Issuu

46 | SPECIAL REPORT:

Q U A R T E R LY | FA L L 2 0 2 6

THE COMPETENCIES THAT DEFINE SENIOR L&D LEADERSHIP

PROVING IMPACT, DRIVING RESULTS BUILD CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PATHWAYS | 22 Career Lattices That Drive Retention

BECOME A STRATEGIC UNIFIER | 34

L&D’s Opportunity to Connect the Organization

KEEP LEARNING MOVING | 42

Extend Training Impact With Knowledge Management

BUSINESS

PERSPECTIVES

MANAGING

WORLD-CLASS

TRAINING

FROM THE EDITOR

MICHELLE EGGLESTON SCHWARTZ, CPTM

TRAINING ISN’T THE FINISH LINE The conversation around training impact is evolving. For years, we’ve talked about training as if the end of the learning program were the finish line. Employees complete the course, pass the assessment and perhaps even rate the experience highly. Then we move on to the next program. But what happens next? I’m noticing more attention being paid to something that sits between training and those bigger business outcomes: What did people do with what they learned?

AS WORK CONTINUES TO CHANGE, ORGANIZATIONS NEED EMPLOYEES WHO CAN THINK CRITICALLY, SOLVE PROBLEMS, ADAPT TO NEW SITUATIONS AND APPLY THEIR EXPERTISE IN WAYS TECHNOLOGY CANNOT EASILY REPLICATE.

Training is an intervention. It gives people knowledge, develops skills and creates opportunities to practice. But its value doesn’t stop when someone clicks “complete.” The real test comes later, when an employee needs to make a decision, solve a problem or respond differently because of what they learned. That distinction is becoming even more important as artificial intelligence (AI) changes the nature of work. Organizations are investing more in AI training but knowing how to use an AI tool is only part of the equation. Employees also need to know when to question it.

situations and apply their expertise in ways technology cannot easily replicate. These capabilities develop through practice, feedback, reinforcement and opportunities to use new skills on the job. Learning and development (L&D) must build intentional learning experiences that allow employees to practice, apply and reinforce new skills over time, with support from managers and resources they can access when they need them. That idea runs throughout this issue of Training Industry Magazine. We’re looking at how learning leaders can create a comprehensive training strategy that improves performance and contributes to better business outcomes. You’ll find features on overcoming strategic fatigue in learning and development, the art of writing better training content and building learning strategies that support lateral career growth. We also have a special report on the Training Industry Senior Leader Competency Model, exploring the skills and capabilities senior learning leaders need to make an impact in the C-suite.

For instance, one measure of effective AI training is whether employees can recognize when AI gets something wrong. Are they catching the hallucinations, incorrect citations and made-up facts? Are they questioning the output instead of simply accepting it? The training may introduce the skill, but the behavior demonstrates whether the skill has taken hold.

Ultimately, training shouldn’t be judged only by what happens inside the learning experience. It should be judged by what happens because of it.

The same principle is true for training more broadly. As work continues to change, organizations need employees who can think critically, solve problems, adapt to new

Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, CPTM, is the editor in chief of Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of “The Business of Learning,” the Training Industry podcast. Email Michelle.

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As you look ahead to next year, consider where your team’s finish line is. Is it when employees complete training, or when they put that learning into practice and create meaningful change?

TA B L E O F

CO N T E N TS

VOLUME 19

ISSUE 4

FALL 2026

22 BUILD CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PATHWAYS

34 BECOME A STRATEGIC UNIFIER

L&D’S NEXT NEXT ROLE: ROLE: L&D’S

Strategic Uniﬁer

By Marie McIntyre

42 KEEP LEARNING MOVING

IN THIS ISSUE

FEATURES

WHY LEARNING STRATEGIES SHOULD BE BUILT FOR LATERAL CAREER GROWTH

By Trish Clarke and Marcy May

What happened when one company turned the traditional career ladder on its side.

STRATEGIC FATIGUE IN L&D: HOW OVER-INITIATING LEARNING UNDERMINES PERFORMANCE

GOOD TRAINING STARTS WITH GOOD WRITING

By Marie McIntyre

How L&D connects people, priorities and perspectives across the organization.

USING LEARNING STRATEGY TO ALIGN FRONTLINE TRAINING WITH BUSINESS IMPACT By Amanda Roseboom, MBA, MS

Training impact becomes clear when L&D asks the right questions up front.

By Jennifer Grigsby, MBA, CPTM

Recognize signs of burnout and restructure training so that learners can succeed.

L&D’S NEXT ROLE: STRATEGIC UNIFIER

HOW KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT EXTENDS LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM By Barisa Abdifatah

Training does not always lead to better performance. These knowledge management tools help.

By Synthia Clark

Four simple rules can make training content more relevant, memorable and meaningful.

SPECIAL REPORT

TRAINING INDUSTRY’S SENIOR L&D LEADER COMPETENCY MODEL By Alyssa Kaszycki and Amy DuVernet, Ph.D., CPTM

Key capabilities to strengthen before moving from functional L&D expertise to enterprise leadership.

THOUGHT LEADERS

3 9 11 13

FROM THE EDITOR By Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, CPTM

LEARNING LEADER SPOTLIGHT By Neha Trivedi, MA, CPTM

L&D CAREERS By Amy DuVernet, Ph.D., CPTM

SCIENCE OF LEARNING By Srini Pillay, M.D.

15 59 61 63

CAREER DEVELOPMENT By Julie Winkle Giulioni

CULTURE AND WELL-BEING By Dr. Kristal Walker, CPTM

BUILDING LEADERS By Marshall Goldsmith and Suzie Bishop

WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH? By JD Dillon

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IN THIS ISSUE

INFO EXCHANGE

17 20 53 56

UPSKILLING By Allison DeYoung

Make better use of people’s time.

HOW-TO

By Chris Fenning

5 post-training tips for better retention.

STRATEGIES By Paige Yousey, M.Ed.

Turn learner input into action.

PERSPECTIVES

CASEBOOK By Benji Wittman, MBA, CPTM

How Sweetwater is designing training operations that scale.

CLOSING DEALS By Sarah Gallo, CPTM OpenSesame expands its learning ecosystem through strategic partnerships.

COMPANY NEWS

Review the latest training news from the last quarter.

By Kristine Walter

What the LMS can — and cannot — achieve.

A Z B E E S A S B P E Aw a r d s o f E x c e l l e n c e

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ARTICLE REPRINTS

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PUBLISHER Training Industry Magazine is published quarterly by: Training Industry, Inc. 110 Horizon Drive, Suite 110 Raleigh, NC 27615-6520

SPOTLIGHT

NEHA TRIVEDI, CPTM

THE LEARNING LEADER SPOTLIGHT WITH NEHA TRIVEDI In this issue, we are pleased to spotlight Neha Trivedi, CPTM, director of talent development at Alight Solutions. At Alight, she oversees enterprise learning, leadership development programs, thought leadership with all business functions and ownership of the learning management system (LMS). Read on to learn about Neha’s career journey. Q: HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT? A: A workplace injury led me to training others while I recovered. Before I knew it, I was partnering with HR and delivering new hire onboarding while in my various roles in manufacturing, quality control and quality assurance. I became certified as a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) trainer, while also certifying for various skills in the aligned functions, including but not limited to coaching, several psychometric tools and Certified Professionals in Training Management (CPTM) through Training Industry. Q: WHAT’S YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TRAINING EXPERIENCE, GOOD OR BAD? A: I was tasked to get approximately 700 employees trained within three months of my first day of employment. I was not yet familiar with the company’s products or how they were manufactured, but the company was facing a regulatory audit. I researched the information, learned the product and processes, along with the aligned regulations, and I created the training from scratch. I partnered with a very resistant workforce who didn’t understand the need. This required me to build strong, trusting relationships with stakeholders and participants. Within three months, 97% of the 700 employees had completed the classroom training that I developed, designed and facilitated (and we passed the audit)!

Q: WHO WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR MOST VALUABLE ROLE MODEL? A: A contractor I worked with was tasked with designing learning for our manufacturing operations and I was assigned to help him understand our processes and current training approach. He took me under his wing and advised on how I could approach a career in L&D. He freely taught me whatever he knew. I went to graduate school to pursue my master’s degree in cultural anthropology because of his encouragement. Q: WHAT ARE THE MOST PRESSING ISSUES ON YOUR PROFESSIONAL PLATE RIGHT NOW? A: Lately, it’s ensuring that my team is using artificial intelligence (AI) to enable learning at our organization. We are also challenged with delivering training and programs against ever shrinking budgets and very small teams. L&D is typically kept very slim unless the organization is a true learning organization. Q: WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB? A: Building quality learning programs takes time and partnership with subjectmatter experts. It takes investment and an understanding that enterprise-wide platforms require intense management and scrutiny. Even agentic AI requires a human in the loop to ensure that the training and employee experience will meet the planned outcomes of the training deliverable. Q: WHAT’S THE MOST REWARDING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB? A: When I see an employee have a light bulb moment or when even one trainee says that the learning made an impact for them, that’s when I know that I’m meeting my purpose. I have always made an effort

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to create inclusive learning programs. Every employee should have access to quality learning. Q: WHAT’S YOUR PREFERRED TRAINING METHODOLOGY? A: I believe in ensuring that the learning matches the context and needs. Quality training outcomes, in my experience, are only achieved if the training method is fit for purpose. That means understanding the audience, the risks, the goals and objectives, but also ensuring that quality measures are in place to monitor outcomes and continuous improvements. Q: HOW DO YOU FIND THE TIME TO CONTINUE YOUR OWN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT? A: I take time to read industry articles, books and follow industry leaders. I also attend webinars, write articles and present at conferences to not only give back to the training community but also to keep honing my skills. Q: ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLKS OUT THERE: BOOKS, PARTNERS, RESOURCES, ETC.? A: Training Industry’s website is my go-to. I frequently leverage Training Magazine, eLearning Industry, Center for Creative Leadership, Chief Learning Officer and ATD for their learning resources. Q: IF SOMEONE WANTS TO FOLLOW IN MY PROFESSIONAL FOOTSTEPS, I’D TELL THEM TO BE SURE TO ... A: Most industries need L&D. Your strength will be to diversify. That’s what will make you more marketable, especially in current times when lay-offs abound. Continue upping your own skills and create your own value.

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L&D CAREERS

AMY DUVERNET, PH.D., CPTM

RETHINK WHAT CAREER PROGRESS LOOKS LIKE Proving impact and driving results for the business is central to this magazine issue. But how can we apply those concepts to our own careers?

of strategic alignment, financial management, executive influence and organizational change and building those capabilities requires experience using them to create impact.

When you think about career advancement, you’re probably looking for signs of progress such as a promotion, senior title or a step up in the organizational chart. But if your goal is to eventually lead learning at the highest level of your organization, you may be focusing on the wrong signals.

I was reminded of this in a recent webinar with learning executives Ann Stott and Kristal Walker. Ann shared how accepting roles outside of the traditional career progression, including moving to the vendor side, expanded her experience across functions, geographies, budgets and team leadership. And it was these experiences that she credits with preparing her to become a chief learning officer (CLO).

Instead, consider your career thorough the lens of impact: Is the work you’re doing today building your ability to influence bigger decisions, solve bigger business problems and contribute to bigger business results? As Training Industry’s Senior L&D Leader Competency Model, featured in this issue, illustrates, moving into senior leadership requires more than deeper L&D expertise. It requires broader responsibility for areas

AS YOU EVALUATE YOUR OWN CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AND GOALS, CONSIDER NOT ONLY WHETHER AN OPPORTUNITY REPRESENTS ADVANCEMENT, BUT ALSO WHETHER IT EXPANDS YOUR CAPACITY TO HAVE AN IMPACT.

LOOK FOR EXPERIENCE, NOT JUST ADVANCEMENT As you evaluate your own career opportunities and goals, consider not only whether an opportunity represents advancement, but also whether it expands your capacity to have an impact: • Business scope: Look for opportunities to work on challenges connected to broader organizational priorities, not just L&D priorities. That could mean taking on responsibility for a new business unit, working across functions or participating in initiatives where learning is only one part of the solution. • Financial responsibility: Senior leaders need to make and defend investment decisions. Opportunities to manage larger budgets, build business cases, prioritize resources or make tradeoffs help to build your ability to connect learning decisions to financial and business outcomes.

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• Influence: Consider whether a role will expand who you work with and the decisions you have an opportunity to shape. Greater exposure to executives, crossfunctional stakeholders and leaders outside of L&D can help you learn how the broader business operates while building your own visibility and credibility. • Organizational impact: Pay attention to the results that you’ll be held accountable for. Will you have opportunities to lead changes, to solve important business problems and/or to influence organizational strategy? The closer your work gets to business outcomes, the more opportunities you’ll have to demonstrate the value you can bring beyond the learning function. Many of the competencies required at the highest levels of L&D are difficult to develop through formal learning alone. You need opportunities to practice them and learn from that practice. So, as you think about your next career move, look beyond title and hierarchy. A promotion may expand your impact, but so might a stretch assignment, lateral move, cross-functional initiatives or less traditional role. Over time, pursuing opportunities using this standard can help you prepare for the bigger role and to have impact when you get there. Amy DuVernet, Ph.D., CPTM, is the vice president of learning products at Training Industry, Inc., where she oversees all processes related to Training Industry’s courses for training professionals, including program development and evaluation. Email Amy.

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SCIENCE OF LEARNING

SRINI PILLAY, M.D.

THE HUMAN ADVANTAGE AT THE INTERSECTION OF AI AND BRAIN SCIENCE In the rush to determine what should be delegated to artificial intelligence (AI) and what humans should own, a blind spot is emerging: changing the workflow does not automatically change the human being working within it. An AI-enabled workflow may be more efficient, yet the person operating within it can still be cognitively overloaded, overly dependent on AI or uncertain about when to trust their own judgment. At the same time, brain science is becoming increasingly relevant to business, and neuroscience-based approaches have become instrumental in building human skills. This creates an opportunity for learning and development (L&D): redesign the work while retraining the brain. CRITICAL THINKING AI can generate answers in seconds. What’s more valuable is the ability to judge them. Employees need to know when to accept an AI output, when to interrogate it and; what may be missin. Training must strengthen discernment, independent reasoning and awareness of cognitive offloading and automation bias. In my work, I use support tools that prompt people to examine assumptions, identify missing information, challenge conclusions and determine what requires human judgment. The objective is to embed critical thinking into the workflow rather than simply telling people to “think critically.” COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AI is shortening the useful life of established assumptions, skills and ways of working. Yet the brain naturally

develops mental models that make the world more predictable. People need to loosen their attachment to what previously worked without feeling their experience has become irrelevant. Brain-informed training can help people shift perspectives, tolerate uncertainty, experiment and become agile without losing confidence. This should be a learning journey. New ways of thinking require practice, application and reinforcement. RESILIENCE AI may accelerate work, but faster work does not necessarily make humans more resilient. Greater efficiency can simply generate expectations for more output, greater speed and continuous availability. Training should help people regulate stress, allocate attention, recover cognitive resources and disengage effectively. Brain science can help people develop useful evidence-based habits to reinforce this. CREATIVITY Generative AI can produce enormous numbers of ideas. But generating possibilities is not the same as recognizing an important one. Human creativity depends partly on moving between focused and unfocused thinking, allowing incubation, unexpected associations and insight to emerge. AI can also create cognitive fixation: once we see its suggestions, they can constrain subsequent thinking. People need opportunities to work with AI, step away from it, experiment with different modes of attention and experience how their own thinking changes.

