Episode 54: Running L&D Like a Business
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L&D’s operating model is now more than a limitation, it’s a liability.
Most L&D teams are not struggling because they lack talent or effort. They are struggling because of the system they are operating in. In this episode, Jess sits down with L&D strategist Tracie Cantu to talk about why L&D's credibility problem is really an operating model problem, and what it looks like to fix it. They cover everything from governance and portfolio management to getting involved in strategic conversations, empowering others to create content, and the three-pillar Learning Operations Blueprint that can help any L&D team operate with the same rigor and intention as the business it serves.
Jess and Tracie Discuss
Why L&D's traditional operating model is now a liability, not just a limitation
What "running L&D like a business" actually means (and what it does not mean)
Reframing governance and operational rigor as a superpower, not bureaucracy
The difference between the business as your customer and employees as your consumers
Portfolio management for L&D: making data-driven decisions about where to invest resources
The Learning Operations Blueprint and its three pillars: people, process, and technology
Why standardizing your intake process is the highest-leverage first step
Becoming a connector and problem-solver across the organization
Why over-indexing on content creation keeps L&D teams stuck
Empowering SMEs to create content so L&D can focus on higher-impact work
A simple first step any team can take: mapping current processes together
About Tracie Cantu
Tracie Cantu, MHRM, CPTD is an enterprise L&D strategist with 20+ years of experience building and transforming learning operations at scale. She has led learning functions across aviation, government, retail, and tech, including Director of Learning Technology at Whole Foods Market (Amazon) and Head of Learning Ecosystems at Meta, before stepping into fractional executive work and advising global organizations across financial services, legal, healthcare, and beyond. Her work is grounded in a single premise: L&D's credibility problem is an operating model problem.
As Chief Learning Strategist of Your CLO, she works with senior L&D leaders and the executives they report to on the infrastructure, technology strategy, and measurement systems that make learning functions perform like the business units they serve. Tracie is an international speaker and a regular presence at Learning, HR, and EdTech conferences. Her writing has appeared in publications such as TD Magazine, Federal News Network, and Training Magazine. Her book, Running L&D Like a Business: Drive Value with Learning Operations, published through ATD Press.
