Jamie1 sat at her desk, staring at the sleek dashboard of her company’s new Learning Management System (LMS). The vibrant charts and graphs reflected all the metrics she’d spent months pushing for, but they didn’t soothe the knot in her stomach. She’d championed this new LMS from day one—advocated for it in meetings, stood her ground during budget discussions, and convinced skeptical department heads of its value. Now, the reality of the decision loomed large. A lot of money and trust had gone into making this vision come alive, and Jamie knew that every glitch, every missed deadline, every employee who failed to complete their course would reflect on her.
It wasn’t just a new platform—it was the next chapter of her career.
Jamie’s company had always struggled with training. Employees were constantly overwhelmed by the outdated system. “Everyone complained about it, but at least it was familiar,” she recalled. She thought of the awkward silences during the all-hands meeting when she first announced the transition. There was a lot at stake, and not just for her. The company’s compliance and readiness to meet audit standards depended on this LMS being the right choice.
Jamie’s challenge now? Convince everyone – her bosses, her peers, and most importantly, her learners – that this LMS was worth it. And while there were already bumps in the road—downtime issues, a few skeptical employees – she knew she needed to act fast to prove the value of this investment.
The Pressure Cooker – Facing Resistance Post-Implementation
”Up to 70% of change management efforts fail due to inadequate follow-up support”
– McKinsey & Company
The initial excitement of implementation faded fast, replaced by a gnawing sense of doubt as the first week’s data rolled in. Jamie scrolled through the reports late at night in her kitchen. The numbers weren’t what she had hoped for. Login rates were dismally low, course completions even lower. Employees were openly expressing their frustrations—some found the interface confusing, others complained about downtime issues during the setup. Even the IT department had sarcastically dubbed the LMS “Jamie’s experiment.”
It felt like everything that went wrong was somehow her fault, a direct reflection of her decision. There was one particularly bad afternoon when a department head casually remarked, “This would’ve been easier if we’d just stuck with the old system, Jamie.” She could only muster a half-smile in response, but the sting of that comment lingered long after. Jamie couldn’t afford for people to lose faith in the system—more importantly, she couldn’t afford to lose faith in herself.
She knew that the clock was ticking. The longer it took to get everyone up to speed, the more the entire project felt like a costly mistake. Jamie’s mind raced with what this could mean for her future at the company. The initial approval for the LMS had come with significant sacrifices—other initiatives shelved, budgets readjusted. And now, there was pressure to deliver, not just from her peers but from the senior leadership that had bought into her vision. She had to make this work.
One night, over a glass of wine, Jamie shared her fears with her partner. “I feel like I pushed everyone into this, and now I have to prove it wasn’t just a dream,” she admitted. Her partner nodded, listening, and then said something that stuck with her: “You got them this far, Jamie. You believed in this for a reason. Maybe it’s not the tech—they just need to see it through your eyes.”
That was it. Jamie realized that the issue wasn’t just getting the LMS up and running—it was about showing her colleagues why it mattered. She had to make them believe in the same vision she had believed in all those months ago. The complaints weren’t just about the system; they were about change, uncertainty, and the natural discomfort that came with a new way of doing things.
The next morning, Jamie walked into the office with a renewed determination. She needed to take action. She needed to show, not tell, why this LMS was the future. The first thing she did was dive into the analytics. The data was painful, sure, but it also held answers. She looked at where people were dropping off, when they were logging in, and which departments had the lowest adoption rates. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a start.
Jamie also knew she needed allies. She reached out to a few team leads—people she trusted—to understand their hesitations and frustrations better. “I get it,” she told them, during an impromptu meeting in the break room. “This is a big shift. But let’s work together to make it easier for your teams.” She asked them what they needed to help get their departments on board and listened carefully to their concerns. One manager mentioned that the training felt too generic, not tailored enough to what their team actually needed day-to-day. Another talked about the technical difficulties some staff were experiencing.
That feedback fueled her next steps. Jamie coordinated with the IT team to tackle the technical issues head-on, ensuring smoother logins and troubleshooting glitches. She worked on refining the learning paths, making them more role-specific, so employees felt that the content was directly applicable to their work—not just another “corporate requirement” to check off the list.
She didn’t stop there. Jamie also decided it was time to make learning something people actually talked about, not just an obligation. She knew if the LMS was ever going to succeed, it couldn’t live in a vacuum. It had to be visible. At the next all-hands meeting, Jamie asked her boss if she could take a few minutes to highlight some of the early wins—like the one team that had already completed their onboarding module in record time. She also shared her own progress, taking a course and earning a certificate, to show she was in this with them.