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AGENCY As AI moves from tool to collaborator, what happens to human agency? Delegating a task can increase productivity. Delegating intention, judgment and responsibility is different. People still need to determine direction, question recommendations, evaluate results, anticipate consequences and take responsibility for decisions. HUMAN POSSIBILITY People are being asked to reconsider what makes them valuable, which aspects of their expertise will remain relevant and what uniquely human contribution they can make. These are questions of identity, purpose and possibility. People need not only the skills to work differently, but the psychological capacity to imagine themselves differently. THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY The human advantage cannot be built through information transfer alone. It requires a journey that combines knowledge, practical support tools, experiential learning, application, reflection and reinforcement within the flow of work. The next frontier of training impact will come from integrating AI-enabled workflow redesign with the science of how people think, decide, adapt, create. Dr. Srini Pillay is the CEO of NeuroBusiness Group. He is a Harvardtrained psychiatrist and neuroscientist, on the Consortium for Learning Innovation at McKinsey & Company and author of “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try.” Email Srini.

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CAREER DEVELOPMENT

JULIE WINKLE GIULIONI

MAKING CAREER DEVELOPMENT ALL FUN AND GAMES This spring was a busy speaking season, with lots of conferences and keynotes on one of my favorite leadership topics: career development. A challenge I heard time and again from leaders across industries was, “I’ve got the skills and the tools, but I’m struggling to make career development meaningful and doable given the ambiguity and complexity of the workplace … and today’s tense and uncertain workforce.” Career development has spent years getting heavier — more forms, more competency models, more nine-box grids. Somewhere in all that architecture, we lost the thing that actually moves people: a conversation good enough to make someone feel connected, capable and hopeful about the next step in their career.

FRAMEWORKS AND PROCESSES OFFER A NECESSARY STRUCTURE, BUT THEY DON’T INSPIRE EXCITEMENT AND ENTHUSIASM FOR GROWTH THE WAY FUN, DISCOVERY AND GAMES CAN. MANAGERS NEED A NEW APPROACH TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT What I found while speaking with line leaders and supervisors around the U.S. is an appetite for an approach to engaging their teams in meaningful but different ways around growth. It would be easy to frame this as a need to “lighten up.” But leaders aren’t looking for permission to take career development less seriously. They’re looking for something else.

The counterintuitive solution I presented was play. As group after group played their way to career development, they came to a powerful conclusion: Where process might fall short, play carries through. We can’t administrate our way into enthusiasm. Frameworks and processes offer a necessary structure, but they don’t tend to inspire excitement and enthusiasm for growth the way fun, discovery and games can. So, if you’re looking to lighten up career development in your organizations, here are a few “game frames” to consider TWO TRUTHS AND A STRETCH Try this variation on the old “Two Truths and a Lie” game. Invite people to introduce themselves with two true things about their career and one honest stretch — something they’re hoping for but haven’t yet made real — and the group guesses which is which. What emerges isn’t a plan. It’s understanding. Teams learn what their colleagues are reaching toward, which makes it easier to support each other later, in the moment it matters. And for the individual, saying a hope out loud in a lowstakes setting, before it’s a goal on a form, is a way to try it on and see how it feels. FORBIDDEN WORDS: THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT EDITION Words carry meaning. And sometimes that meaning gets stale and out of date. Even worse, it can begin to limit what’s possible. This is certainly true for the language we use for career development. Feedback. Engagement. Promotion. Depending upon the organization,

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these words can take people down narrow corridors of thinking. But not after a few rounds of a Taboo®style game. Imagine inviting teams to describe some of these workplace terms without using the normal language. For “feedback” for instance, the person couldn’t say things like “information,” “mistake,” “review,” etc. A few rounds of describe-it-without-the-obvious-words forces people to reach for language they don’t already have worn grooves for. FILL IT FORWARD Consider the multi-page career development worksheet — the one everyone means to finish and nobody does. What if we translated that to a 10-minute fill-in-the-blank template (think MadLibs® for careers)? My experience is that this approach gets more honest self-reflection out of people than the worksheet ever will, because low stakes lower defenses, and lowered defenses are where the real answer lives. Notice what’s happening across every one of these experiences: play isn’t a break from the real work of career development. It’s a faster, more honest route to the same destination. It works because it doesn’t feel like work. None of this requires overhauling your talent processes. It requires borrowing fifteen minutes and a game people already halfknow from childhood just slightly retooled to give it a development twist. The only question is: Are you game? Julie Winkle Giulioni is the author of the bestselling books, “Promotions Are SO Yesterday” and “Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go.” Email Julie.

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UPSKILLING

PUT YOUR TIME WHERE YOUR TALENT IS BY ALLISON DEYOUNG

What do employees want? What does your organization need? Why do people stay in a job? These are all questions that leaders ask themselves all the time. Research will tell you that people want autonomy in their roles and opportunities for growth and development in their organization. Your organizational leaders will tell you that the organization needs a well-trained, productive and engaged workforce. People will say that they stay in jobs where they feel valued, heard and their needs are met. There is one universal answer to all these questions: time. People

want time — with leadership, for self development, for building a connection with their manager and for job mastery. But time is also what no one has enough of. So how do we best meet the needs of the organization and its greatest asset, its talent? START WITH THE NEED, NOT THE PROGRAM Skills gaps, both technical and soft skills, happen at all levels. Learning and development (L&D) and various levels of management must collaborate to discover imperative organizational training needs. Manager and L&D partnerships bridge gaps and realign goals.

PEOPLE WANT TIME — WITH LEADERSHIP, FOR SELF DEVELOPMENT, FOR BUILDING A CONNECTION WITH THEIR MANAGER AND FOR JOB MASTERY.

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An effective way to keep communication open and quickly address skills gaps is to have a reoccurring monthly or quarterly meeting scheduled to bring L&D and department managers together. We had an instance in our organization where we identified a gap in the development of our non-management staff through exit interviews and feedback from managers who held consistent oneon-one conversations with their teams. To meet the employee need and the organizational need, we constructed a multi-year approach to leadership development, and while it was a huge investment, it changed our culture. That was not necessarily the original intent of the program, but the results from the time and effort far exceeded our expectations. SET EXPECTATIONS BEFORE THE PROGRAM BEGINS Several lessons emerged when we were setting up a leadership development program for non-managers: • Define how employees enter the program. Consider early what the application or nomination and selection process will look like for participants. We chose to have our applicants complete an application, participate in a formal interview and do a 3-minute presentation for the program administrators.

MATCH THE GROUP SIZE TO THE EXPERIENCE

PROGRAMS WHERE EMPLOYEES HAVE OPPORTUNITIES TO NETWORK OUTSIDE OF THEIR OWN WORKGROUPS ENCOURAGE THE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH THAT EMPLOYEES SEEK.

• Clarify what participation means for career advancement. Establish and post clear program details during the application process. You should determine ahead of time if employees must complete the program prior to being promoted to management. We chose to move our participants into an “alumni” status once they were promoted to a manager • Set expectations for participants and managers. Meet with the managers of the program participants. The more robust your leadership program, the more opportunities there are for misinformation. • Plan for changes in employee status. Determine early how disciplinary issues, promotions and other employment changes will affect program participation. MAKE MANAGERS PART OF THE PROGRAM Clear communications with managers are key. After years of program growth, we discovered that managers felt uninformed about certain commitments of the program participants and even their own role in supporting the program. 18

Now we hold meetings with program participants and their managers shortly after we select the participants. These are quick meetings — no more than 30 minutes — that help support both the participant and the manager’s experience with the program. We have found that copying the manager on calendar invites for the participants as well as providing all dates at the beginning of the program to both the manager and participant prepared everyone best and eased manager concerns. There are a multitude of other ways to incorporate managers into these types of programs. One way is to have managers join meetings and present to the group on a topic. This provides variety for the meetings while bringing in unique perspectives. Another option could be to have a manager join strictly for a Q&A session in the meeting. We routinely have the group submit their questions ahead of time so we can share them with the manager as they prepare for the meeting. This is a tactic that other leaders have shared as a best practice for gaining manager participation and buy-in. Providing the framework upfront allows everyone to experience a level of comfort.

Group size should reflect the type of interaction the program requires. A participant group of 5-7 has yielded the best results for us over the years. Small group participation allows everyone an opportunity to speak and for program facilitators to quickly notice when a participant’s shyness prohibits them from being heard within the group. Calling on each participant to contribute to group discussions or pairing the participants to role-play scenarios supports the experience, reinforces the knowledge the participants have gained and allows for skills practice opportunities. Small groups facilitation is easier during practice scenarios, but we have had a group of 10 in our leadership-focused program in the past. The participants engaged fully and met the overall goals of the program; however, the burden was higher on the program administrators in scheduling, followups, manager communications, mentor alignment and ensuring participant engagement. CREATE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES BEYOND LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS Not every employee development opportunity needs to be a multiyear leadership program. The first program we created focused on welcoming new employees to the organization and assisting with onboarding. This is an excellent tool for improving onboarding and escalating employee integration. An “ambassador” program with this focus can easily accommodate a group of 12 depending on the organizational needs and structure. We found through trial and error that it is best to provide employees performing this type of employee retention effort with training in company culture, self-awareness, social media responsibility and communication skills practice before having them serve in this capacity.

BUILD CONNECTION INTO THE PROGRAM DESIGN Employees who join these types of program can provide the organization with a straightforward way to increase employee inclusion and sense of belonging for both new and existing employees while also providing an upskilling opportunity. This program has yielded success year after year and our new employee onboarding surveys record how much new employees value the interactions they have in their first few weeks with us. We utilize a combination of in-person and virtual channels to onboard new employees. Even in the virtual space, we find we can still connect new with existing employees for a memorable experience. Connecting new employees to those outside of their workgroup provides them with someone who can serve as a general source of information and a potential advocate or sounding board.

Programs where employees have opportunities to network outside of their own workgroups encourage the personal and professional growth that employees seek. A bonus to overall employee engagement is the increase in employee retention and reduction in turnover. We survey our participants in our leadership programs after each monthly meeting and again at the end of the program because their feedback has helped us tweak aspects of the program over the years. Feedback from both new and existing employees is invaluable. GIVE THE PROGRAM A CLEAR FOUNDATION We focused our programs on the pillars of service, commitment, community, character and leadership to guarantee we had a solid direction for everything we did. Each training or event connects to one of those pillars and keeps the programs on track. Organizations can just as easily tie programs to their own

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Continually reviewing these programs, making updates, adding different managers and making other adjustments keep the programs fresh and employees interested in participating. For all involved, from the coordinators to the guests and participants, you will get out of it what you put into it. Allison DeYoung is the vice president of HR, training and development at Rave Financial Credit Union. She is enthusiastic about creating collaborative workplaces and learning experiences that inspire growth, confidence and continuous improvement. Email Allison.

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5 POST-TRAINING SUPPORT METHODS THAT DRIVE PERFORMANCE BY CHRIS FENNING

Learning leaders face a recurring challenge: participants leave a training session energized and motivated to apply what they learned. Yet days later, familiar habits return, new skills fade and, in the end, nothing changes. The training didn’t stick. This is not a failure of content, facilitation or participant motivation. It is a failure of what happens after people leave the classroom. Research on training transfer consistently shows that, without reinforcement, newly acquired knowledge fades quickly. Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve demonstrated this more than a century ago and modern workplace learning studies reinforce the same principle: If new behaviors are not reinforced, they rarely become sustained habits. Despite this, training providers struggle to provide support after the main training event is over. Increasing focus on return on training investment (ROTI) means there is little or no money and even less time to invest in post-training support. However, with the right methods, posttraining support can be quick to create, have low or no cost, and many methods can be fully automated. SCALABLE WAYS TO IMPROVE RETENTION AND APPLICATION For effective ways to make your training stick, try one of these low-effort, high-impact methods that extend learning beyond the training room: checklists, video reminders, micro-reminder emails, accountability partners or manager follow-up guides. 20

Feedback from my own workshops and from more than a dozen other trainers has shown that these five methods increase the number of trainees who put their learning into practice. Each “build once, use forever” resource takes as little as 15 minutes to create and costs nothing, making them an ideal foundation for your make-it-stick resource library.

2. VIDEO REMINDERS

1. CHECKLISTS

How to Implement It: • Create 1- to 2-minute videos: Keep videos short, focusing on one key point or technique from the training.

Training introduces new processes, techniques and ways of working, but trainees need timely reminders to apply them. Checklists serve as a practical guide, helping to reinforce learning and ensure that key steps are followed correctly. Additionally, they’re quick to create and simple to implement. How to Implement It: • Extract key points: Focus on the most important steps, methods and concepts from the training. • Keep it concise: The checklist should be short enough to use quickly in real work situations. • Clear usage instructions: Clearly state when and where to use the checklist.

People are increasingly accustomed to consuming content via short videos, which makes this a highly engaging and effective way to reinforce key points or techniques from training. This method works well for both visual and auditory learners, and it can be easily consumed at the learner’s own pace.

• Use operational language: Avoid repeating theory, and instead focus on real-world application. • End with a clear action: Conclude each video with a specific action for participants to take. • Low-cost production: You don’t need a professional studio. A laptop and smartphone are often enough. You can also use screen recording with a voiceover in Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides or similar tools for quick video creation.

• Emphasize action: Focus on outcomes and actions rather than theory or background.

Over time, you can create a library of videos that can be easily accessed as needed, ensuring the content stays fresh and ready for application.

• Align with workflow: Ensure the checklist reflects the actual tasks and processes participants will encounter.

3. MICRO-REMINDER EMAILS

Make sure to distribute checklists immediately after training, so learners can refer to them as they apply what they’ve learned.

Spaced reinforcement strengthens retention by prompting learners to recall and apply key concepts. Micro-reminder emails provide a simple, effective way to deliver this reinforcement in bite-sized,

actionable formats, keeping training content top-of-mind and increasing the likelihood it will be applied in real work situations. How to Implement It:

The guide should prompt managers to connect observed behaviors to the training content and ensure ongoing reinforcement. Keep it simple, focusing on clarity and ease of use.

Instead of prescribing a one-size-fits-all post-training action plan, trainees define their own follow-up actions, making the training more personalized, relevant and actionable.

• Focus on one concept: Each email should target one behavior, technique or tip.

5. ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNERS

WHICH POST-TRAINING METHOD IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

• Keep it short: The email should take less than 30 seconds to read. • Prompt immediate action: Include clear, actionable advice, such as “Try this in your next meeting.” • Short sequence: Send a sequence of 3-5 emails over 2-4 weeks to reinforce learning without overwhelming participants. • Scalable: Emails can be scheduled in advance, making them easy to reuse across different cohorts with minimal effort. These short, actionable reminders keep learning visible and reinforce key concepts without demanding extra time from participants or managers. 4. MANAGER FOLLOW-UP GUIDES Manager involvement is one of the most powerful predictors of sustained behavior change after training. Providing managers with simple, structured guides makes it easier for them to reinforce training consistently and effectively, ensuring that it’s not just a one-time event.

Accountability partnerships are the quickest and most cost-effective way to ensure training is applied. By pairing participants, you harness the power of social accountability, which increases follow-through and encourages consistent practice. This approach is easily reinforced when managers or training leaders request progress updates.

Before creating any post-training resource, answer this question: What specific behavior must change to deliver value from this training? If accuracy and consistency are priorities, job aids and checklists are most effective.

How to Implement It:

If behavior change depends on leadership modeling, manager guides are essential.

• Pair participants: Have participants selforganize or assign pairs during training; this takes just a few minutes.

