When “Good Enough” Becomes the Standard, Something Breaks

Most learning professionals don’t burn out because they don’t care. They burn out because they care a lot and keep getting asked to bend, in small ways that add up over time.

Most days, the issue isn’t effort. It’s speed. There’s no time to stop and think, no time to test, no time to ask whether something is actually going to help. Success gets measured by numbers that are easy to pull, not by what actually changed. And work gets shipped because it met a requirement, even when you know it didn’t really meet the need.

That wears you down.

The exhaustion no one really names

The exhaustion a lot of instructional designers, eLearning developers, facilitators, and CLOs feel right now isn’t just about being busy. It comes from knowing what good learning looks like and rarely being allowed to build it.

You’re expected to move fast and show results, often with unclear goals and fewer resources. You’re told to “make it engaging,” but you’re not brought into real conversations about performance or priorities. When learning works, it’s invisible. When it doesn’t, it’s suddenly a problem.

Living in that space, between what you know would work and what you’re actually allowed to deliver, gets exhausting. Not because you’re out of ideas, but because you keep giving ground on things that matter to you.

How “good enough” becomes the norm

Most people didn’t get into this work to crank out content. They did it because they believe learning can make a difference. That belief starts to erode when training turns into order-taking and success gets reduced to completion rates.

Check-the-box training usually isn’t about bad intentions. It’s about pressure, tight timelines, too much work, and systems that reward speed more than results. Even when everyone understands why it’s happening, it still takes a toll.

Over time, the bar drops just enough that pushing for quality starts to feel risky. Asking good questions sounds like slowing things down, and wanting time to think gets labeled as difficult.

If your frustration comes from caring, you’re not the problem.

So what actually helps?

If this were about not knowing enough, the fix would be easy. But that’s not the issue.

What helps is being around other professionals who don’t want “good enough” to be the finish line, even though we all know there are days when that’s what gets shipped. People who understand the tradeoffs, the pressure, and the reality of the work, and still care about doing it well.

That’s what GamiCon48V is meant to be.

It’s a community of instructional designers, eLearning developers, facilitators, and learning leaders who don’t want to settle for training that just checks a box. People who want to build learning that actually sticks. Programs that learners talk about. Learning that changes how people think or act.

Not every project gets to be that. We all know it. But the desire is still there.

Most of us got into this work because we’ve seen what great learning can do. The kind that pulls you in. The kind you keep thinking about after it’s over. The kind that makes time disappear.

The Netflix binge is a good comparison. The show you plan to watch one episode of, then suddenly it’s midnight and you’re telling yourself, Just one more, even though you know you’ll regret it in the morning. Not because it’s flashy, but because it’s well made and you care about what happens next.

That’s the standard many of us are still aiming for in learning. Not constant spectacle, but careful design that respects the learner and earns their attention.

GamiCon48V isn’t about pretending every project can hit that bar. It’s about being in a space with people who still want to try. Who want to swap ideas, test thinking, and remind each other what’s possible when learning is treated as something worth designing well.

Sometimes “good enough” is what the system allows. But it shouldn’t be the only standard we ever talk about.

If you’re looking for a place where that desire isn’t brushed aside, where caring about quality doesn’t feel naïve, and where people are honest about the constraints and still push for better, that’s the kind of community GamiCon48V exists to support.