Slowly, the tide started to shift. It wasn’t a sweeping transformation overnight, but it was something. People started logging in more. Completion rates began creeping up. She overheard someone in the hallway talking about a certificate they’d earned and how it had sparked a productive conversation with their manager. Jamie knew she wasn’t out of the woods yet, but these small wins were the foothold she needed to start climbing out of the uncertainty.
What had felt like a pressure cooker, ready to explode, was slowly becoming manageable. Jamie wasn’t just implementing an LMS—she was nurturing a culture shift, one conversation, one login, one success story at a time. She was turning what had felt like “Jamie’s experiment” into “our journey,” and that made all the difference.
The Power of Early Adopters
Jamie’s not wrong to be worried.
In fact, almost all (96%) businesses have faced challenges from poor digital adoption, and just one-third (37%) rate their employees’ adoption of software as “Excellent.”
Bloomberg Media
Jamie knew she couldn’t convince everyone overnight, but she also knew she didn’t have to. Instead of trying to tackle the entire company’s hesitations at once, she decided to focus on the believers—the people who were willing to take a chance on something new and give it an honest shot. In every group, there are those early adopters—the ones curious enough to dive in, even if the rest of the crowd is holding back. Jamie needed those people now more than ever. She needed champions.
The idea came to her during a coffee break with Allison, one of the team leads in Product Development. Allison had always been supportive of Jamie’s initiatives, but even she was struggling with her team’s hesitancy to adapt. “People are just set in their ways,” Allison sighed, stirring her coffee, “They need to see the value before they believe it. Right now, it just looks like another task.”
Jamie leaned in, a spark igniting in her mind. “What if we could show them the value through you?” she asked, almost rhetorically. Allison looked up, intrigued. “If we could make this work for your team, if you became our first success story, maybe others would see it’s worth their time too.”
It was a risk, putting so much focus on one department, but Jamie realized that building visible wins could have a ripple effect. So she got to work. Over the next few days, Jamie collaborated with Allison and her team, customizing their learning paths specifically for their role in product development. Together, they adjusted the training to include real-life examples from the product world, hands-on activities, and bite-sized videos that wouldn’t take too much time away from their projects.
It wasn’t perfect at first. There were still hiccups—like some frustration over getting used to a new interface—but Allison’s team started to see the effort Jamie was putting in. More importantly, they saw how the LMS could actually help them, rather than burden them.
When Allison spoke to the team, something clicked. The skepticism didn’t vanish entirely, but there was a shift in the room. People started asking questions. “So, how exactly did it help with the new product design?” one manager asked. “Did it really reduce time spent on onboarding?” Jamie watched as Allison confidently responded, “It did, actually. The customized learning modules saved us from repeating the same explanations over and over. And the team said they felt more confident after completing the assessments.”
After that, the ripple effect started to take shape. One team after another began to approach Jamie, curious about how they could adapt the LMS to suit their needs. It wasn’t perfect, and it was still a work in progress, but Jamie could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. She realized that instead of fighting resistance head-on, she needed to create advocates from within—people who could spread the word more credibly than any email or presentation she could deliver.
Jamie also knew it was essential to give credit where it was due. She publicly acknowledged Allison and her team for their willingness to embrace change, highlighting their results and celebrating their success. “It’s one thing for me to push a new system,” Jamie shared in a team-wide email, “but it’s another to see people use it and genuinely benefit from it. A huge shoutout to Allison and her team for leading the way and showing us what’s possible.”
The power of early adopters turned the tide. Allison’s success story became a template, and Jamie used it to approach other teams. Gradually, resistance started to soften, and Jamie saw more people logging in, participating, and completing courses. They were no longer doing it just because it was mandatory; they were doing it because they could see the value, because someone they trusted had shown them it was worth the effort.
Jamie realized this was the key—if she could turn even a few skeptics into believers, the rest would follow. And in that realization, the fear of failure that had gripped her so tightly since the launch finally began to loosen. The LMS wasn’t just her experiment anymore; it was becoming part of the company’s culture, one success story at a time.
Leveraging LMS Features to Drive Engagement
Stop being the bad guy with automated LMS reminders
One of Jamie’s biggest challenges after the LMS implementation was feeling like the perpetual “bad guy.” Every week, she found herself sending emails and reminders, nudging people to complete their mandatory training. Even her closest colleagues, the ones who had supported the transition initially, began to roll their eyes when she approached with another “friendly reminder.” Jamie hated that part of her role. She didn’t want to be the person everyone avoided in the hallway, the one who always had to chase, remind, and prod.
