2026: The Year of L&D's Great Reinvention
We can't wait any longer. The time is now for L&TD to reinvent ourselves.
2026 is here. I’m watching futurists roll out their predictions, and it sure is fun. All that imagining, forecasting, and debating what’s next reveals challenges, possibilities, and dreams of solutions. It's like candy for those of us who like to play with future visions.
But this year, I’m opting out of predictions.
Instead, I’m issuing a challenge. Not about what will happen, but about what must happen for Learning & Talent Development (L&TD) if we want to stay relevant, valuable, and impactful.
Here it is, and yes, this is simple to say, yet painfully hard to do:
We need to reinvent our profession.
Not tweak it. Not rebrand it. Reinvent it.
Here's my honest take about where we are, why the timing matters now, and what needs to fundamentally change.
Our Current Reality (Let's Call It What It Is)
For years, we’ve played the game. We take requests from the business and deliver, often brilliantly. We’re really good at creating polished, engaging, beautifully designed learning solutions. Yes, we can pat ourselves on the back here a bit. We really are rock stars!
Never mind that these awesome solutions don't always solve the actual business problem. We've learned to live with that. Pushing back can feel exhausting, political, or downright risky. So, we comply. We deliver. We move on to the next request.
And to be clear, our current model does help the organization in real ways:
Enjoyment. Because we are good at creating engaging experiences, people generally like our programs. They learn something, feel inspired, have an “aha,” or at least enjoy a break from the daily grind. That matters.
Recruitment talking points. Our course catalogs give recruiters a solid answer to one of the candidates' favorite questions, “How will I grow here?”
Manager easy buttons. When managers need something for a restless high performer, a training component to a PIP, or a checkbox for their team, we tell them not to worry. We’ve got a course for that.
Compliance. Yes, this one matters as this type of training helps our organizations meet legal requirements and avoid costly fines.
Bottom line: we check a lot of boxes even if we don’t (or can’t) measure real impact.
Why This Isn't Enough Anymore
This request-driven, box-checking approach is no longer enough. Truly, it hasn’t been enough for a long time.
We know this. We can envision a future where this isn't the case, but getting there is an uphill, legacy fighting battle. That's because the shift we need isn’t just an L&TD shift, it’s a cultural shift in how the organization works with us.
The challenge doesn't stop there. Most business leaders aren’t lying awake at night wondering how L&D could operate differently or more effectively. From their perspective, things are “fine.” They get training when they ask for it so that means it's working, right? Rocking the boat and changing things up in the L&TD arena isn't on their radar.
Historically, these same leaders haven’t demanded more. They accept L&TD as a necessary part of the organization (see box-checking bullet points above). But when it comes to more than this simple acceptance, they haven't held our feet to the fire.
ROI? Rarely required.
Proof of behavior change? Nice, but optional.
Strategic alignment? Often dictated to us, not co-created.
L&D has been accepted as “good enough.” Until now.
We're at a Turning Point
There has never been a better, or more urgent, time to reinvent our work, for two main reasons.
Reason 1. The Age of Financial Scrutiny
Our economy demands that budgets tighten and every dollar is questioned. Anything that doesn’t clearly add value, improve performance, or move the business forward is at risk. Even if leaders want it to be about people first, they are often forced to make difficult choices about spending. It isn't personal. It's business survival.
And let’s be honest: as a profession, we haven’t consistently shown strong, credible ties to revenue growth, cost reduction, or sustained behavior change. We’ve leaned on smile sheets and participation metrics, and we all know those don’t hold up under scrutiny.
But now, not rising to the challenge of some type of ROI, proven behavior change, or strategic alignment is catching up. How many L&TD professionals have you seen laid off in the last few years? I couldn't find a clean statistic, but anecdotally, the signal is loud. My inbox, LinkedIn, and conversations with L&TD colleagues tell the same story.
In an age of financial scrutiny, “nice to have” doesn’t survive.
Reason 2. AI, Automation, and the Transaction Trap
Yep. I said it, "AI."
We can't ignore it. Much of the transactional work L&D does today will be automated. Not perfectly. Not immediately. But with an anticipated cost savings carrot that will cause many organizations to bite, deciding that automation results in a product that's “good enough.”
When cost-cutting is prioritized for survival, “good enough and cheaper” often wins. If our value is defined by transactional outputs, much of what we do is (or will be) seen as replaceable.
