Stop taking orders—start leading as the strategic business partner your organization needs.

L&D, there’s a better way to work—one that moves the needle, makes a real impact, and actually solves talent challenges alongside your stakeholders.

It all starts when we shift from being order takers to becoming true strategic business partners.

When we’re stuck as order takers, we churn out beautifully designed training programs, but let’s be real—it’s not enough. The problems persist, the impact goes unseen, and we’re left feeling like just a “nice to have.”

But strategic business partners? They’re in a different league. They don’t just fulfill requests—they work hand-in-hand with the business, driving strategic goals and objectives.

As a strategic partner, you’re not just delivering a program or course—you’re leading change that scales across the organization. You’re solving real talent challenges and making sure L&D is a key player in driving performance and success.

You can be this kind of partner.
You can tackle talent challenges head-on.
You can improve performance across the entire organization.
You can collaborate with business leaders in ways that transform your role.

All it takes is a shift in approach—a shift that shows your stakeholders L&D isn’t just here to support the business, but to lead alongside it. Ready to make that shift?

Let’s make magic together

Every service starts with an initial conversation to determine the best fit. In this conversation we’ll talk about your goals, challenges, and timeline.

A woman with short dark hair and glasses standing behind a white speckled countertop in a modern interior, smiling at the camera, with a laptop in front of her.
Jess Almlie writing on white board L and D to strategic business partner with words speaking and workshops overlayed
Jess Almlie creating strategic learning blueprint slide on her laptop
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The L&D STrategic Business Partner
team ASsessment

Busy doesn’t always mean strategic or influential.

The L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment cuts through activity to show how your L&D team is really performing.

By evaluating your function across seven core categories, this diagnostic surfaces strengths, gaps, and missed opportunities — creating a clear path from order taking to strategic business partnership.

Get Started
Jess Almlie creating a slide on her laptop with the words Strategic Learning Blueprint at the top

Team Development Roadmap

Insight without action is just noise. The Team Development Roadmap is where real change begins.

Grounded by the findings of the L&D Strategic Business Partner Team Assessment, this multi-faceted, customized plan translates data into decisions by laying out exactly what needs to change for your team — and how to do it.

No generic frameworks. No feel-good initiatives. Just clear priorities, targeted actions, and practical moves that shift how your L&D team operates, partners, and delivers value.

Get Started
Jess Almlie writes the words L and D to Strategic Business Partner on the whiteboard with a black marker

Speaking & Workshops

Want to get your team thinking bigger and working smarter? My interactive speaking sessions and hands-on workshops are designed to expand your group’s mindset and take their work to the next level. Whether we’re meeting virtually or in person, we’ll spark new ideas and tackle real challenges. Choose from formats like a one-hour lunch ‘n learn, an interactive keynote or breakout session, or a customized, multi-session workshop that dives deep with your team.

Popular Topics include:

  • Unlocking L&D’s Consultative Edge

  • Elevating Your Approach as a Strategic Business Partner

  • Become a Business Acumen Superstar!

  • Approach Matters: The Hidden L&D Behaviors That Build Strategic Influence

  • What If Training Isn’t the Answer? How to Know and What to Do.

  • Influence Without Instruction: Training Stakeholders by Not Training Them

  • How to Measure L&D Like a Business Partner, Not a Box Checker

Get Started

Ready to become a Strategic Business Partner?

Request a Free Consultation
Jess Almlie smiling and standing with arms crossed

Meet your mentor - Jess Almlie

L&D pro with 30 years of experience—and a passion for shaking things up. As VP of Learning, I led my own team through the game-changing shift from order takers to strategic business partners and saw firsthand how working differently can make all the difference. Now, I’m all about helping the entire L&D profession step up and increase our impact by changing the way we approach our work!

Learn More About Me

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The assessment starts with a comprehensive survey, taken by each member of your learning and talent development team (including leaders). The assessment includes over 100 questions organized into eight categories all aimed at identifying strengths and opportunities for your team to move the needle towards becoming Strategic Business Partners in your organization.

    Some teams opt to add in a virtual “kick-off” session introducing the strategic business partner concept before taking the assessment. This session includes an overview of the key SBP behaviors and barriers that stop L&D from moving forward.

    After completing the assessment, the L&D leader will receive a customized report including results and insights as well as corresponding recommendations for action, prioritized according to the biggest opportunities and/or easiest areas to begin making the change. This is the Team Development Blueprint. It will be presented in a 60 minute virtual meeting with Jess.

  • The assessment is organized into eight categories:

    1. Business Acumen and Awareness

    2. L&D Internal Team Operations

    3. Stakeholder Clarity

    4. Stakeholder Influence and Partnership

    5. Strategic Alignment

    6. Measurement, Evaluation and Impact

    7. Request Management

  • The assessment is designed to take no more than 20 minutes to complete. Most questions are on a Likert scale with a couple of open-ended questions at the end.

  • The timeline to complete the assessment and receive your Team Development Blueprint is about one month in total. This includes:

    • 1.5 weeks to send out the assessment and collect results.