That’s when Jamie decided it was time to dig deeper into the features of the LMS and let the system itself take on some of the pressure. If the LMS could automatically keep people on track, then maybe she could step back from being the enforcer and become the guide she always envisioned herself as.
She started by setting up automated reminders within the LMS. The idea was simple: instead of Jamie sending emails manually, the system would automatically generate reminders whenever deadlines approached or when a learner fell behind. These reminders weren’t just generic notices—they were personalized, and Jamie took care to customize the tone. She didn’t want them to come across as nagging; instead, they were supportive, encouraging nudges, helping learners stay on track. “I was able to take a step back from being the enforcer, and the LMS started doing the heavy lifting for me,” Jamie recalled. It was a game-changer—not only for her sanity but also for the employees, who appreciated the structure without the personal pressure.
Embrace gamification to make it more fun
Jamie also leaned into the gamification features the LMS offered. She had read about the potential of gamified learning to boost engagement, but she didn’t fully understand just how effective it could be until she tried it. Leaderboards, badges, and certificates were the tools she used to make training something people could feel proud of rather than just a box to tick. The leaderboards created a sense of friendly competition between teams and individuals—something that worked especially well in a company full of high achievers.
She’d often walk past someone’s desk and catch a glimpse of the leaderboard open on their screen, employees checking to see if they’d moved up or if their team had outperformed another department. Jamie smiled when she remembered the first time she saw people actually joking about being at the top. “I had to keep my number one spot,” someone had said with a grin, and it was the kind of shift she’d been dreaming about.
The badges were a personal touch that gave learners a sense of accomplishment for every milestone they hit. Whether they completed a module, participated actively in discussions, or scored high on an assessment, there was a badge for it. Employees began displaying their badges on their internal profiles and even sharing them in Slack channels—something Jamie hadn’t anticipated. It wasn’t just about recognition; it was about making progress visible. And, with certificates available for course completions, employees had tangible proof of their learning achievements. It wasn’t long before Jamie saw certificates printed and hanging in cubicles. “I realized then that it wasn’t just about the training—it was about pride in learning,” she thought.
Ask for feedback – and take it seriously
Jamie knew recognition alone wasn’t enough. She wanted to understand what was working and where she still needed to make changes. That’s when she fully embraced the LMS’s feedback tools—like course ratings, comments, and a satisfaction survey after each course. These tools allowed learners to rate their experiences and provide comments, either publicly or anonymously. Jamie valued these insights because they helped her get a clearer sense of the pain points employees were facing. One learner commented, “The content is useful, but it’s too dense. Shorter videos would help.” Another shared, “The scenarios were helpful, but I wish we could discuss them more with our peers.” These comments were gold for Jamie. They allowed her to tweak the training content based on real feedback rather than her assumptions about what people needed.
She made changes—breaking down dense content into shorter, digestible modules and adding discussion prompts to encourage interaction. The satisfaction survey results soon began to show improvement. Where learners had once described the training as “tedious,” she started seeing words like “engaging” and “useful.” The changes were gradual, but they were happening.
With these features working in tandem, Jamie finally felt like she was moving away from the “bad guy” image. Instead, she was becoming someone who supported learning, not enforced it. She no longer had to manually track who was lagging behind—the LMS did that for her with precision and objectivity. People stopped seeing Jamie as a persistent reminder and began seeing her as a partner in their growth.
The combination of automated reminders, gamification features, and feedback integration helped transform the LMS from a top-down directive into a dynamic tool that was responsive to people’s needs and motivations. Jamie was no longer fighting resistance at every turn; she was helping to build momentum, and it felt like the difference between dragging everyone along versus leading a group that wanted to move forward together.
How to Use LMS Data Insights to Fine-Tune Engagement
After months of implementation, Jamie realized the real power of the LMS went beyond delivering courses and sending reminders. It was the data. The numbers hidden in the LMS weren’t just statistics—they told a story, one that could reveal the gaps and successes of her training programs. The challenge was to interpret this story and use it to make informed decisions that would enhance learning and, ultimately, convince the skeptics that the new LMS was the right choice.