If habit formation is the goal, reminders and accountability mechanisms matter most.

• Identify focus areas: Each pair selects one or two behaviors from the training to work on and defines specific actions they will take. • Set a check-in cadence: Schedule quick, weekly check-ins (5-10 minutes) to maintain focus. • Ask structured questions: Guide the check-ins with three simple questions: • “What did you try?” • “What worked?” • “What will you adjust?”

To maximize training ROI, L&D professionals must reinforce learning beyond the classroom. The methods outlined are quick, cost-effective and scalable, allowing you to easily integrate reinforcement seamlessly into your workflow and make training stick. Chris Fenning is the author of “39 Ways to Make Training Stick,” a practical guide to helping learning continue long after training ends. He is a communication skills author and trainer who helps experts explain complex ideas clearly so non-experts understand and act. Email Chris.

How to Implement It: Create a one-page guide that includes:

QUICK START TIPS

• Desired behaviors: Define the key actions to observe and reinforce.

Not sure where to begin? Follow these simple steps and you’ll soon have a library of valuable, make-it-stick methods to reuse with future training.

• What “good” looks like: Provide a brief description of successful behavior. • Coaching questions: Include 2-3 questions for follow-up conversations, such as, “What did you try?” and “What worked well?” • Timing suggestions: Recommend when to follow up, such as one or two weeks post-training.

• Start with the accountability partners method. It’s quick, free and doesn’t need any prepared materials. • Ask the trainees to share the actions they plan to take. • Pick 3-5 actions that stand out and use them as the basis of email reminders. • Take note of questions asked in the training and use them as prompts for videos. • Create an email reminder or a one-minute video after each training session.

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he corporate ladder speech is a staple of early career advice. Climb well, stay in your lane and eventually reach the top. It is tidy. It fits neatly on an org chart. And for most employees, it bears almost no resemblance to how their careers actually unfold. Workforce development has long rested on the assumption that progress means moving up within a single, narrow function. But when a large public-sector transportation agency analyzed the full career histories of 38,000 employees across more than 550,000 individual job records, that assumption did not hold. The straight line was not just rare. It was the exception. The question driving the analysis was straightforward: If employees are given real access to move sideways, across job families and disciplines, do they stay longer? The answer, backed by five decades of workforce data, is yes.

who never changed roles at all, the retention rate was 25.2%. Among those who moved within a job family, the retention rate was 55.1%. Among those who crossed job families entirely, it was 58.2%. Their likelihood of staying more than doubled compared to those who never changed roles (see Figure 1). The obvious objection is that shorttenured employees inflate the nomovement floor: interns, temp-to-perm hires, people who never intended to stay. To test for that, the analysis filtered for employees with at least one year of tenure. The no-movement group remained at 41.4%. Linear movers and cross-family movers came in at 58.5% and 57.7% respectively, less than one point apart. While the jump is not as large, the gap did not go away. The direction of movement still did not predict retention. Access to movement did.

The most striking number is career length. Among employees who eventually left, those who never moved had a median career of just two years. Those who moved within job family had a median career of 3.3 years. Those who crossed job families had a median career of 17.7 years. That is not a marginal difference. It is the difference between someone who made a pit-stop and someone who built their working life inside one organization (see Figure 2). When an employee moves across job families, they don’t just change their desk. They carry the logic of their old department into a new context (transfer of learning anyone?). While we shouldn’t claim that moving families causes someone to stay 17 years, we can see that the people who stay 17 years are the ones who were given the space to evolve. They didn’t just stay in one lane: they built a whole new road.

What the Data Shows The analysis grouped employees into three categories based on their job histories. The first group never moved: same role, same job family, no structural change throughout their tenure. The second group followed a linear path: steady advancement within a single specialty. Think of an engineering technician progressing to senior technician and eventually to project inspector. Expertise deepening in one lane. The third group jumped tracks entirely. A maintenance worker who moved into a safety coordinator role, then into emergency management. These were not minor title adjustments. They were total shifts in the kind of work a person does every day — the kind of moves that rarely appear in a formal succession plan but that turn out to matter more than almost anything else for how long people stay.

A Canyon in Retention Rates The retention gap between employees who moved roles and those who did not is substantial. Among employees

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from guidance on how to write a resume for a role outside their current job family, how to talk about their experience in an interview for a job they have never done and how to tell their own success story out loud. TxDOT builds that directly into its career programming: resume workshops, elevator-pitch practice, and coaching for interviewing into internal openings. TxDOT treats these as career services, not soft extras. They are what turns an eligible employee into an applicant. The harder case is also the clearest example: bridging real technical gaps between job families. A maintenance worker with no heavy-equipment background can move into equipment operation because TxDOT will fund and outline the commercial drivers license and equipment training required to get there. The same is true for the path from maintenance into construction inspection, a role in chronic short supply across the industry. The organization does not just permit the jump. It pays for and sequences the training that makes the jump survivable.

What Cross-Family Movement Actually Looks Like

What This Means for L&D Strategy

The linear path is easy to see on paper. A technician-one becomes a technician-two, then a techniciansupervisor. Organizations tend to build for this path because it maps cleanly onto a career framework.

The data shows that lateral and crossfamily moves are not detours from a career path. For the majority of employees, they are the career path. Learning and development (L&D) strategy built primarily around vertical advancement is optimized for the 12%, not the 88%.

Cross-family paths produce a different kind of value, one that is harder to quantify. Consider a maintenance technician who moves into safety coordination and then into emergency management. By that third role, the person is not just a safety expert. They are a safety expert who knows what it actually feels like to be on a crew at 2 a.m. in a storm and can coordinate and prioritize emergency operations with context. They can write a protocol that field crews will follow, because they have been on that crew. That knowledge builds over years of internal movement and it walks out the door when the organization stops offering the next step.

Everything starts with letting employees see what’s possible. TxDOT offers career-exploration coursework built around self-assessment, helping people name their own skills and interests before pointing them at a destination role. That groundwork feeds directly into a career path dashboard, which turns decades of movement data into a map employees can use. Soft-skills training is included to give employees the belief that a lateral move is theirs to make. And once they have a desired path and confidence to pursue it, they also benefit

The programs themselves are built to be used, not admired. Most run two weeks or less, a handful stretch to a month, and they follow adult-learning principles: timely, relevant to a problem the employee has right now and short enough to finish. When winter weather or flooding pulls trainees back to the field, TxDOT pauses the course and resumes it rather than making them start over. Infrastructure that cannot flex around a real job does not get used by people who have one.

Build the Infrastructure, Not Just the Pathway A workforce that moves internally tends to be one that understands how the whole organization functions. People who have worked across multiple disciplines carry a broader view than those who have stayed in one area. That cross-disciplinary fluency is difficult to hire for and nearly impossible to build quickly. It accumulates over time, one internal move at a time. The ladder was built for a workforce that moved predictably through a fixed set of roles. That is not the workforce most organizations have now. The job of L&D

is not to push people up one vertical track. It is to build the infrastructure that lets them find their own direction and stay while they do it.

Marcy May is a training specialist at the Texas Department of Transportation, where she designs, delivers and evaluates workforce development programs across a statewide training system. Email the authors.

Trish Clarke is a systems analyst, acting as a translator between technical logic and human-centered strategy for the Texas Department of Transportation.

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Many learning organizations are producing more than ever. New courses, revised programs, platform changes and urgent requests move through the same teams at the same time. Yet high output does not always create stronger capability. Faculty rush from one launch to the next, designers make decisions before earlier work can be evaluated and learners complete requirements without enough time to practice or apply what they learned. I describe this pattern as strategic fatigue. It is the cumulative drain that develops when initiative demand exceeds the capacity of the people expected to design, deliver, absorb and use learning. It is not simply burnout, resistance or poor time management. It is a portfolio problem. I have seen strategic fatigue emerge even when every initiative was individually reasonable. The problem was not that leaders chose bad work. The problem was that no one was looking at the combined demand placed on the learning system. A practical response to strategic fatigue is strategic restraint, which is the deliberate discipline of sequencing, combining, deferring or stopping work so the highestvalue learning priorities receive enough capacity to succeed. Strategic restraint does not mean slowing all work or resisting innovation; it means protecting the time, attention and reinforcement required for learning to become performance. The following practices show how learning and development (L&D) leaders can recognize strategic fatigue early, make explicit tradeoffs and restructure learning portfolios so priority initiatives have the capacity to succeed.

When Good Priorities Collide In one learning organization I supported, several major efforts converged. Courses were being converted to a new delivery format, requirements were changing, evidence expectations were increasing and additional learning products were being requested. Each effort had a sponsor, a deadline and a defensible purpose. Together, they created constant collision. 26

Organizations do not build capability by launching the most programs. They build it by selecting what matters, sequencing it deliberately and allowing people to practice, apply and improve.

Faculty were pulled into overlapping design and review meetings. Content teams moved forward with incomplete decisions because waiting threatened the schedule. Evaluation was treated as something to add after launch rather than a source of information during development. Learners encountered new requirements while earlier changes were still settling into practice. At first, the strain looked like an execution problem. More meetings, tighter deadlines and additional status reporting were used to regain control. Those actions increased activity but did not restore capacity. Leaders responded by putting the entire portfolio into one view. They separated mandatory work from discretionary work, mapped the teams and audiences affected by multiple initiatives, staged launches and paused lower-value efforts. Beyond improving the schedule, teams had clearer ownership, fewer late-stage reversals and more room to pilot, review and adjust. That experience changed how I assess learning strategy. A plan is only realistic when the portfolio can be executed without sacrificing design quality, learner attention or transfer to performance.

Make Tradeoffs Explicit L&D leaders may not have the authority to reject every request, but they can make tradeoffs visible. A request is not truly prioritized until leaders answer four questions. 1.

What capability or performance problem will this solve? A request tied only to visibility, preference or activity should not outrank work tied to a defined organizational need.

What is the consequence of delay? Urgent should mean that postponement creates a material operational, compliance or performance risk, not simply that a stakeholder wants a rapid launch.

Where will the work collide? Leaders should identify shared audiences, faculty, subject-matter experts, designers, platforms and review processes. Capacity is often exceeded at these intersections, even when individual project plans appear feasible.

What will be displaced? A new priority is not a priority until leaders identify what will stop, move or

shrink. Without that decision, the organization has added demand rather than set direction. Those answers should lead to one of four explicit portfolio decisions. Leaders can continue an initiative when the capability need is clear and sufficient capacity exists; stage a larger effort in deliberate phases; combine related requests that duplicate audiences, content or infrastructure; or stop an effort when its value no longer justifies the demand. The purpose is not to slow all work. It is to prevent every request from becoming simultaneous work.

Restructure the Learning Portfolio A learning portfolio should be organized around capability, not around the number of products delivered. I have found three changes especially useful.

1. Create One Integrated Calendar Course launches, program revisions, platform changes, evaluation activities and major stakeholder reviews should

5 Early Warning Signs of Strategic Fatigue Strategic fatigue usually appears before a major failure. Watch for patterns such as these. 1. The same faculty, designers or learner groups appear on several launch calendars at once. 2. Practice, pilot testing, reflection or evaluation are repeatedly shortened to protect delivery dates. 3. Teams keep adding requirements but cannot identify what has been stopped. 4. Completion remains high while confidence, application or stakeholder trust declines. 5. Employees describe the work as “one more thing,” even when they believe the learning is valuable. One sign may reflect a temporary surge. Several occurring together indicate that the portfolio, not the people, requires intervention.

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appear in the same view. Separate calendars hide cumulative demand.

2. Limit Work in Progress Set a realistic threshold for how many major initiatives a team or audience can carry at once. New work enters only when capacity opens or another effort is displaced.

Applied consistently, strategic restraint gives worthwhile initiatives enough time, attention and reinforcement to work.

3. Build Protected Consolidation Periods After a major launch, allow time for faculty feedback, learner practice, data review and revision. These are not empty weeks. They are part of the learning cycle. In another project, a team was redesigning a learning offering while also revising outcomes, rebuilding assessments and preparing for a new delivery approach. Treating every component as a simultaneous deliverable created repeated rework

because decisions in one area changed the others. The team shifted to a deliberate sequence. It clarified the essential outcomes, designed the minimum viable learning experience, piloted the assessment approach and then refined delivery. The project still moved forward, but ownership became clearer and evaluation was built into the design rather than attached at the end.

Protect Depth Through Governance Strategic restraint must be reinforced by governance or it will disappear under the next urgent request. Require sponsors to define the capability need, affected audience and evidence of success before development begins. Review the portfolio at a fixed cadence, not only when a crisis occurs. Include faculty, designers and evaluation staff in prioritization because they often see capacity problems before dashboards do. Close major initiatives with a brief review of what should be sustained, revised, combined or retired. Metrics are also important. Launch counts and completion rates are useful operating measures, but they should not be mistaken for evidence of impact. Leaders should also examine whether learners can use the skill, whether supervisors observe changed performance, whether redundant offerings have been reduced and whether the organization is acting on what evaluation reveals.

Applied consistently, strategic restraint gives worthwhile initiatives enough time, attention and reinforcement to work.

A Better Question for L&D Leaders When strategic fatigue appears, the wrong question is, “How can we deliver all of this faster?” The better question is, “What must receive enough capacity to produce the performance we need?” That shift changes the role of L&D leadership. The goal is no longer to absorb every request. It is to manage a coherent portfolio, expose tradeoffs and protect the conditions required for learning transfer. Organizations do not build capability by launching the most. They build it by selecting what matters, sequencing it deliberately and allowing people to practice, apply and improve. Strategic fatigue begins when activity outruns capacity. It recedes when leaders make restraint part of strategy. Jennifer Grigsby, MBA, CPTM, serves in the chief academic office at the Defense Security Cooperation University, where her work focuses on program evaluation, learning outcomes and institutional effectiveness. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the Cumberlands. Email Jennifer.

Strategic Restraint in Practice To reduce fatigue without reducing impact, L&D leaders can apply five design moves: 1. Prioritize initiatives that directly support capability goals. 2. Break large efforts into modular phases or shorter learning units. 3. Build recovery windows, spaced review and reflection prompts into delivery plans. 4. Coordinate calendars across teams to prevent overload from simultaneous launches. 5. Use learner data, faculty feedback and bandwidth checks to adjust pacing. At the strategic level, restraint protects teams from initiative overload. At the design level, it protects learners from cognitive overload. In both cases, pacing is not hesitation; it is how learning becomes performance.

If you’re an L&D leader, you’re likely thinking about: • Synthetic work (or ‘apprenticeship’) – when AI can do the entry level work, how do you enable

entry level employees to leap ahead and do more advanced work?

• AI coaching, simulation, practice, reflection – 24/7 and one-on-one learning, it just makes sense. • True adaptive learning – talked about forever and not possible (until now)! • AI fluency – a competitive mandate, and you cannot get your people there fast enough. • High-performing temporary talent – when you’re understaffed and still need to get the job done. • A caring, committed partner you can trust – so you can sleep at night!

We’re doing it for your peers, and we can do it for you! We can help. Talk to us. If you’re an L&D practitioner, you’re likely thinking about: • Your next great gig – check our many job opportunities! • Being part of an L&D community – join The Ring and meet Ringer!

Hi, I’m Ringer. I’m an LXD, a dolphin, kinda good looking & always interesting. So join THE RING and come along on my journey as I take on gigs. ©2026 SweetRush, Inc., a subsidiary of NIIT (USA), Inc. All rights reserved.

The best instructors plan for engagement before the session even starts. A few tactics separate an impactful virtual training session from a forgettable one.

