In the right hands, learning objectives are great tools for clarifying thinking, breaking down learning into component parts, creating a logical order to learning, and demonstrating that a learning intervention is successful. Mostly, however, they have become cliches. With the industry's tendency to use them as pro forma media bites, they tend to add little value to either instructional design or the assessment of learning. In this regard, they then become barriers to the real purpose of facilitating learners' accomplishment of work. In this article, the author discusses some reasons for leaving behind the ineffectual use of learning objectives, the need for an alternative to learning objectives, and the characteristics of proposed alternatives. She has considered the commonalities shared by six researchers, which show a shared view of advancing proficiency, and has abstracted those levels to a new taxonomy of proficiency. This taxonomy provides a standardization of seven levels that can do the following: (1) Show measurable growth over time; (2) Integrate complex skills into a whole; and (3) Show change as improvements in handling variables while maintaining standards rather than mere completion. She concludes with suggestions on how to apply this taxonomy to complex work. (Contains 2 tables.)