Which Mode Is Your Learning Team Stuck In?
Most learning teams I’ve worked with run in one of four modes:
1/ The Classroom Wizard 🪄
A team whose whole identity lives in the room. Great facilitators, deep subject matter expertise. The session is where the team’s craft lies.
They measure success on how engaging and participative the session is. What happens after the session often goes unnoticed.
2/ The Reliable Servicer 🛎️
A team that is great at servicing requests. Responsive, dependable, fast. A department asks for a workshop on feedback, so the team builds one. Request in, course out.
The success of the team is measured in learning hours and courses delivered, so that’s where the energy goes. The brief rarely gets questioned, even when the brief is the actual problem.
3/ The Orchestrator 🧩
A team that is great at assembling courses. Find the vendor, book the facilitator, make sure the SME has reviewed it, get it on the calendar and in the budget. The logistics are flawless.
Courses delivered on time, within budget and on the calendar is what the team considers a success. Behaviour change? That’s often not the focus.
4/ The Problem Solver 🧭
A team that doesn’t start with “what course do you want” but “what is not working and what do people do differently?”. A course is one option that could solve the problem. These teams are okay to consider that a course might not solve the problem at all.
Success is solving the problem and having data to back up the delta of change.
We've all been part of teams 1 to 3 (myself included!). But 4 is where the cutting edge is heading.
The first 3 start with the format and work backwards. The Classroom Wizard 🪄 starts with the session; The Reliable Servicer 🛎️ starts with a request. The Orchestrator 🧩 starts with the timeline.
Only the last one starts with the problem and then decides the format.
No team picks its mode on its own. What gets measured, who holds the budget, whether anyone is allowed to even push back on the brief: that’s what sorts a team into one of the first three and keeps it there.
So the real question isn't which type your team is. It's what's holding it there.