Plan for interaction every 8-10 minutes Open with a question, not an agenda Show learners that what they said mattered

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You can only be impactful with your content if you understand who will use it, and when, why and how they’ll use it.

GOOD TRAINING STARTS WITH GOOD WRITING By Synthia Clark

We’ve all been there. Eyes glazing over from boilerplate training that has nothing to do with our real jobs, wincing at typos that fully change the meaning of a sentence, cringing at someone oversharing what feels like a way too personal story when we’re supposed to be focused on learning a specific skill. We’ve probably been on the other side too, working against tightened budgets and timelines, automated processes and expected ROIs that we had no input on. In our world of constant change and competing priorities, it’s more important than ever to write meaningful content. Here are four simple tips to do just that because an effective strategy doesn’t have to be complicated.

1. Know Your Audience Don’t waste your time. It feels wrong, but you have to start slow to move fast. Before you really get going on a project, pause to learn about your audience. You can only be impactful with your content if you understand who will use it, and when, why and how they’ll use it. Here are some questions to consider: • Who’s the primary audience? Know who you’re talking to and be aware of secondary or tertiary audiences who are also part of the journey or are in some way responsible for their performance. For everyone involved, consider what tone they’ll trust and be comfortable with. • Why do people need this training? Think through what they specifically need to know and be able to do at the end. Determine what success will feel like.

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• How do our different audiences feel about the topic? You’ll frame things differently if your audience has been requesting this training compared to thinking it’s a huge distraction. • What do learners already know about the topic? You don’t want to repeat what everyone already knows. Instead, you’ll want to provide the most support where they tend to struggle. • How does this training align with goals? This can include personal, departmental or organizational performance objectives. • What happens before and after this training? Knowing how this fits into a larger curriculum or program can make everything feel more connected and useful.

• What boundaries and limitations do we need to keep in mind when thinking about modality? For example, you’ll want to consider access to technology, authoring tools or facilitators, time constraints, geography, number of learners, how often the content will need to be updated, if materials will need to be printed or translated, etc. Knowing your audience — where they’re coming from, what they need and where they’re going — is vital to transforming source content into something valuable to them.

2. Use Realistic Examples Don’t waste their time. Learners need training they can connect with and apply.

Being able to imagine themselves in similar situations makes it easier to follow through. Authenticity reduces distractions and provides the opportunity for better self-reflection. Ask stakeholders to discuss pain points they’ve witnessed, take you through best-case and worst-case scenarios, share screens and talk about their personal experiences. These are all ways to get at what you need for creating examples. You also want to provide safe opportunities for learners to share their own experiences, tied to the purpose of the training. And remember that even small adjustments can make a difference. Take some time to figure out the terms used in their everyday life.

TIPS FOR WRITING FOR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE REPRESENT APPROPRIATELY AND EQUITABLY • Avoid real places. If real locations are important, use widely recognizable city names from different parts of the world and include the country or region name. • Use a variety of names. I keep a running list of people I’ve known who might later star in scenarios. Know how your content will be used though. Some organizations avoid gender-neutral character names to prevent misinterpretations during translation. • Be cautious with references and quotes. Someone you consider an expert or a great leader could be perceived as harmful in another culture. • Format dates, times, and phone numbers clearly. A date such as 02/03/11 could be interpreted many ways. Spell out the month for dates whenever possible. BE SPECIFIC AND CONCISE • Refer to one person, place, thing or task at a time. Speaking directly to the audience is a great way to do this. • Keep your sentences tight and focused. You may need to share a lot of information, but it doesn’t have to all be shared in one overwhelming sentence. Break up your content and use lists when it makes sense.

• Use transition words and articles. This one might feel like the opposite of the last tip. But sometimes, extra words support clarity. For example, instead of “Tap your card,” say, “Tap your card on the right side of the screen.” WHAT TO LIMIT OR AVOID • Limit abbreviations and jargon. If they are necessary, be sure to define them when you first use them and determine how they should be handled during translation. For example, if you were writing about the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), define it once and then explain that it will be referred to as “the Act” going forward. • Don’t use common words in new ways. In addition, don’t use more than one term to represent a single concept, like using mindset, attitude, feeling and thought interchangeably. Consistency and understanding is more important than flavor. • Avoid slashes, idioms, puns, regional metaphors, references to seasons and any unnecessary abbreviations (like etc.). These can be confusing for multilingual audiences and hard to translate.

Remember that most translated text requires more space. So, if your writing has any connection to or with design, be sure to align on that look and feel while considering the end use.

• Are they employees or team members? • Do they have standups, one-on-ones or check-ins? • What acronyms are everyday jargon? • What software do they use for communication? Using the lingo means your learner is doing less unnecessary work and can focus their efforts on remembering and applying the content.

How you communicate your content matters. It impacts things like the perceived credibility of the content and even the cognitive load of your learner.

3. Be Consistent Don’t lose it all on a technicality. How you communicate your content matters. It impacts things like the perceived credibility of the content and even the cognitive load of your learner. Personally, if I see a bunch of typos, mismatched text formatting and biologically-impossible images, I don’t care what you have to say, because I don’t trust the source. If you can’t take the time to clean up your message, how do I know you took the time to do any research? For less judgy folks, you’re — at best — making them work hard to figure out what you’re trying to say and prioritize. At worst, you’re giving them incorrect information that they believe. It’s our job to be better than that. Ideally, you’re following a style guide, using active voice and plain language, being inclusive and remembering things like parallelism. When in doubt, prioritize being clear and consistent. Inconsistencies like cause confusion:

these

can

• Having a mix of serial and non-serial commas • Using a variety of terms to refer to one specific thing • Switching the subject or tenses of your sentences Most people and organizations have preferences, and that’s perfectly fine. You may even have divisions or programs with unique branding and styling choices. The key is applying those preferences consistently so your

messages are clear. One thing you can always do is create a mini style guide or style sheet to document those nuances and decisions.

4. Trim the Fluff Don’t forget: People are busy on all sides of training. It’s our difficult job to balance what’s best for the learner without ignoring the contributions of subject matter experts (SMEs), decisions of key stakeholders or our own expertise. When you take a final look through your content before passing it off for review, proofreading or publishing, check that you’ve included segues, used active voice and focused on the desired outcomes. Some tactics to keep the focus tight while managing that balancing act could include: • Providing supplemental materials to learners on great, but not vital, information • Having hover states or callouts with foundational information, like definitions • Including facilitator or instructor notes with extra background or contextual information

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• Preparing parking lots for important topics that are outside of the current training More information doesn’t mean more impact. Keep it short and simple. If it doesn’t resonate, cut it out.

Good Writing Takes Work Just because it’s not complicated, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Good writing takes work and a growth mindset. That’s our challenge to rise to. We get to connect all the dots in a consistent and meaningful way so they resonate with our learners. I strongly believe clear communication outshines any evolving technology, or even the current favorite modality. Combining best practices, learner insights and a little moxie is how you write stuff people actually care about. Synthia Clark is a senior training development instructional designer at Cirrus Aircraft. With a background in corporate communication and a passion for project management, she believes in making content easy to understand. Email Synthia.

L&D’S NEXT NEXT ROLE: ROLE: L&D’S

Strategic Uniﬁer

By Marie McIntyre

Every request for learning draws upon our ability to gather perspectives, connect requested solutions to the organizational needs they serve and translate those insights into meaningful application.

For decades, “earning a seat at the table” has rallied learning and development (L&D) professionals who seek visibility, influence and a role in shaping business decisions. While this pursuit helped elevate L&D beyond its traditional support role, it has also unintentionally narrowed the conversation. When proximity to power becomes the goal, it overshadows a more important question: “What do organizations need from L&D, and how do we serve those needs in a way that unifies rather than divides?” L&D’s work across departments, leadership levels and the employee experience gives us a window into the organization that few other functions share. We hear how leaders describe direction, see how managers translate it to their teams and understand how systems are ultimately encountered in day-to-day work. The strategic value of this position comes from what L&D does with this collective view. Moving beyond the table means using the perspective already available to us in service of the organization, converting it into clarity and coordinated action.

HOW WE GOT HERE For much of the 20th century, employee development was carried out by human resources (HR) generalists and subject matter experts alongside their primary responsibilities. Experienced employees transferred knowledge, managers prepared others through everyday work and departments solved capability gaps independently. Titles such as “training coordinator” or “corporate

trainer” emerged, but they carried little consistency or shared identity.

THE STRATEGIC UNIFIER AT WORK

The arrival of formal L&D teams strengthened how organizations develop people, but it did not replace the knowledge, relationships or shared responsibility that made development possible. Those contributions remain throughout our organizations, often held by the people closest to the work.

Recognizing this discipline changes how we understand the work already in front of us. Learning requests often arrive attached to a specific deliverable, but the deliverable rarely exists in isolation. It reflects an organizational priority shaped by multiple functions, responsibilities and perspectives.

The evolution of L&D as a profession accelerated during the pandemic. Almost overnight, organizations had to onboard employees virtually, sustain culture without shared spaces and maintain engagement and performance through continued disruption. Capabilities L&D had been cultivating (facilitation, instructional design, measuring learning and connecting it with application) became indispensable.

L&D’s role as strategic unifier begins by understanding that broader context. The “work” is not to replace the expertise held elsewhere in the organization, but to examine those perspectives in relationship with one another, translate that knowledge into something people can use and help create clarity around how each function contributes to the result.

The pandemic changed the scale at which organizations experienced L&D’s value. In fact, the percentage of L&D professionals who agreed that L&D has a seat at the executive table rose from 24% in 2020 to 53% in 2022, according to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report. Carrying this momentum forward requires L&D to recognize the discipline behind what we already do. Every request for learning draws upon our ability to gather perspectives, connect requested solutions to the organizational needs they serve and translate those insights into meaningful application. This work is often treated as preparation for learning rather than recognized for what it is: L&D’s own subject matter expertise.

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Two examples illustrate this form of contribution from different entry points.

EXAMPLE 1: AN EXECUTIVE PRIORITY Executive leadership established workplace safety as an organizational priority. L&D supported this initiative through the development of an initial learning experience for people managers. A single training represents only one contribution within a wider effort already shaped by others. To serve the complete need, L&D investigated the people, systems and responsibilities surrounding the priority, including perspectives from safety, operations, technology, management and the workforce. Working across those perspectives enabled L&D to translate what they 35

revealed into shared language, practical tools and a consistent framework managers could apply. Ninety-four people managers completed the program across five daylong sessions. The sessions connected leadership attributes with clear expectations for timely identification, reporting and response to hazards, near misses and incidents, as well as analysis of their origin. Today, a shared dashboard helps inform management discussions centered on root causes, systems thinking and prevention.

EXAMPLE 2: A DEPARTMENTAL REQUEST HR initiated an effort to modernize the presentation and agenda of a new employee’s first day during orientation. Instead of viewing this through a single, functional lens, L&D treated the presentation as an entry point into the entire onboarding process. Working alongside subject matter experts, the team connected the experience from the recruiter’s handoff through the collection and application of post-orientation survey results. Time employees spent solely with HR fell by approximately 60%. Paper waste declined by more than 85% and advance technology

preparation saved more than two hours per new hire. Together, these changes are estimated to save 300 to 500 staff hours annually while giving employees more time to meet their managers, connect with their teams and process essential information. The presentation and agenda remained one part of the solution, but the organization gained a connected onboarding experience.

HOW SERVICE TURNS PERSPECTIVE INTO ACTION Both requests could have been fulfilled within their original scope. Managers could have received effective training connecting culture and leadership attributes to safety, and HR could have received a modernized orientation presentation. When coherence is not created across the organization, the burden of creating it falls to the manager or employee who may receive the information separately. L&D’s collective view allows us to recognize that burden before it reaches them. In safety, shared language, response expectations and tools gave managers

a consistent, repeatable approach they could apply. In orientation, connected handoffs and updated online resources allowed existing and incoming employees to experience one organization across several functions. This is strategic unification in practice. Over time, that work can contribute to two outcomes: • Cultural coherence: Employees experience the same organization across leadership messages, performance expectations, development practices and daily decisions; regardless of the department they support, the location where they work or the manager they report into. • Organizational agility: When priorities shift, leaders and employees can interpret and act upon the change more quickly because connected channels already help move direction into consistent practice.

ANCHORS FOR A SERVICE-DRIVEN FUTURE Service must guide how L&D engages the organization from the first signal of need through the final solution. Three practices keep that orientation present:

3 Common Missteps That Can Undermine Trust Trust grows when L&D consistently applies its expertise in service of the organization rather than in pursuit of its own visibility. Three common missteps can work against that intention.

Dismissing legacy learning.

Informal knowledge-sharing existed long before formal programs. Dismissing it erases valuable contributions and alienates those who sustained it.

Equating visibility with credibility.

Presence matters only when accompanied by clear contribution to the organization.

Creating disconnected program sprawl.

In an effort to demonstrate value, L&D can launch too many initiatives and create confusion where the organization needs clarity.

• Look for the burden of assembly. Consider whether the manager or employee expected to act must also reconcile different expectations, tools, systems or handoffs. Where that burden exists, L&D’s collective view has something important to offer. • Make the relationship visible. Use L&D’s relationships across functions and levels to bring the necessary perspectives together, then provide a structure contributors can respond to and strengthen. A shared framework, connected workflow or common language allows people to see how their work supports the same result. • Practice restraint. Not every request or observed gap needs to become a larger initiative. Create something new only when stronger connection among existing contributions cannot produce the result the organization needs. Disconnected programs can add demand and weaken trust. Together, these practices convert L&D’s collective view into clarity people can use and coordinated action the organization can sustain.

BEYOND THE TABLE L&D’s evolution has not left us waiting for a new role, it has revealed the strategic significance of the access and expertise already present in our work. The strategic unifier is not a position L&D must be invited to occupy. It is the role we fulfill when the organization’s full need, rather than the visibility of our function, directs how that expertise is applied. Influence then becomes a result of contribution rather than an objective to pursue. A seat may follow, but by then, L&D is already doing the work the seat was meant to make possible. Marie McIntyre serves as Pittsburgh Water’s manager of learning and organizational development. She has over 12 years of experience leading learning, leadership development and performance strategies that strengthen organizational effectiveness and support long-term growth. Email Marie.

QUESTIONS STRATEGIC UNIFIERS ASK THEMSELVES WHEN A TRAINING REQUEST ARRIVES

A training request is an invitation from an SME who has recognized a need and trusted L&D to help. It provides an entry point without requiring L&D to commit to the requested (or perceived) solution. Strategic unification applies our existing organizational view to shape what follows as our recommendation. Five internal questions guide that work:

1 2 3 4 5

What information, expectations or tools must come together for the manager or employee to act? Where will the intended result depend on systems, handoffs or decisions beyond learning? Whose knowledge, resources or responsibilities already shape the result? What structure can L&D provide so those contributions function together? What existing work can L&D connect before creating something new?

Applied consistently, these questions strengthen both the recommendation and the relationship. They build trust in L&D as a service-led partner with the expertise to investigate the need and shape the response it requires.

Moving beyond the table means using the perspective already available to us in service of the organization, converting it into clarity and coordinated action.

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Learning and development (L&D) teams often report on training completion rates and assessment scores — and stop there. This is just the first step to L&D’s measurement strategy.

Know When This Approach Applies Not every measurement framework will be a good fit for every training initiative.

For L&D to function as a strategic partner, learning strategy needs to connect to business outcomes. Rather than building exactly what stakeholders ask for, L&D must design learning experiences that connect directly to the metrics that the business monitors.

