show that effective onboarding can improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70% (source).
But to make onboarding effective, it has to feel personal. Relevant. Applicable.
Learning shouldn’t feel like homework. It should feel like support. When teams can access the right knowledge in the moment, whether it came from a teammate last week or a training team last quarter, they get better at their jobs, faster. They feel more confident. And they contribute more value.
Decentralizing learning isn’t about replacing your L&D strategy. It’s about making it richer, more dynamic, and more grounded in the reality of how people actually work.