🛳️ L&D Overboard

L&D feels a little like it's gone overboard. Not drowning, just treading water, unsure which direction is even worth swimming toward.

No one really knows where the shore is yet.

So my friend Bo Dury and I decided to get a room full of L&D leaders together and talk about it. Big shout to Egle Vinauskaite, Filip Lam, Sara Frasi and Wencke MacKenzie for coming on this ride with us!

Here's what came out of it. 3 things L&D needs to let go of 👋, and 3 things to embrace instead ⚓️.

👋 Let go of asking learners what they want.

⚓️ Embrace reimagining the format entirely.

Learners will ask for a course, a shorter module, a better LMS. Faster horses, all of them. What they actually need is a format they don't have the vocabulary to ask for yet. L&Ds need to stop taking the brief at face value and start reimagining the format entirely.

👋  Let go of being the specialist.

⚓️ Embrace being the orchestrator.

For years, L&D's job was to know things. Own the content. Be the expert in the room. AI can produce content faster than any of us now. The value has moved. The best L&D leaders orchestrate: they pull the right people, tools, and process together at the right moment. It's more about where you sit than what you know.

👋  Let go of counting what you did.

⚓️ Embrace counting what you fixed.

Courses delivered. Hours logged. Completion rates. None of it means much if it isn't tied to something the business actually feels. The teams that matter five years from now won't be the ones who ran the most sessions. They'll be the ones who can point to a bottleneck and say: we fixed that.

What do you need to let go of first?

We'll be running more sessions like this. If you want in on the next one, fill out this form.