Why your greatest learning resource isn’t your LMS – it’s your people
As organisations invest heavily in formal training and AI-powered learning, many overlook the richest source of knowledge they already have: each other.
Sarah Cooksedge, Key Account Manager, at Netex Learning, shares why your greatest learning resource isn’t your learning management system as part of Lead & Learn Week.
Think about the last time you learnt something genuinely useful at work.
Was it from a training course?
Or was it from the colleague who showed you a quicker way to solve a problem, explained why something kept going wrong, or shared an experience that no manual could capture?
Knowledge isn’t the problem – sharing it is
Ask most Learning and Development leaders where the greatest expertise in their organisation lives, and they will point to a course catalogue, a learning management system, or an onboarding programme. Ask the same question of a new employee, and they will point to the person sitting beside them.
That gap is not a coincidence. It reflects a structural assumption that has shaped workplace learning for decades: that knowledge flows from institution to individual, from top to bottom, from expert to learner. It is an assumption that is increasingly at odds with how organisations actually function, and how people actually grow.
The most valuable learning resource inside most organisations is not a content library. It is the collective expertise, hard-won experience and contextual intelligence of the people already working there. In our experience, for the majority organisations, they are doing almost nothing to surface it.
This is not a content problem. It is a distribution problem. The knowledge exists. The challenge is building the conditions, the culture and the infrastructure to let it grow.
Why peer learning still struggles
Most leaders recognise the value of employees learning from one another. Yet when it comes to putting peer learning into practice, confidence often gives way to caution. Concerns about accuracy, compliance, and consistency lead organisations to introduce layers of governance designed to reduce risk.
The problem is that too much control can have the opposite effect. Lengthy approval processes create friction, discourage people from contributing and slow the flow of valuable knowledge. Before long, a platform intended to encourage collaboration becomes another administrative hurdle.
The most successful organisations strike a balance. Rather than trying to eliminate every risk, they create clear guidelines, proportionate governance and a culture of trust that empowers people to share their expertise confidently. After all, the greatest risk isn't that employees share the wrong knowledge - it's that they stop sharing altogether.
AI can't replace lived experience
When peer learning proves difficult to implement, AI can seem like an easy alternative. It can quickly generate learning content and help build engagement, but it can't replace the contextual knowledge, practical judgement, and lived experience that colleagues share. Used well, AI should support peer learning - not substitute it.
What organisations are leaving on the table
The cost of inaction is rarely visible on a balance sheet, but it is real, and it compounds.
Consider what happens when a senior employee leaves without a mechanism for capturing what they know. The institutional knowledge they carry, the workarounds, the client relationships, the context that took years to develop all leave with them.
Even the best onboarding programme cannot replace it. A colleague who observed them working for two years might. Peer learning, done properly, is how organisations build memory that outlasts individuals.
In the modern workplace, with a distributed or remote workforce, peer-generated content is often the only learning that genuinely reflects the realities of the role. eLearning serves its purpose, but it is designed for a broad audience and rarely captures the specific challenges of a particular site, shift pattern, or customer base in the way that someone who does the job every day does.
What leaders can do differently
Creating a culture where knowledge is shared doesn't happen by chance. It requires leaders to move beyond simply encouraging collaboration and instead create the conditions that make it easy, worthwhile, and safe for people to contribute.
That starts with trust. Employees are far more likely to share their knowledge when they know their contributions are valued, rather than scrutinised. While governance remains important, overly complex approval processes can create friction that discourages participation before it even begins. Instead, leaders should aim for proportionate oversight that protects quality without becoming a barrier to sharing.
Technology also has a role to play, but as an enabler rather than a replacement. AI can help surface relevant knowledge and connect people with the expertise they need, but it is the experience, judgement and insights of colleagues that give learning its real value.
Finally, leaders should make expertise visible. Recognising those who share their knowledge, creating opportunities for peer learning and embedding collaboration into everyday work all help to build a culture where learning becomes continuous rather than confined to formal training programmes. In organisations where knowledge flows freely, learning is no longer an event - it's part of how work gets done.
Closing thoughts
As leaders, we often focus on formal learning programmes, training budgets and technology. Yet some of the most valuable learning happens in everyday conversations, collaborative problem-solving and shared experiences. When people feel trusted to contribute, organisations don't just build capability, they build resilience, innovation and stronger connections between teams.
The IoL’s Lead & Learn Week is a chance to reflect on how we learn at work and, more importantly, how leaders can create environments where learning becomes part of everyday practice rather than a standalone event.
