Your top choices for podcast episodes and articles throughout 2025. Hint: practical actions always win.

How L&D professionals can align with stakeholders and focus on what truly matters.

It’s strategic simplification in your pocket.

Business aligned L&D strategies don't start with brainstorming.

Your strategy is only as strong as what you don’t include.

If you’re trying to win the argument, you’ve already lost the partnership.

What skills are critical for people development professionals in the age of disruption?

Leaving order-taking behind in favor of working as a strategic business partner means you need to move beyond changing your processes.

Eliminate your fear of irrelevance with an alternate approach.

Begging for buy-in means we might be approaching our work backwards.

Complaining about not having a seat indicates that we don't understand what it means to actually have one.

Getting knocked off kilter might just be the best learning strategy.

Let’s get intentional about the purpose of the learning and design accordingly.

Get started or get caught up on the L&D Must Change podcast with the episodes at the top of the 2024 download list.

Let's make sure the choice to say yes or no to requests is intentional and strategic.

Training cannot fix unclear expectations from leadership. Of course, we can and should help to communicate any expectations about desired behavior and job role as part of the training product we produce. But if those expectations aren't clear in the first place, no amount of training will fix the problem.

Yes, we can help managers learn how to provide effective feedback and coaching for their team members. But, no amount of even the most awesome training for their team members can make-up for a manager who does not do this work. Training isn't a substitution for manager feedback.

Reward systems can be used to motivate team members to perform or prioritize certain tasks. However, rewards that are misaligned can quickly do the opposite if a reward is administered for the wrong behavior/task or for performing a task in an undesirable way. Training cannot fix a misaligned reward system.

If a process, or the system that informs that process is inefficient, training people to follow that process won't make things any better. You will just end up with more people who are intimately familiar with the details of the inefficient process.

Of course, the intentions behind the requirement are positive, but when it is treated as just a way to "check the box," it doesn't have any more impact than that or sometimes, it can even negatively impact the L&D team.