    • 1.5 weeks for Jess to analyze results, determine insights, and build your customized development plan.

    • 60-minute presentation of insights, action items, and plan in the 4th week.

  • No sitting back and listening here! Research shows that no one remembers bullets on a power point slide. That means speaking sessions and workshops are high energy and interactive with a variety of activities throughout to practice and reflect on concepts. You won’t go longer than 10 minutes maximum without some type of interaction that may include any of the following: hands-on practice of concepts, non-threatening role play, discussion with others, polls, personal assessments, movement throughout the room, writing/worksheets, demonstrations, teaching others, etc. The number and type of activities included are determined by topic, time available, and session format (in person vs. virtual). Options for add-ons like coachsulting and facilitated small group discussions as follow-up and reinforcement are available.

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    There are multiple ways to keep learning! Subscribe to the L&D Must Change newsletter for bi-weekly articles and updates, listen to the L&D Must Change podcast for insights from brilliant minds in the L&D profession, or connect with and follow Jess on LinkedIn.

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First hand experiences

  • "Before working with Jess on an Onboarding Strategy project, I was facing several challenges. One major challenge was the lack of a comprehensive and consistent onboarding experience for our Operations roles. The existing onboarding process was fragmented and lacked alignment with processes and protocols, which made it difficult to drive cost-effectiveness and project success. Additionally, there was a significant on-site training burden on existing team members and managers, which needed to be addressed. Working with Jess was a highly positive experience. Jess brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the project, and her guidance was instrumental in creating a successful onboarding program.

    As a result of our work together, we successfully created a comprehensive onboarding program that provided new employees with a structured curriculum to understand the basics of both the company and their role. The onboarding program also included performance metrics and surveys to measure its effectiveness and ensure continuous improvement.”

    Kelly, Director of Talent Development
    Strategic Learning Blueprint

  • “Having Jess speak to our group was an engaging and energizing experience! She brought a combination of warmth, humor, and insight to her presentation, keeping everyone involved and interested from start to finish. Jess skillfully guided us through her five-step process for diagnosing real performance issues - delivering practical strategies and thought-provoking insights on when training is, or isn’t, the right solution. Her approach challenged us to look deeper at performance gaps, while offering tools to help guide stakeholders toward more impactful solutions. Jess’s expertise and friendly, down-to-earth style make her a true leader in the field. She is an invaluable asset to any audience looking to push the boundaries of learning and development.”

    Sarah, Leadership & Organizational Development Program Manager
    Speaking & Workshops

  • “The design of the session was excellent as it shared so many examples and also generated first-rate responses from the participants. Jess’s research and the various ways you demonstrate application make it much easier for talent practitioners to use.”

    Jo, Talent Performance Strategist
    Speaking & Workshops

  • “Jess has helped me focus on understanding my team's current capacity and future needs. This perspective has led to thoughtful plans on increasing capacity where needed to meet the needs of the business and focusing on the ‘strategic yes’ (and strategic no). I have become more adept at thinking strategically and articulating the vision for Talent Development initiatives.

    Overall, my coachsulting sessions with Jess have provided me with valuable insights, strategic direction, and actionable steps to enhance my role and the effectiveness of my team. The most valuable part of my coachsulting has been the clarity and strategic guidance I have gained. Jess has helped me clear away the fog and see a path forward in several challenging scenarios which has been instrumental in developing in my role in a dynamic and rapid-growth environment.”

    Kelly, Director of Talent Development
    Coachsulting

  • “Bringing Jess Almlie onto IACET’s CET Talks Podcast was a dream come true. Over the last several years, I’ve followed Jess’s approach to assessments, data analysis, and insights, often using her thought leadership and expertise to build connections among subject matter experts to create meaningful, organizational change. While her practical skillsets set the stage for an engaging discussion, what struck our team most was her intentionality and humility. Jess shared with our audience — and staff! — the relevance of practical approaches to data alignment, and her personal connection, conversational approach, and inspired passion made the discussion feel less like a consultation and more like a discussion with an old friend. I’d recommend Jess for anyone interested in growing their organization’s practical application; in just twenty minutes, she reshaped our entire data strategy, and I’m excited to see the upcoming results!”

    Bradley, Director of Content & Training
    Speaking & Workshops

  • “It was amazing to have Jess speak to our group. She really challenged us to rethink training, i.e., is that the really the answer?  it is easy to gravitate to, but is that what our business needs and desires?  Jess’s topic came up in our internal talent management workshop a couple of months after when we were road mapping our people leader strategy – we were going down an enviable path of “training” and someone jumped in and brought up a key learning from Jess around this, and the group reset and restarted the discussion questioning that approach, and had a huge impact on our deliverable from the workshop.  Instead of ‘training’ we made the decision to have a people leader 'connection’ event where we would have other leaders 'share’ best practice and focus on cross functional connection.”

    Jeremy, Director of Change Management
    Speaking & Workshops