Sometimes a learner’s role has a clear and measurable behavior and a trackable output. For example, if a contact center identifies that the average call handle time is significantly higher than the target set by the business, operations has tools and processes in place to track this data regularly and can see if and when it improves after training.

With frontline, performance-based roles, there’s a clear, yet overlooked, path to closing the gap between designing learning strategy and business impact. What follows is a practical framework for making that connection.

Training initiatives like leadership development are more subjective in nature and lack visible output. These programs are still important and should be tracked appropriately, but it requires a different measurement approach.

Get In the Room Before Design Starts The first and most important step is to get a seat at the table early. Attend the project meetings to gather firsthand knowledge of the issues and what needs to improve. As an added bonus, being included will improve L&D’s relationship with business leaders in the long run and provides a clear path for partnership. If L&D is not already involved in project team meetings, reach out to the project manager or operations leader and ask to be included. They may not know that L&D needs to be involved at this stage. Be the one to open that door. If there is no project manager, connect directly with the stakeholders who requested the training. They may be

able to provide the information, or they may defer to someone else. L&D can advocate in these situations and find those with the answers. It is important to get into those early-stage meetings to align on what metrics matter and request baseline metrics before design begins.

adjusted to fit a timeline or a budget. Everything else, including location, group size, trainer availability and delivery format, can be worked around. Development time must also be factored in early. Designers are often left out of the project timeline, which puts the quality of the solution at risk before it even begins.

Have the Right Stakeholder Conversation

Once complexity and stakes are established, L&D must choose the modality that fits the problem.

Now that the conversation is happening, use the time wisely. Focus on what stakeholders need and how learning can support that. Don’t bog them down in learning science or design requirements. Instead, work with them to determine what metrics are driving the training request. Start by asking questions that connect the business goal to the expected performance change: • What does success look like in the business, and how is it currently measured? • If this works, what will people be doing differently on the job? • What metric or outcome improves when they do that well? • If the right metrics cannot be identified or the performance gap cannot be defined, that is valuable information. It may signal that training is not the right solution at this time. • Once the metric is identified, establish who owns it and who is responsible for tracking progress. In the contact center example, operations brought the high call-handle time issue to L&D with a simple ask: “We need training.” By getting into the room early and asking the right questions, the conversation moved quickly from a vague request to a specific problem. When L&D asked, “If this works, what will agents be doing differently on the job?” the operations leader described agents moving through calls more efficiently and closing out statuses promptly. That answer pointed directly to the issue. Agents weren’t using system statuses correctly, which was inflating handle time.

Job aid: When the behavior is simple and reference-based, a job aid is often enough. It supports performance in the moment without requiring a formal learning experience.

Diagnose the Performance Gap Once the metric has been identified, the next step is understanding why the gap exists. Continuing with our example, this is where the partnership with operations becomes critical. L&D may not have direct access to performance data, but operations does. Together, they can identify what frontline employees are doing or not doing that’s causing the metric to move in the wrong direction. Once average handle time was flagged as the issue, operations was able to confirm through their own data and observation that agents weren’t using system statuses correctly. L&D didn’t need to pull that data independently. Asking the right questions surfaced it. The metric pointed to where the problem lived and the operational data confirmed what the problem actually was. At this point, the path to a solution becomes clear. Design to Close the Gap, Not to Cover the Topic Design is the next decision. Learning objectives should trace back to the specific behavior that needs to change, not the broader topic surrounding it. The first questions to ask are: How complex is the behavior, and what are the stakes of getting it wrong? These two factors are fixed — they cannot be

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eLearning: When the concept is straightforward, the content doesn’t generate a lot of questions, and learners are in different locations or on different schedules, eLearning is a practical choice. Instructor-led training (ILT): When the content requires nuance, conversation or a facilitator to bring it to life, ILT is the right call — whether in person or virtual. Blended learning: When the content benefits from both individual preparation and group discussion, a blended approach combines the best of both. A pre-class eLearning module sets the stage; the ILT session allows for questions, demonstration and conversation; followup job aids or modules reinforce the behavior afterward. Coaching: When the behavior is people-forward and requires ongoing support and observation, coaching is the right fit. Simulations and scenarios: These can supplement any of the other modalities when practice is important, but they rarely should be the standalone solution. In the contact center example, the wrong solution would have been a lengthy eLearning module covering everything there is to know about system statuses. That’s overkill for a behavior that simply needed a refresh and a reminder. Instead, a simple onepager was created to reinforce when to use each status, paired with a quick 39

reference sign posted in the agents’ workspace for easy access.

initiatives do not live in a vacuum and there are other teams working toward the same goals. Claiming that training was the single reason for success can even undermine credibility. The stronger position is to frame training as a contributing factor and let the data tell the broader story. That approach reinforces the partnerships built throughout this process and keeps L&D at the table long after the training launches.

That’s it. No course build. No lengthy module. A targeted solution designed specifically to close the gap that was identified. This is the payoff of doing the earlier work. Because the stakeholder conversation happened, and because the performance gap was diagnosed, the design decision was obvious. There was no guessing about what to build or how long it needed to be.

Closing The shift from order taker to strategic partner doesn’t happen overnight, but it starts with one conversation. Getting into the room early, asking the right questions and designing to close a specific gap rather than cover a topic are practical moves that any L&D professional can make today.

Measure Success After Launch Launching the training is not the finish line. Reconnecting with operations after implementation is just as important as the work that came before it. In a contact center environment, metric movement can be tracked immediately, but a realistic window for meaningful change is 90 to 120 days. This gives employees time to apply what they learned and allows the data to reflect a pattern rather than a blip. How that follow-up happens depends on who owns the metric. If the training was part of a larger project, the check-in naturally fits into the ongoing meeting cadence or a postproject review. If it was a standalone initiative, L&D should proactively reconnect with the operations leader

or project stakeholder to review the data together. If the metric isn’t moving, resist the urge to immediately point to training as the culprit or the fix. Instead, dig into the possibilities. Speak with managers about what they are observing on the floor. Consider whether other factors changed after launch. Look at whether the training was completed and applied consistently. Proving that training directly caused a metric to move is rarely possible. These

The result is training that operations can see the value of, metrics that tell a clearer story and an L&D function that earns its seat at the table. That’s worth the effort. Amanda Roseboom, MBA, MS, is a senior instructional designer and learning consultant specializing in designing scalable, business-aligned learning programs. With deep experience in contact centers and fast-paced environments, she connects strategy to execution and ensures learning isn’t just delivered but drives measurable performance outcomes. Email Amanda.

HOW KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT EXTENDS LEARNING

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM BY BARISA ABDIFATAH

magine an organization launching a new initiative to implement generative artificial intelligence (AI). They purchase the system and assign mandatory training to all employees. One employee named Pat was the highest performing trainee. He listened, studied, asked questions, took notes and applied his learning. The learning and development (L&D) function conducted a performance evaluation 90 days post training. Everyone’s performance remained the same except for Pat, whose performance improved by 20 percent. The question L&D must then answer is, what was the impact of the learning on the business? This scenario mirrors one of the most common challenges in corporate learning, which is that training can improve individual knowledge but often does not improve organizational performance. For organizational performance to improve, collective intelligence, relationships and collaboration should be part of the organizational culture. These performance improvement catalysts can be practiced and furthered in the organization through the discipline of knowledge management.

How Knowledge Management Fixes the LearningPerformance Gap A software sales vendor I recently worked with experienced the challenge of the learning-performance gap. This challenge became evident when employees attended training and virtual classes, yet the knowledge they get from customers’ insights remained within the individuals. There was no organizational learning and as a result performance stayed stagnant. If the training serves only one purpose, which is often just the delivery of information, it is likely that the learning-performance gap will persist. Training does not equal organizational knowledge. That knowledge is embodied in the people and when these people leave the organization, a significant amount of it leaves with them. The solution is to create an environment for knowledge to flow after the training

The solution is to create an environment for knowledge to flow after the training ends, acting as the bridge that connects learning and performance.

ends, acting as the bridge that connects learning and performance. That is exactly what knowledge management (KM) can build. For L&D professionals, KM is a discipline that extends learning beyond the classroom. With KM used as a design lens, trainers can move beyond content delivery to become knowledge flow designers and facilitators, creating an environment for all employees to learn in the flow of work. The KM tools that make that shift possible are practical, low-cost and immediately applicable.

Communities of Practice: Keep the Conversations Going After Training Ends One of the common problems with training in organizations is that the connections and conversations that the learners develop during the training fade away as soon as the training ends. Communities of practice (CoPs) — a group of people who share a passion, concern or set of problems and regularly interact to learn how to do it better — are designed to solve that problem. In the software sales organization, CoPs became the destination for the connections and conversations post training. It provided space for salespeople who attended the same

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training to share and discuss what worked with customers, what didn’t and why, long after the training ended. The result was that training insights were shared and became a collective knowledge that grows with time rather than disappears. There are important factors to consider when creating a CoP. Senior leadership support, defined structure and a knowledge-sharing culture are nonnegotiables. If any of them is missing, the momentum and the continuity of the CoPs might be negatively impacted. An initial assessment of these requirements and the organizational readiness can help sustainable CoPs.

Implementation Tip Start with a broad domain, select a senior leader as a sponsor and determine who will be responsible for meeting logistics. Design the first few meetings to be conversational. With time, the community will find its own pathway and more specific topics to address.

Knowledge Café: Unpack What Trainees Already Know Another problem training professionals experience is that trainees know more than what is in the training material, but 43

there is no structured space to surface it. The Knowledge Café facilitates that. David Gurteen, the facilitator who created this process, defines Knowledge Cafés as “a conversational process that brings a group of people together to share experiences, learn from each other, build relationships and make a better sense of a rapidly changing, complex, less predictable world to improve decision making, innovation and the ways in which we work together.” The software sales organization convened monthly Knowledge Cafés. They use a real sales challenge they are facing and present a thought-provoking question where all participants can contribute their experiences and knowledge. This is information that isn’t necessarily in any training manual — it’s knowledge that exists in the room. The café gives them a space to unpack it.

Implementation Tip Use Knowledge Cafés in training to reinforce the content. Start by inviting

a speaker to present the topic, then prepare a thought-provoking question to ask participants. The presentation, or provocation, of the topic is only 15 minutes, which then gives the majority a 90-minute session for the participants to engage in small group conversations. After three 15-minute rotations of group discussions, the whole group comes back together. The conversation and the emergent insights are the desired outcome.

After-Action Reviews: Turn Experience Into Learning In organizations where debriefing occurs informally, if at all, they miss on the opportunity to address critical questions: What was supposed to happen, what actually happened, why did it differ and what will we do differently? After-action reviews (AARs) create a structured space to address these questions. In the software sales organization, AARs became a core approach to process the teams’ experiences after not only training, but also any sales milestones.

The structured debriefs along with unstructured conversations can provide more knowledge about successes and failures. With a trained facilitator, structured AARs can significantly improve performance over time. The training and conversations should occur in an environment of psychological safety.

Implementation Tip Keep AARs to 15-20 minutes and ask these four questions: What did we plan? What happened? Why did it differ? What will we do differently? Run them after training milestones or any work event.

Action Learning Sets: Solve While Learning If training addresses what employees should know, action learning sets (ALSs) address what employees struggle with right now. ALSs, as created by Reg Revans, are used to enable small groups to engage in conversations about specific challenges. An ALS can be a 30-minute activity. It starts

The Knowledge Retention Process Ensuring unique and critical knowledge is not lost during retirements.

Create Retention Plan

Share & Capture Knowledge

Determine critical roles & skills

Professional(s) & aspirational(s) create first draft plan

Team discusses each question

Team practices each question

Find expert(s), professional(s) & aspirational(s)

Expert(s) review & team finalizes

Team captures each discussion

Team innovates each question

Inititate the team

Establish repository and meeting rhythm

Team determines how to practice & innovate

Apply & improve continuously

Establish Team

Key Outcome

Practice & Innovate

Capture, share and apply critical knowledge so it’s preserved, used and built upon for the future.

Training does not equal organizational knowledge. That knowledge is embodied in the people and when these people leave the organization, a significant amount of it leaves with them.

In the software sales organization, ALSs were in onboarding to help new hires to work through real-life scenarios rather than hypothetical ones. This helped new hires close the gap between training content and live application faster than any training class has done.

Implementation Tip Introduce ALSs at the end of the training program so that the participants can bring a real challenge. Listening before advising and limiting participants to one question and one recommendation each provide the structure needed for creative thinking.

What the Shift Looks Like in Practice

with the person who has an issue or a problem to solve. That person is called the challenge owner. The participants listen to the challenge, write clarifying questions and individually ask one question to the challenge owner. They then listen to the response from the challenge owner and then write their recommendations. Afterward, they each offer only one recommendation to the problem.

The software sales organization achieved measurable results when it combined experiential learning with these KM tools and embedded them in the daily workflow. They used CoPs for ongoing peer knowledge exchange, Knowledge Cafés for surfacing tacit knowledge, AARs for more structured reflections and ALSs for real-time problem-solving. Figure 2 shows the following key performance indicators (KPIs) measured the transformation:

These were the results of an organization that didn’t just improve their training but also built an environment where learning did not stop when training ended.

The Trainer as Knowledge Architect Overall, training sessions are the starting line where learning begins, not the finish line. KM tools are not complex or expensive, but they do require a shift in how training professionals see their role: not as the trainers who deliver content, but as architects who design the conditions for knowledge to keep moving. When that shift happens, training not only informs people, but, more importantly, it creates learning organizations.

Barisa Abdifatah is the director of knowledge management at STRATactical International and a Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM), educator and organizational learning practitioner. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in education, information science and knowledge management, she helps organizations bridge the gap between learning and performance through practical knowledge management strategies. Email Barisa.

Figure 2 KPI

Before KM & Experiential Learning

After KM Implementation

New hire time-to-competency

18 months

3 months

Revenue growth

3-5% year over year

3× increase

Cross-team knowledge sharing

1/month

1/day

Sales win consistency

21-53%

44-67%

Customer insight capture and understanding

Individual notes

Shared organizational knowledge

Innovation creation and adoption

Occasional

Continuous through KM environment

Employee engagement

6.4 / 10

8.1 / 10

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SPECIAL REPORT

TRAINING INDUSTRY’S SENIOR L&D LEADER COMPETENCY MODEL BY ALYSSA KASZYCKI AND AMY DUVERNET, PH.D., CPTM

WHEN LEARNING IS MANAGED WITHOUT A TRUE EXECUTIVE VOICE, IT’S HARDER FOR THE FUNCTION TO GAIN STRATEGIC TRACTION, AND HARDER FOR PRACTITIONERS TO SEE A PATH INTO EXECUTIVE ROLES. THE CYCLE REINFORCES ITSELF.

Most senior training leaders got where they are by being excellent at training. They designed programs that worked, delivered content that resonated, ran platforms and operations that scaled; however, once promoted into senior and executive roles, many discover that the job at the top of the learning function is not a bigger version of the job below it. It is a different job entirely. The transition from functional expert to executive is the defining challenge of senior learning leadership. This report introduces a competency model designed to define what that transition requires. Functional excellence is what earns the promotion, but executive leadership is what the role actually demands. At the senior leader level, the questions change from “Am I running an impactful training function?” to “How can

I use my learning and development expertise to help lead the organization?”; from “How do I manage dayto-day training operations?” to “How do I influence peers, defend investments and lead the enterprise through change?” Few learning and development (L&D) professionals are ever deliberately developed to make that shift. Organizations have many resources available for providing training and development to their workforce, but far less for building executives out of those professionals who lead their training and development functions. This means learning is frequently managed without a true executive voice, which makes it harder for the function to gain strategic traction, and harder for practitioners to see a path into executive roles. The cycle reinforces itself.

