Top 5 Trends Shaping Learning and Development 2023

Reports show that 90% of CEOs expect inflation to continue rising and 48% of CFOs expect supply chain volatility to continue into 2023. This outlook for the coming year indicates continued uncertainty and turbulence impacting the corporate environment in many ways. This outlook also underscores the conditions that perpetuate doubt, fear and uncertainty. HR leaders need to be prioritizing soft skills education in their L&D strategies if they are to have any chance at meaningfully shifting the tide within their organizations. Leaders who can create positive outcomes for their teams, even amidst uncertainty, are what’s needed now, more than ever.

At a macro-level, learning & development is now a business imperative. It is no longer an optional, nice-to-have that gets cut when budgets need to be trimmed. As the world of business continues its rapid evolution, creating a culture of continuous learning is an absolute must for business success to be realized.

Specifically, all of the top research and data for 2022 points to Human Leadership as the most important way forward for corporate leadership in 2023 and beyond. But turning managers and team leads into Human Leaders is no small task. The data also shows why human leaders are hard to find and what’s stopping average managers and team leads from becoming Human Leaders. Hint: doubt, fear and uncertainty.

We’ve studied the very latest research from top firms including Gartner, Gallup and McKinsey to drill down into the key trends that are driving the leading edge of learning and development right now. Some of these trends may be new to you. Others, you may already be familiar with. Either way, it’s critical to ensure that your L&D strategy is proactively evolving to incorporate not just the latest, but the most effective innovations. The state of leadership in the corporate world today is in dire need of positive transformation. Your role in leading learning and talent development is fundamental to bringing this much needed transformation into reality. These top five trends signal the way that leadership development policies and programs will need to work if they will have any shot at returning value for the company. In other words, if any of these are missing from your L&D strategy, your results and impact will not be optimal.