Why L&TD Still Matters (More Than Ever)
Here’s where the irony emerges. Eliminating L&TD may help the budget short-term, but it creates massive long-term risk. People and talent challenges aren’t going away. They’re getting more difficult and complex.
BCG reports that over 70% of HR leaders cite people and talent challenges as their biggest obstacle.
A 2025 DDI study found that 50% of CEOs say developing future leaders is a top challenge, yet only 12% trust their leadership bench.
The 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report estimates a 58% increase in demand for leadership, social influence, and talent management skills and a 30% increase in the need for teaching and mentoring skills in the next five years.
Think about the challenges in your current organization. How many of them are really people challenges at their root? Challenges that are ultimately the result of poor leadership, collaboration, feedback, trust, or coaching, to name a few. As technology advances, these gaps don’t disappear, they become more visible.
This is where L&TD should shine. We are the functions that can solve many of these talent challenges. We have the skills and expertise to develop people in improving the very skills that are lacking. But given the pressures from financial scrutiny and automation, we can't drive these solutions using our current approach. Nor should we.
2026: The Year of the Great L&TD Reinvention
We don’t need more traditional, order-taking L&TD. That model has outlived its usefulness. It keeps us in a box and limits our effectiveness to what other people think we can do. Not what we actually can accomplish.
It’s time to flip the learning ecosystem on its head and show up differently.
So, what does reinvented L&TD actually look like in practice?
The Reinvented L&TD Professional
1. Business-Savvy Leaders
Reinvented L&TD pros lead with business acumen first. They understand how the organization makes money, measures success, and prioritizes work. They focus on business improvement as their overall goal. L&D expertise matters, but it’s applied in service of business outcomes, not as the default answer.
2. Strategic Operators
Reinvented L&TD pros don’t respond to the loudest voice, the highest title, or the first person to bring them a request. Instead, they work according to a proactive, business-aligned strategy. This means they prioritize intentionally, knowing resources are finite. Their work aligns to the most critical business goals, and it’s designed to scale.
3. Organizational Problem-Solving Facilitators
Reinvented L&TD pros fall in love with problems before they propose solutions. They show up to meetings with stakeholders not to "help" others, but to "partner in problem solving." They know training requests are pain points in disguise. They lean on skills like performance consulting to uncover root cause issues before committing to more. When learning isn’t the fix, they help connect the right partners to solve the real issue.
4. Ecosystem Engagers
When learning is the best solution, reinvented L&TD pros don't immediately jump to the old-faithful formal learning events. Rather, they consider the entire learning ecosystem. They know that one-and-done events rarely work to change behavior or improve performance and that formal learning is only one lever. They also build daily practice, learning in the flow of work, coaching, job aids, supervisor support, and habit formation. They design for behavior change, not events and they drive learning culture, not course catalogs.
5. Stakeholder Management Masters
Reinvented L&TD pros are masters at working with all types of stakeholders. They balance empathy with clarity. They ensure that expectations are explicit, communication is clear and consistent, and results are visible. Stakeholders love working with them because they solve real problems and make leaders look good.
6. Change Champions
Reinvented L&TD pros understand how change actually happens and what it takes to get people on board. They are change champions, change agents, change advisors, and change leaders, infusing change principles into their solutions and also shifting their own place in the organization. They move from order taker to strategic business partner one conversation at a time.
7. Digital Collaborators
Reinvented L&TD pros don't see technology as a shiny object. They see it as a collaborative partner. They stay current, think strategically, and drive how tools are used instead of being driven by them.
8. Standards-Setting Practitioners
Reinvented L&TD pros model what they teach. They walk the talk, never asking the rest of the business to do something they haven't already worked hard to achieve. If they develop leaders, they are strong leaders. If they teach difficult conversations, they practice them internally. If the business has KPIs, so do they. Their audio and their video match.
Let's Be Real
This isn't easy. This isn't a process tweak. It's so much bigger than that. This is a mindset shift for L&TD and the entire organization.
But I believe it is possible. And I believe if enough of us start changing how we show up, one decision, one conversation, one partnership at a time, we can reinvent our profession.
If you want help doing exactly that, let's talk.
2026 is the year. Let's reinvent L&TD together.
———————————
To learn more about how we might work together, including assessing your team’s current status with the L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment and corresponding Team Development Roadmap, contact Jess today.