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TRAINING INDUSTRY’S SENIOR L&D LEADER COMPETENCY MODEL™ Training Industry, Inc.’s Senior L&D Leader Competency Model™ was built to define that gap and provide a framework for addressing it. Developed through internal research, practitioner feedback and industry-wide validation, the model defines the responsibilities and capabilities required to lead learning as a strategic business function and serves as a practical map of the territory between training expert and learning executive.

THE CORE RESPONSIBILITIES OF SENIOR LEARNING LEADERS 1. Strategic Alignment: Aligning learning strategy with enterprise goals and business priorities. This is the anchor of the model. Everything a senior learning leader does should trace back to what the business is trying to accomplish. 48

Key competencies: Strategic thinking, root cause analysis, datadriven decision making, vision crafting and communication, and governance and risk ownership. 2. Executive Influence: Building the relationships, presence and credibility to shape decisions at the highest levels of the organization. Senior learning leaders earn a seat at the table by operating as peers to other executives, not as service providers to them. Key competencies: Executive presence, negotiation and political savvy, networking, thought leadership, and serving as an advocate and ambassador for training. 3. Financial Management: Managing learning investments, budgets and organizational resources to maximize business impact. Senior learning leaders must be able to make, defend and prioritize investments in learning based on business value.

Figure 1. Core Responsibility Importance: Experienced Practitioners Endorse the Model More Highly

98%

Change Leadership

85%

Team Leadership

99%

85%

90%

Technology and Resource Development

83% 98%

Learning Function Oversight

87% 92%

Financial Management

85%

Executive Influence

99% 91%

Strategic Alignment

99% 91% Agreement - 11+ Years Experience (N=161)

Key competencies: Financial literacy, business case development, resource investment and prioritization, and business and financial forecasting. 4. Learning Function Oversight: Ensuring the learning function itself is innovative, aligned and demonstrably valuable. This is where deep functional expertise still matters, but applied through a governance and portfolio lens rather than a programby-program one.

Agreement - 10 Years or Fewer (N=47)

leaders are uniquely positioned to build the capabilities organizations need to navigate constant change. Key competencies: Leading enterprise change, stakeholder engagement and alignment, building organizational resilience and change readiness capability development.

Key competencies: Learning innovation enablement, learning strategy, performance and impact measurement, and program and portfolio oversight. 5. Technology and Resource Management: Building scalable, future-ready learning ecosystems. As learning technology reshapes learning capabilities, senior leaders must set the technology strategy rather than react to it. Key competencies: Learning technology strategy, technology and tool adoption leadership, and learning tech market awareness. 6. Team Leadership: Leading the learning team itself through inclusive leadership, people development and operational accountability. Even at the executive level, senior leaders remain responsible for growing the capabilities and performance of the people doing the work.

AT THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL, YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ENTERPRISE AS A WHOLE, AND THAT IS WHAT THIS MODEL WAS BUILT TO REFLECT.

Key competencies: Visionary and inclusive leadership, people development, and team operations and standards. 7. Change Leadership: Supporting organizational transformation, resilience and readiness for change. Learning T R A I N I N G I N D USTR Y M A GAZ INE - FALL 2026 I WWW.TRAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AT A GLANCE The Senior L&D Leader Competency Model was developed and validated through a phased process involving subject matter experts (SMEs) and L&D professionals. Phase 1: Ideation • Core responsibilities defined by internal SME panel • Draft competencies developed for each responsibility Phase 2: Development • SME review and refinement • Senior leader focus group review and refinement Phase 3: Validation • Survey development • Survey launch to industry professionals • Close survey (208 responses) • Analysis of importance ratings and consensus Model Finalized • Final SME review • Competencies consolidated (33 → 28) • Model visualization • Model guide and reports released

Notice what the list is not. It is not a catalog of instructional design skills, delivery techniques or platform administration. Nor is it an expanded version of Training Industry’s Training Manager Competency Model™, which defines the level below: the training manager role responsible for leading the training function as a whole, not just developing and delivering programs. The difference between the two models is the difference between the two roles. The training manager is responsible for the training function; the senior L&D leader is responsible for advancing the organization through training. That is why so much of the executive model extends beyond the learning function itself. At the executive level, the buffer of a purely functional mandate disappears. You are accountable for the performance of the enterprise as a whole, and that is what this model was built to reflect.

VALIDATING THE MODEL Validation results showed strong endorsement of the importance of the core responsibilities: at least 88% of the 208 professionals surveyed endorsed every responsibility as important to the executive role, and five of the seven were endorsed by 95% or more (Figure 1). This was particularly true for respondents with more than 10 years in the field, most notably for team leadership and change leadership, meaning the practitioners with the greatest level of experience were the most likely to endorse the importance of each responsibility. This suggests that professionals who are early in their career should consider investing in these skills now, with confidence that they will grow in importance as their career progresses. Overall, study results confirmed confidence in the validity of the model in its representation of higher-order responsibilities and competencies that are reflective of an executive-level role. Also of note: Those responsibilities with relatively lower importance ratings overall were those that may be perceived as falling outside the scope of traditional L&D expertise (i.e., technology and resource management, and financial management), but which are unquestionably responsibilities of an executive. Despite their lower ratings, the evidence for their importance was still strong enough to support their inclusion in the model. The competency-level results revealed a similar pattern, with financial forecasting, governance and compliance ownership, portfolio governance, technology market awareness and HR practices awareness scoring lowest. These findings highlight an important challenge for aspiring learning executives, some of the capabilities required at the executive level may also be the ones that they’ve had the least opportunity to develop.

HOW WE USE THE MODEL TODAY

NEXT STEPS FOR SENIOR LEADERS

The Senior Leader Competency Model is designed to be more than a description of the skills associated with executive-level learning leadership. It provides a framework for understanding the responsibilities of the role and identifying the capabilities leaders may need to strengthen as they move from functional expertise to enterprise leadership.

Moving into senior learning leadership requires deliberately developing capabilities beyond traditional L&D expertise. Whether you are preparing for a senior L&D role or already in one, the model can help you identify where to focus your development. To elevate your impact and strengthen your position as a strategic business leader, consider the following actions:

The model also provides a foundation for Training Industry’s work with senior learning leaders, informing our research, content and development initiatives around the challenges and capabilities most relevant to the role. By grounding this work in the model, we can maintain a consistent focus on the evolving responsibilities of senior L&D leaders and the skills required to lead learning as a strategic business function.

• Assess your readiness: Take the Executive Leader Quiz to know if the executive level is the right next step for you. Uncover barriers and gaps for improvement.

For practitioners, the model can serve as a reference point for career development, leadership development and conversations about what effective executivelevel learning leadership looks like. Its purpose is not to prescribe a single path to leadership, but to provide a common framework for understanding the role and preparing for its demands.

• Create opportunities to practice it: Seek work that requires you to build a business case, influence senior stakeholders, participate in enterprise change, make investment decisions or shape technology strategy.

• Choose a development priority: Choose one core responsibility to emphasize in the next quarter, such as financial management or team leadership.

• Collaborate intentionally: Build partnerships with leaders across the business, particularly in finance, HR, technology and business operations, to connect learning strategy to organizational priorities. • Invest in growth: Explore professional development opportunities, such as the Training Industry Senior Leaders Program, that align with the model.

THE PATH TO SENIOR L&D LEADERSHIP REQUIRES EXPANDING HOW YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR ROLE, FROM LEADING YOUR TRAINING TEAM TO HELPING LEAD THE ORGANIZATION.

The path to senior L&D leadership is not simply about becoming better at managing learning. It requires expanding how you think about your role, from leading your training team to helping lead the organization. The seven responsibilities in the Senior L&D Leader Competency Model provide a framework for making that shift. By taking intentional steps, senior L&D leaders can position themselves as organizational leaders who shape strategy, influence performance and drive measurable outcomes. Alyssa Kaszycki is the learning product manager at Training Industry, Inc., where she helps determine the needs of training managers and create course content to help them reach their professional goals. Amy DuVernet, Ph.D., CPTM, is the vice president of learning products at Training Industry, Inc., where she oversees all processes related to Training Industry’s courses for training professionals. Email the authors.

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STRATEGIES

LISTEN TO YOUR LEARNERS: THE KEY TO BETTER LEARNING DESIGN BY PAIGE YOUSEY, M.ED.

Think about the last time someone asked you for your input, then did nothing with it. Now imagine that’s your role in every learning experience. That’s where most learners sit. They show up. They try. They notice what doesn’t make sense, what’s missing and what could have made it easier. Sometimes they say it out loud. More often, they don’t because no one asked in a way that felt like it mattered. Or because the last time they did, nothing changed. We say we value feedback. We say we want engagement. But too often, we treat learner insight like noise to sort through, not signal to act on. And in doing so, we waste it.

when they know confusion will be met with support instead of judgment. After all, nobody wants to be the person who asks a question and immediately regrets it. When learners feel safe speaking up, they share the questions, experiences and perspectives that lead to better learning for everyone. Adult learners also want content that feels useful and relevant. Content built from learner input reflects their language, priorities and real-world challenges. When learners see their own questions and experiences

We waste the chance to make the experience more relevant. We waste the chance to improve clarity and connection. We waste the chance to build something that works better for the people it’s meant to serve. Learners have something to teach us. Their questions, their confusion, their workarounds, their real-world context is the raw material of better learning. Because learners are already creating. We just have to be ready to listen.

LEARNERS HAVE SOMETHING TO TEACH US. THEIR QUESTIONS, THEIR CONFUSION, THEIR WORKAROUNDS, THEIR REAL-WORLD CONTEXT IS THE RAW MATERIAL OF BETTER LEARNING.

TURNING EVERYDAY INTERACTION INTO LEARNING MATERIAL Every learning culture says it welcomes questions. Learners decide whether that’s true. When people feel safe admitting confusion, they participate differently. Learners are far more likely to contribute T R A I N I N G I N D USTR Y M A GAZ INE - FALL 2026 I WWW.TRAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

reflected in the material, engagement feels less like compliance and more like participation. Simple Tactics for Turning Input Into Assets These small but strategic actions help transform informal learner input into content that improves clarity, engagement and relevance. • Create quiz banks from real questions. Turn real learner questions into flashcards or quiz items. • Build clarity from confusion. Turn common errors into “mistake analysis” walkthroughs. • Expose and address misconceptions. Highlight popular learner misconceptions in new lessons. • Let learners shape what comes next. Allow learners to nominate topics for bonus modules based on their own learning challenges. REFLECTION AS A HIDDEN CONTENT ENGINE Making room for learner reflection is an essential part of any strong learning experience. Reflection allows learners to pause, process what they have learned and articulate what stood out. When this is built into the learning environment, it creates a steady stream of input that can inform future content decisions. These practices support the learning process and generate insight that educators and designers 53

MINDSETS TO DEVELOP Mindset influences everything in the learning environment. It shapes how we design content, how we respond to learners and how we define what success looks like. These shifts create the conditions for meaningful, responsive learning. Here are some simple but powerful mindset shifts that reinforce a learning culture built on contribution, not control. • Struggle is a signal: “When learners struggle, they’re identifying our next content priority.” • Design is a conversation: “Good learning design listens more than lectures.” • Learning is mutual: “I learn as much from learners as they do from me.” • Participation is the goal: “Good learning systems invite participation, not just consumption.” • Retention leads to contribution: “When learning sticks, learners want to give it back.”

can use to improve clarity, relevance and impact. Most learning evaluations tell us whether learners were satisfied. Reflection tells us what actually happened. When learners stop to think about what confused them, what surprised them or what finally made sense, they reveal the parts of the learning experience that matter most. That’s the kind of insight learning creators spend countless hours trying to uncover. The difference is that learners will often tell us directly if we make room for it. Techniques That Turn Reflection Into Content The following techniques create space for reflection while also capturing valuable learner insights that can shape future materials. • Capture clarity moments. Include a quick exit poll asking: “What’s one thing that made sense today that didn’t yesterday?” • Surface priority pain points. Use a quick form or chat thread where learners nominate the toughest concept from the session.

• Create space for unspoken questions. Provide a mechanism for learners to anonymously post the question they were afraid to ask. • Turn application into examples. Invite learners to contribute one real-world example that connects to the topic. • Celebrate growth. Prompt learners to submit their proudest learning moment in one sentence. DATA AS A SOURCE OF LEARNING INSIGHT

question, abandoned module and frantic search bar query leaves a clue. Learning data helps us spot patterns that learners may never say out loud. Used well, it can point us toward the content gaps, confusing explanations and hidden friction that deserve our attention. Tactics That Turn Analytics Into Action These are practical ways to use learning data to surface content needs, simplify complexity and strengthen the learner experience.

We often talk about being data-driven, but that doesn’t mean collecting data just for the sake of having it. Being truly data-driven means using evidence from learner behavior to shape what we build next. Learning data helps us see what is working, what is unclear and where learners are disengaging. When we use this information to refine our materials, we move from guesswork to informed action. The result is content that is better aligned with how people learn.

• Review test items most frequently missed and turn them into tutorials.

Learners do not always tell us when something is confusing but their behavior usually does. Every missed

• Compare cohorts over time to spot which content consistently leads to confusion.

• Analyze course dropout points to generate new learning segments. • Track time-on-task to identify overly complex modules that need simplification. • Track internal search terms in your learning management system (LMS) or platform to spot unmet content needs.

LEARNER VOICES DESERVE TO BE SEEN AND SHARED Learners regularly offer insight through questions, reflections and examples. Too often, that input fades into the background. When we take the time to elevate those contributions and recognize the people behind them, we show that learner voices are not only heard but valued. This creates a stronger culture of shared learning and signals that participation has a lasting impact. When learners see their contributions acknowledged and used, participation becomes more meaningful. Recognition shows that their effort mattered and reinforces that learner voices have a place in shaping the experience. Simple Practices for Featuring Learner Voice These examples show how to elevate learner contributions in visible and

meaningful ways, reinforcing that their voices have lasting value. • Tag learner-generated content. Add a “co-created with learners” tag to slides, modules and handouts. • Incorporate learner examples. Integrate top learner explanations or analogies into future versions of the course. • Compile and share learner tips. Use learner input to create a “Top 10 Tips from Real Learners” PDF. • Keep the learner’s voice visible. Build a recurring email series called “From the Learners.” • Give learners a platform. Invite high-contributing learners to copresent in webinars or discussions. LOOKING FORWARD We’ve asked learners to do a lot: show up, stay motivated, meet our goals and learn on our timelines. They’ve done it,

often without seeing themselves in the content, and without knowing if their voices made a difference. That needs to change. Because when a learner sees that their question shaped the next lesson, when they recognize their story in an example or when they hear someone say what they were too unsure to speak aloud, something shifts. The experience feels real. It feels human. We do not create better learning by guessing. We create it by listening, responding and building with the people it is meant for. It is not about giving up control. It is about honoring the insight that is already there. Paige Yousey, M.Ed., is manager of content development for enterprise education at The Institutes and an award-winning learning and development professional. She is passionate about supporting emerging leaders and advancing learning cultures that reflect the realities of today’s workplace. Email Paige.

THE BUSINESS OF LEARNING PODCAST Real conversations. Real challenges. Real learning impact. Training Industry’s award-winning podcast brings you candid discussions with the leaders and experts shaping the future of learning.