Jamie started by examining course completion rates. She knew completion was a key metric; if employees weren’t finishing, they weren’t getting the value intended. And the data told her exactly where people were dropping off. In one compliance course, there was a sharp decline halfway through. Employees were starting the module but not finishing it. “I could see exactly when their interest dropped—somewhere between the second video and the assessment,” Jamie noted. She decided to revisit that section of the course, breaking down the dense 20-minute video into smaller, more manageable segments. She added knowledge checks between each video, not as graded assessments, but as interactive activities to maintain interest and help learners feel engaged. “It was like adding checkpoints along the way so people didn’t feel like they were on this endless road of content,” she recalled.
Jamie also noticed that in certain courses, learners were spending an unusually short amount of time on the content. For example, one module, which was meant to be a 45-minute course, had a significant number of completions recorded in under 15 minutes. This told Jamie that people were clicking through just to get it over with. “That’s when I knew it wasn’t just about offering the content but making sure it was compelling enough to warrant their time,” Jamie explained. She started incorporating scenario-based learning and interactive simulations, encouraging employees to apply what they were learning rather than just clicking through. The difference was noticeable almost immediately. As learners had to actively engage with the material to progress, Jamie saw the average time spent on each course increase, signaling that employees were now taking the content seriously.
Assessment scores were another valuable insight. Jamie discovered that certain questions consistently received low scores across the board. It wasn’t just one person struggling—there was a trend. Instead of assuming it was an employee comprehension issue, Jamie went back to the training content. She realized that the low scores were pointing to a gap in how the concept was being taught. “We were missing a piece in the explanation, and the data was shining a spotlight on it,” she thought. She consulted with subject matter experts and revised the training material to clarify those concepts. The result? Assessment scores improved, and the number of repeated attempts decreased. Employees were understanding the material better, not just memorizing answers to pass.
The LMS also provided insight into learner engagement levels through comments and ratings. Jamie closely followed the feedback that employees provided after taking a course. Some expressed frustrations, like, “The content is good, but I wish it was less text-heavy.” Others commented positively on aspects like, “I liked the examples used, they made it relevant to our day-to-day.” These comments helped Jamie refine the content further, taking what was working and building on it while addressing the areas where learners struggled.
With these insights, Jamie began holding monthly meetings with department leads to showcase the progress of the LMS adoption using real numbers. She no longer had to rely on vague claims about the benefits of the system—she had solid data to back her points. “Instead of just saying, ‘Look, people are doing their training,’ I could say, ‘Completion rates are up 30% this quarter, and here’s why,’” she remembered. The change in the room was palpable. The resistance she had once faced from management was replaced by nods of understanding, and even—dare she say it—a hint of approval. She was finally proving that the LMS was not just a new tool, but the right tool.
The data also helped her predict future needs. For instance, when Jamie noticed an uptick in questions about compliance requirements, she knew it was time to introduce a refresher course. Instead of waiting for issues to arise, she could be proactive—offering the right training at the right time.
The power of the LMS wasn’t just in its ability to deliver content but in its ability to tell her how that content was working. By leveraging these insights, Jamie wasn’t just managing training—she was driving improvement, building a culture of learning that was informed, responsive, and genuinely helpful. The early results she saw gave her something to take back to the skeptics. Now, when someone asked why they were investing so much time into the LMS, Jamie could respond confidently—with data and, more importantly, with stories of actual progress.
Conclusion: Turning Skepticism into Buy-In
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. Jamie had faced skepticism, technical hurdles, and more than a few moments of self-doubt. But through strategic use of the LMS features—automating tedious reminders, adding interactive elements, listening to real learner feedback, and using data to refine the training—she started to turn those doubters into believers. People were finally seeing the difference: higher completion rates, more engaged learning experiences, and a tangible impact on skills and compliance.
For anyone in Jamie’s position—trying to prove that a big investment in training was the right move—the journey may seem daunting. There will be critics, there will be stumbles, and there will be unexpected obstacles. But if there’s one thing Jamie learned, it’s that success lies in making training work for your people, not against them. It’s about harnessing the tools available to foster engagement, make learning meaningful, and create a culture where growth is ongoing, not an afterthought.
Worried about your own training and interested in upgrading or optimizing? Try an LMS now or talk with an training expert for free. With over 25 years of experience in eLearning, Knowledge Anywhere will transform your program and give you peace of mind that you can reach your L&D goals.
[1] Please note that “Jamie” is a stand-in name and is a persona that reflects the experiences and challenges faced by numerous Learning and Development professional we’ve engaged with at Knowledge Anywhere.