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PERSPECTIVES

DEAR L&D, STOP PROTECTING THE LMS BY KRISTINE WALTER

A leader wants to everyone. Not available. Assigned.

training assigned recommended or

Learning professionals know what that means. The learning platform will track and provide a dashboard monitoring compliance. Regardless of whether learning and development (L&D) agrees or disagrees, mandatory enrollment happens. Post-training, there is proof that people were enrolled, completion was measured, assessments were administered and the organization can point to a number and say that training happened. But did it? Dear L&D, the hard conversation is about what the profession protects (and leans on). The persistent yet misguided belief is simple: Completion means someone is educated, upskilled or changed. That belief does a lot of work outside of its own lane. Enrollment turns to action, completions to evidence and, often, “learning management system (LMS) traffic” becomes a budget justification for the platform. The enrollment-to-justification loop is not built by one person. Leaders may ask for enrollment and completion because those are the most common metrics made visible to them. L&D supplies them because those are among key data points an LMS tracks. Nobody is dishonest, yet the story is misleading. The metric is weak and load bearing at the same time. WHY L&D PROTECTS THE LMS To be fair, L&D does not protect the LMS because of confusion about how adults learn. Most know learning 56

happens outside of the course. APQC found knowledge workers spend 8.2 hours a week (400 hours a year) looking for, recreating and duplicating information and expertise. By contrast, ATD’s 2026 State of the Industry report found that employees used an average of 16.7 formal learning hours across the entire year. People question, search, skim, watch, try, fail and ask for help. The platform is guarded because it gives the learning shape. Courses are artifacts that can be counted and controlled. They are intentionally designed assets with defined outcomes and structure. The LMS is also territory and one of the places L&D fully owns compared to informal channels, help centers and in-application guidance that may be owned by other functions. Protecting the LMS can feel like protecting L&D itself, because at budget time the invisible learning is harder to measure and does not defend the L&D department.

Underneath all of it is the fear that, if learning already happens everywhere else without L&D, the concept of a broader knowledge ecosystem starts to sound like an argument for a training team’s irrelevance. LEARNING ALREADY HAPPENS OUTSIDE THE LMS The knowledge ecosystem is not a theoretical concept; it already exists. Learners are in applications, help centers, chat threads, video feeds, search engines and day-to-day interactions. They are using whatever gets them unstuck the quickest. They are also creating their own content to share with peers. Like water in a river, learners follow the path of least resistance. Over time, they carve the channels that get the job done. That practice is not a failure of structured learning in an LMS. Structured learning still has an important job inside the ecosystem, because some knowledge has no demand. Learners cannot search for what they do not know is missing.

LIKE WATER IN A RIVER, LEARNERS FOLLOW THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE. OVER TIME, THEY CARVE THE CHANNELS THAT GET THE JOB DONE.

However, continued learning and knowledge acquisition are not equal to knowledge governance. A selforganizing ecosystem does not equate to accuracy, maintenance, structure or planned resources. It does not even protect learners from confident but outdated answers and misinformation. “Stop protecting the LMS” does not mean abandoning the platform. Instead, it means stop asking it to represent the whole function of learning. The LMS has a role holding structured learning, supporting compliance and accounting for the known unknowns. That has not changed. But the actual function is much larger than just the LMS. WHERE L&D FITS IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEM To expand the organizational mindset of learning, first consider what is happening right now with artificial intelligence (AI) as it is changing patterns and relationships with knowledge. In some organizations, a knowledge management function already holds part of this work. In most small to mid-sized organizations, no one does. Either way, one question

goes unasked, and it is the question L&D exists to answer: Does the knowledge produce capability? L&D is positioned to audit where people go when they need instructions, new information and answers. Learning professionals also identify where workarounds, repeated questions, abandoned searches and peer support happen. That gathered information is evidence, not noise. The evidence differs by audience. Inside the organization, it often looks like informally created content that spreads because it is a quick fix, not because it builds longer-lasting capability. In customer learning, it looks like functions publishing in parallel without connecting the dots, so the customer receives conflicting instructions from the same company. BRING THE CAPABILITY QUESTION TO THE TABLE With evidence in hand, look for areas of missing governance: • Where is no for accuracy?

one

accountable

• Where is content duplicated?

5 SIGNS YOU ARE PROTECTING AN LMS 1.

Completion rates appear in leadership reports as proof of reach and learning.

Enrollment is mandatory, but no one monitors effects afterward.

Every learning request becomes a course, even when a course is the wrong container.

Low traffic triggers an adoption campaign or a new-platform conversation, rather than assessing where people are actually going to learn.

Budget defense leans on usage numbers rather than performance or business outcomes.

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• Where are learners getting versions of the same answer?

five

• Where does the right answer exist, yet performance still does not move? The first three questions belong to knowledge management (KM). The fourth belongs to L&D, and no other function is asking it. What L&D does next depends on what already exists. Where a KM function is present, join it and bring the capability question to the table. Where there is none, and where organizations cannot resource one, convene the content owners and advise. The role flexes; the accountability for coherence does not. This is not an argument for new territory. The profession does not need another platform to protect. It is an argument for showing up to a shared problem with expertise that is currently overlooked and missing from the table. The timing matters, because organizations are rushing to point AI at ungoverned knowledge. An AI tool trained on five versions of an answer delivers the wrong one with confidence — or all five at once adding to confusion. Diagnosing why that damages performance is learning expertise, not data hygiene. The LMS was never the profession; it was one delivery channel that happened to come with a dashboard. Protecting it keeps teams focused on the place where learning can be counted. Learning stewardship and advocacy follows people to every place learning happens. So, dearest L&D, recognize that the dashboard is not the destination. Kristine Walter is a learning strategy and AI-enabled learning leader with more than 20 years spanning organizational learning, customer education and regulatedindustry training. She is a doctoral student in the organizational learning, leadership and innovation program at Wilmington University, where her research examines knowledge fragmentation and governance across the systems where people learn. Email Kristine.

CULTURE AND WELL-BEING

DR. KRISTAL WALKER, CPTM

BRIDGING THE LEADERSHIP GAP: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD Behind every performance metric is a culture influencing the behaviors that produced it. Think about your own organization. What numbers tell you the business is doing well? Sales leaders might point to revenue, conversion rates or customer acquisition. Operations leaders may look to productivity, efficiency and quality. Those responsible for service delivery might monitor satisfaction, retention and response times. The metrics may differ across the business, but they have one thing in common: people and their behaviors sit behind the numbers. The sales team won’t hit its metrics if it doesn’t collaborate well. The operations team can’t achieve its goals without accountability and attention to detail. Customer experience teams will struggle if employees are not empowered to solve problems. These conditions sit at the intersection of culture and performance, and without an alignment between the two, no amount of knowledge or skill can guarantee the performance an organization expects.

FOR LEARNING LEADERS, RECOGNIZING CULTURE AS A CLASSROOM MEANS EXPANDING THE DESIGN PROCESS BEYOND THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE ITSELF. CULTURE IS THE CLASSROOM Employees are constantly learning from the environments in which they work. They learn by observing what behaviors are rewarded and which are ignored. They also watch

what leaders reinforce and what their peers have learned to accept as normal. Over time, those lessons become more powerful than anything we could present in a training. For learning leaders, recognizing culture as a classroom means expanding the design process beyond the learning experience itself. • Start by diagnosing the environment. Identify cultural conditions that could support or hinder application. • Next, collaborate with managers, subject matter experts and other stakeholders to get a better understanding of what employees will experience when they return to work. • Finally, equip leaders and teams with simple tools and opportunities to reinforce desired behaviors after the formal learning ends. YOU CAN’T TRAIN YOUR WAY OUT OF A CULTURE PROBLEM Learning leaders must also be willing to ask the more fundamental question of whether training should be the solution at all. While learning and development (L&D) teams can influence performance through knowledge building, upskilling and preparing employees for new expectations, that influence has its limits. Training cannot fix a leader who consistently undermines company values. It cannot resolve a process that makes the desired behavior unnecessarily difficult. Finally, training will not compensate for a workplace where employees are rewarded for doing the opposite

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of what they were taught in the learning environment. Recognizing those limitations of L&D strengthens its credibility among business stakeholders. At times, our role is to design training. Other times, it is to help the organization recognize that something in the company culture needs to change. Knowing when not to train may be just as important as knowing how to design training that works. CREATING CULTURES THAT DRIVE HIGH PERFORMANCE If culture can influence performance, then culture cannot be left to chance. Every decision, leadership behavior, business practice and employee experience sends a signal about what matters and how work gets done. Creating a culture that drives high performance, therefore, requires alignment between what an organization says, what its leaders demonstrate and what employees experience. High performance requires clear expectations, accountability and a commitment to results, but it also requires trust, support, wellbeing and the conditions that allow people to consistently do their best work. The culture behind high performance is one where leaders pay attention not only to the results that the business produces, but also the culture producing them. Dr. Kristal Walker, CPTM, SHRM-CP, is the vice president of learning and talent development at Sweetwater Sound. Kristal is also a facilitator for Training Industry’s Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM) program. Email Kristal. 59

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BUILDING LEADERS

MARSHALL GOLDSMITH & SUZIE BISHOP

LEADERSHIP AS A CONDUIT BETWEEN TRAINING AND IMPACT Leadership plays a key role in organizational communication by being the connection point between strategy and the front line. For individual contributors, their leaders provide the only insight they get into higher-level strategy. This is often most critical during times of change, but that isn’t the only time leaders should be making use of their unique role.

IT’S THE LEADER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO HELP THE PERFORMER MAKE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE TRAINING AND HOW THAT CAN TRANSLATE INTO IMPACT. Learning and development (L&D) teams are continuously faced with the challenge of connecting training to actual business impact. Often, individuals go through training but fall short of bringing that training into their day-to-day workflow. Leaders can change this by taking on a more significant role in the training process, connecting training to strategy and becoming an accountability partner for their team members. This partnership between L&D and leaders often goes untapped because of a lack of structure and understanding of “how” to make it happen. Here are four key moments between a leader and follower that result in better training transfer.

1. PRETRAINING Before an individual attends training, leaders should set up a meeting to discuss what the training involves and align goals for applying the new skills or processes to their work. This is where the leader has the opportunity to bring in the context of big-picture organizational goals the performer might not be aware of. It’s the leader’s responsibility to help the performer make connections between the training and how that can translate into impact. 2. DURING TRAINING Here’s where the responsibility falls on the performer. During training, the individual needs to keep the agreedupon goals front of mind, actively considering how they might use what they are learning. By creating expectations upfront, they can go into training with greater buy-in and a clearer understanding of what is expected of them. 3. POST-TRAINING One to two weeks after training, it is critical that the leader and their team member reconnect about the training. This allows them to discuss what the individual learned while it’s still fresh in their mind. Both parties should come out of this meeting in agreement on tangible ways the individual will apply the training to their work in alignment with the goals they discussed pretraining. It’s all too easy to fall back into the flow of work and miss this opportunity to sit down, reflect and plan ahead, but it

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is necessary for tying training to real business impact. 4. ONGOING Training might be a single event but applying that knowledge is an ongoing process. Leaders can be the difference between past training falling to the side and being forgotten or becoming the forefront of an individual’s development. Ongoing touchpoints to follow up on the action items you agreed on posttraining enable you to hold your team member accountable and create a space to discuss and resolve any challenges in translating training to the real world. Taking a more hands-on role during team members’ training is just one way leaders can act as a conduit between the C-suite strategy and the front line. These kinds of check-ins, alignment on goals and discussions of how individuals’ work ties to business outcomes should be a regular practice in leadership. This doesn’t just benefit top leadership. It results in higher engagement for individual contributors by giving them a clearer path to success and connecting their work to a larger purpose. Most people want their work to have meaning. Often what they’re missing is information and direction. Leaders can fill that gap. Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders get even better. Suzie Bishop is the vice president of product development at The Center for Leadership Studies. Email the authors.

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WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH

JD DILLON

THE “GOOD ENOUGH” TECH TRAP IN L&D I didn’t buy my first learning management system (LMS); I inherited it. The platform came bundled with our human resources information system (HRIS). My job was to make it work. And I tried. I really did. However, I quickly realized it didn’t fit the way work got done on the front line. I needed more than a content repository or system of record. I wanted to help people build capability and solve problems as part of the job. I knew a standard LMS couldn’t support that vision. But finance and IT believed I already had the tools I needed to do my job.

systems. They’re communication tools, knowledge hubs and reinforcement apps that help people share expertise, apply what they know and solve problems on the job. Better yet, they fit into the workflow instead of hiding behind seven clicks in an HR system.

Why buy more technology when what we had was “good enough,” they questioned.

I stopped looking for the perfect learning platform and now focus on designing the right experience through a purposeful blend of technologies. Some are owned by L&D. Many belong to operations, communications and other functions. My success depends on bringing these tools together into a seamless enablement ecosystem that powers the workflow instead of competing for employees’ attention.

SHIFT THE MINDSET

MAKE THE CASE

Most people still think learning looks like school. There’s a performance problem, so learning and development (L&D) builds a course, assigns it and tracks completion. If that’s your strategy, then a basic LMS is all you need.

It’s hard to ask for more L&D tech when every expense is scrutinized. Businesscritical systems and customer-facing projects rise to the top when IT resources are limited. Rather than making the case alone, partner with stakeholders who share responsibility for employee performance. Together, craft a roadmap that supports business needs, maximizes investments and identifies opportunities to strengthen your enablement capabilities.

Justifying additional tech investment starts with shifting this perception. L&D teams must break free from the course-first mindset that anchors us to the LMS and SCORM content. Then we must help business stakeholders recognize that workforce enablement extends far beyond course delivery. The conversation shifts when we stop talking about “learning tech” and start demonstrating how the right tools boost organizational capable, agility and readiness. EXPAND THE ECOSYSTEM The most impactful learning platforms I deploy are rarely traditional L&D

Remember what matters to decision makers. They’re balancing cost, complexity, security, integration and long-term support, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes enterprise strategy. Your business case must go well beyond feature lists and product demos. Emphasize how additional tech delivers measurable business value. Show that you have a clear plan to implement, govern and support your ecosystem.

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Shift the conversation from buying more software to investing in the infrastructure that enables your business.

SHIFT THE CONVERSATION FROM BUYING MORE SOFTWARE TO INVESTING IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ENABLES YOUR BUSINESS. CHALLENGE ASSUMPTIONS IT once told me we didn’t need a knowledge system because we had Google Drive. I challenged them to prove it. Two days later, they relented, and I got my wiki. They didn’t change their mind because I found a better system. They approved because I demonstrated a clear business need. Traditional learning tech still has a role to play. Compliance training still exists. But today’s enablement ecosystem reaches far beyond the LMS to include digital assistants, immersive simulations, automation tools and countless other technologies. Solving complex people challenges requires more than “good enough.” It’s up to us to show why. JD Dillon is a respected advisor, speaker, and author of The Frontline Enablement Playbook and The Modern Learning Ecosystem. With 25 years of experience leading operations and talent development with companies like Disney, AMC, and Kaplan, he partners with organizations to reimagine enablement strategy and architect AI-powered performance ecosystems. Email JD.

CASEBOOK

DESIGNING TRAINING OPERATIONS THAT SCALE: A CASE STUDY BY BENJI WITTMAN, MBA, CPTM

Many of the biggest challenges in learning and development (L&D) aren’t learning challenges; they’re operational challenges. That realization started for me about five years ago on my first day at Sweetwater. I was given a simple directive: “Make training better.” Where do you even begin? Fortunately, I joined an organization with a strong training culture. The content was already excellent. Even the weakest programs would have been considered strong elsewhere. So the work became less about designing courses and more about designing the systems that made great training possible. I stopped thinking like an instructional designer and started thinking like a systems architect. Everything that followed — from scheduling, to automations, to our learning management system (LMS) strategy — flowed from that mindset shift. WE DIDN’T SET OUT TO BUILD AN LMS The first real opportunity wasn’t instructional in nature, instead it was logistical. Scheduling training sessions was fragmented, manual and dependent on too many disconnected systems.

At first, investing in a new platform felt hard to justify. So instead of asking what we should buy, I asked: How can we make what we already have work better together? We were already using configurable tools with automation, data relationships and integration capabilities. What was missing was workflow design. What began as a scheduling fix slowly evolved into an interconnected operational system supporting hundreds of training events each year. More importantly, it reshaped our thinking: Scalable training operations don’t come from a perfect platform, they come from intentionally designing the flow of information, people and learning experiences throughout an organization. THINK LIKE AN OPERATOR BEFORE YOU THINK LIKE A TECHNOLOGIST Before evaluating platforms, we stepped back and identified the outcomes we were trying to achieve: • Schedule training at scale • Reduce manual coordination and communication • Standardize delivery across programs

• Improve visibility for learners, managers and administrators • Reduce repetitive administrative work • Scale learning without operational overhead

scaling

WHEN THE WORKFLOW IS UNCLEAR, EVEN THE BEST TOOL JUST AUTOMATES CONFUSION.

One early example involved a technical onboarding program spanning five departments. Each new hire completed two to three weeks of full-time instruction. The training itself was effective, but the logistics behind it were almost entirely manual. Schedules lived in one system, instructor availability in another and coordination happened through constant back-andforth communication. As hiring increased, the system didn’t scale.

Using low-code tools already in place, we synchronized our training database with our enterprise calendar tool. Instructors gained automatic visibility into upcoming sessions, and onboarding cohorts could be scheduled through a repeatable cadence rather than manual coordination. Once we understood the workflow, decisions about automation, standardization and tooling became obvious. Technology stopped leading the design and started supporting it. BUILD IN LAYERS, NOT GIANT PROJECTS The next lesson was to avoid designing complete systems upfront. Instead of attempting a full rebuild, we iterated. A shared onboarding database became the foundation. From there, we added capability gradually — one automation, integration or improvement at a time. Over the next two years, that simple calendaring experiment gradually evolved into a robust operational system supporting registration, attendance tracking, QR check-ins, reminders, feedback collection, assessments, grading and reporting. For example, when a new hire was added to the onboarding dataset, our database automatically aligned them to the appropriate learning path, allowed us to register them for sessions, placed events on instructor and attendee calendars, generated attendance rosters and triggered reminder emails. After class, attendance, feedback, quiz scores and completion data flowed back into the same system with minimal manual entry. None of those capabilities were planned on day one. Each emerged in response to a real operational challenge. Had we tried to design the entire system upfront, it likely would have stalled under its own complexity. Instead, the system evolved one workflow at a time, with each layer making the next one possible. Eventually, what once required multiple people coordinating across multiple systems became a largely self-sustaining workflow, all built without introducing a new platform.

The same layered philosophy shaped our eLearning strategy. We didn’t begin by purchasing a full-featured LMS. Instead, we intentionally matured our learning ecosystem in stages. • Layer 1: Prototype. We started by hosting simple HTML learning resources internally. We wanted to validate ideas, understand learner needs and habits and discover what worked before investing heavily in a long-term solution. • Layer 2: Organize. As our resources and content library grew, we expanded into a centralized knowledge base tool. This gave us a single source of truth, standardized documentation and a repeatable structure for managing learning resources. • Layer 3: Connect. Next, we linked our learning resources with the scheduling ecosystem we had already built using low-code tools and cloud-based databases. Lesson plans, enrollments, calendar invitations and communications became connected parts of a single workflow. Every manual step became an opportunity for automation. • Layer 4: Formalize. Only after we understood our workflows did we pilot a lightweight LMS. By this point, the LMS itself wasn’t defining our processes, it was supporting the ones we already had established.

The first is simple: build processes that get the right message to the right people at the right time. That’s what training operations is. It’s the work of shaping systems so information reaches the people and systems that need it without friction, delay or manual chasing. Second, I learned to start with workflows, not platforms. Platforms don’t solve problems in isolation. When the workflow is unclear, even the best tool just automates confusion. Third, build once, benefit many times. Some work is repeated hundreds or thousands of times, so it makes sense to invest upfront in systems, automation and structure. Other work is one-off and should stay lightweight. That distinction is what turns training operations into leverage over time. Fourth, good systems absorb complexity so people don’t have to. The goal isn’t simplicity on the surface at all costs. Sometimes the system gets more complex behind the scenes, so the experience becomes simpler for everyone else. Finally, I learned that the goal isn’t maximum customization, it’s intentional customization. Every custom workflow creates long-term ownership. That’s not bad, but it must be deliberate. If you overbuild, you don’t just create a solution, you create future maintenance work that must be carried forward.

• Layer 5: Specialize. Finally, once we had years of operational experience under our belt, we were able to make a business case for a purpose-built LMS. We had documented our workflows, identified our operational gaps and created a detailed checklist of the capabilities that mattered most. Choosing the right platform became dramatically easier because we understood our processes first.

Taken together, these ideas reshaped how I think about training operations. We didn’t set out to build an LMS, we set out to solve one operational problem at a time. Over time, those solutions became an interconnected, scalable learning ecosystem. That’s what systems architects do. When the system is well designed, the right technology becomes much easier to choose.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT DESIGNING TRAINING SYSTEMS

Benji Wittman, MBA, CPTM is the training operations manager at Sweetwater, where he leads sales enablement and technical training programs. He focuses on driving measurable business impact by aligning learning strategy, building scalable digital training systems and enabling crossfunctional collaboration that supports organizational performance. Email Benji.

Looking back at how our training systems evolved, a few principles kept showing up. None of them were obvious at the start. They came from repeated attempts to fix the same operational problems in slightly better ways each time:

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CONGRATS TO THE FOLLOWING

CPTM GRADUATES WHO HAVE BECOME ALUMNI SINCE OUR LAST ISSUE. Congrats to these graduates from the same company! Colorado Department of Revenue Carolyn Berry Catherine Flanagan

Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Astrid Puentes Victor Bui

V2X David Walters Phonsavanh Inthyvong

NC State Employees’ Credit Union Brooke Vibert Madison Keith Tony Stroud

USAA Erica Strak Sherry Hertle

Aarthi Ramesh American Council for Technology

Benjamin Oleshansky Breitling

Elisabeth Leite Geico

Adrian Rojas Hinojos Electrolux Consumer Products

Candi Clark United Therapeutics Corporation

Emily Dauer Prolacta Bioscience

Adriana Zucco Tutasig American University

Carrie Peed Greenville Utilities Commission

Gregory Stinyard CAE USA

Aisha Adedeji Calderys

Chris Hanes Results Oriented Learning

James Deese HBI

Alica Babova Donaldson Filtration Allison Walsh DeepHealth

Christopher Langley KBR Christopher Pate Maersk Training

Jametria Able HHS/ACF Jason Arnold OneSchool Global

Amanda Longo Training Industry, Inc.

Dana Zerlin

Jeanette McWilliams First Federal Bank

Andrew Bond Nestle Purina PetCare

Ed Lohr Apria

Jennifer DelGizzi Middlesex Savings Bank

Angel Mulero-Collazo Buckeye Partners

Eleanor McQuaid Arjo

Jeni Tetu GAF Manufacturing

April Caldwell World Bank I Building

Elizabeth Conrad Verge Mobile

Jenny Watson Argent Energy Ltd

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Matthew Majors Gypsum Management & Supply

Shanna Linn InStride Health

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Joseph Etter Broward Sheriff’s Office

Mattie Blakely Ajinomoto Foods North America

Shenée Woodson Justice Federal Credit Union

Joseph Farrell Amvac Chemical

Melissa Guattery Boehringer Ingelheim

Sherneka Caron Tacoma Public Utilities

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Michael Starks KenStar Solutions, LLC

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Traci Johnson U.S. Census Bureau

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Kandy Gonsalves City of Kennewick Kelley Grayson Syniti Kenneth Aldrich Harris & Harris Lauren Anderson Zillow Laurie King Pasco County BOCC Lisa Bullard-Paynter ICF Marissa Park NRG

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Your accomplishment places you amongst an elite group of learning and development professionals. We cannot wait to see how you will lead the change!

Visit trainingindustry.com/cptm to learn more about how you can earn the CPTM credential and join over 3,000 CPTM graduates.

CLOSING DEALS OPENSESAME EXPANDS LEARNING ECOSYSTEM THROUGH STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS BY SARAH GALLO, CPTM Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the nature of work, prompting organizations to rethink how they prepare employees to adapt to shifting roles and business needs. However, AI adoption isn’t as easy as implementing a new tool and expecting employees to use it effectively. Training Industry, Inc., research found that highperforming organizations take an intentional approach to AI adoption, exploring different use cases while testing and refining how it can best support learning. They also report more positive attitudes toward AI, highlighting the importance of strategy and culture in driving impact. For learning leaders, preparing employees for an AI-driven future means building AI fluency alongside essential human skills and capabilities. OpenSesame is responding to these needs through new partnerships with MIT Sloan Management Review, Second City Works and Vector Solutions. The partnerships expand its learning offerings in AI strategy, leadership, human skills, workplace safety and compliance, while supporting the company’s broader evolution from a learning content marketplace to an AIpowered learning platform. WHY THESE PARTNERSHIPS? Through these partnerships, OpenSesame wasn’t just looking to “add content for the sake of adding content,” says Don Spear, CEO of OpenSesame. “The gap we were seeing is employers are trying to prepare people for AI-driven change. But they’re also wanting to continue to strengthen their leadership, communications, safety and compliance. Having all that together in one place is important.” 68

The partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review adds more than 65 courses on topics like AI strategy and digital transformation, leadership, business strategy and workplace culture. MIT Sloan Management Review’s combination of “technical understanding and cultural communication through leadership” stood out in the market, Spear says. The partnership with Second City Works adds 150 short-form courses focused on human skills such as communication and collaboration. The professional development arm of Second City uses humor and storytelling to make content more engaging and consumable for learners. “People nowadays like to have courses that really feel and look more like their Instagram Reels or TikTok,” Spear says. Lastly, the partnership with Vector Solutions expands OpenSesame’s safety and compliance training offerings through OSHA 10 Construction training. Spear notes growing construction activity, including data center development, as one area where the training can help employers quickly prepare workers to enter construction zones while reducing safety risks.

content. “Customers, they continue to need a marketplace, but not one that simply gives them more content. They need help identifying what matters, tailoring content to the employee and connecting it to the work and role.” This approach combines human and AI curation with customizable content and AIdriven coaching. OpenSesame considers factors such as the learner’s job role, required skills, current proficiency level and the business outcomes an organization is trying to achieve when determining which learning is most relevant. The company’s integration with Workday is another example of this evolution. OpenSesame recently became Workday’s only embedded learning content partner, allowing Workday customers to discover and access OpenSesame courses and tools directly through the platform. Spear says this can help “reduce the friction between identifying a skills gap and then giving an employee a way to close it simply and conveniently.” LOOKING AHEAD: PERSONALIZATION, RELEVANCE AND TRUST

The partnerships indicate a shift from providing access to a large content library to helping organizations identify and deliver the right learning for the right learner at the right time.

As OpenSesame continues to leverage AI for personalized learning, Spear says trusted human expertise will remain essential. AI can help narrow down the vast number of available courses, but L&D teams and managers still need to evaluate and align the content with employees’ individual roles, skill level and business context. The goal, Spear says, is to help organizations build skills, reduce risk and connect learning to measurable workforce outcomes.

With over 68,000 courses in its catalog — including over 2,000 AI-related courses added in the past year — Spear says the challenge isn’t simply providing enough

Sarah Gallo, CPTM, is a senior editor at Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of “The Business of Learning,” the Training Industry podcast. Email Sarah.

THE EVOLUTION FROM LEARNING CONTENT MARKETPLACE TO AIPOWERED LEARNING PLATFORM

COMPANY NEWS

ACQUISITIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS OpenGate Capital has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Maersk Training and its subsidiary, Maersk H2S Safety Services, from A.P. Møller-Mærsk. Maersk Training provides safety training, competency development and simulation across the energy, maritime and renewables sectors. The transaction is expected to close later in 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. 360training has acquired select assets from seven specialized compliance training brands, expanding its portfolio across health care, workplace safety, food handling, hazardous materials, forklift operations and transportation. The acquisition adds 57 courses and broadens 360training’s reach across regulated industries requiring recurring training, certification and compliance support.

Anthropic has partnered with Pearson to provide proctored, identity-verified assessments for its expanded Claude Certification Program. The program includes four role-based credentials covering practical AI use, application development, solution architecture and enterprise deployment. More than 36,000 consultants across 1,300 organizations have already earned certifications. OpenSesame has expanded its partnership with Workday to become the company’s first and only embedded learning content partner. The collaboration integrates OpenSesame content with Workday Learning, Workday Skills Cloud and Career Hub, helping organizations connect skills intelligence with relevant training and workforce development opportunities through a more unified experience.

DataCamp has partnered with Google Cloud to bring official Google Cloud courses directly into its learning platform. The collaboration provides training developed by Google Cloud experts in cloud computing, generative AI and agentic AI. DataCamp plans to expand the offering to more than 100 Google Cloud courses throughout 2026. iMocha has partnered with Udemy to connect skills validation with personalized learning. The collaboration integrates iMocha’s AI-powered skills intelligence and assessment capabilities with Udemy Business content, helping organizations identify workforce skill gaps and direct employees to relevant development opportunities while connecting skills data with learning, workforce readiness and internal mobility.

INDUSTRY NEWS PERSONALIZED LEARNING POWERED BY WORKFORCE DATA Workday has launched Workday Learning, powered by Sana, an AI-native learning experience that combines workforce and skills data with personalized training. The platform includes an AI tutor, personalized learning paths, AI-assisted content creation, translation and automated learning administration. Organizations can also connect learning data with outcomes such as skills development, mobility and retention. Accenture is among the companies incorporating the platform into its broader learning ecosystem. OFFLINE LEARNING FOR HUMANITARIAN WORKERS Cornerstone has launched DisasterReady, a mobile app that allows humanitarian workers to download courses and access training offline in areas with limited or no internet connectivity. Offered at no cost, DisasterReady provides training in areas including personal

safety, security, program management and humanitarian essentials. Since its launch, the initiative has reached more than 1.5 million learners across 195 countries, with courses available in four languages. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT SCALE The Chartered Management Institute has rolled out Thrive’s learning platform to support more than 280,000 management and leadership professionals worldwide. The platform brings learning content, professional development pathways, member communications and CPD tracking into one connected experience across web and mobile. Members can access personalized learning, collaborative spaces and on-demand resources, while CMI gains greater visibility into engagement, skills progression and development activity across its global community.

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ONE PLATFORM FOR LEARNING Open LMS has consolidated its former higher education and corporate platforms into a single learning management system with the release of version 5.1. The unified platform brings updates, reporting, automation and AI-enhanced course design into one codebase, allowing new capabilities to reach all customers more consistently. Open LMS says the move is designed to simplify its product offering while maintaining the flexibility of an open-source learning environment.

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Proving Impact, Driving Results | Fall 2026