What is the L&D team actually for?

The Fosway 9-Grid™ report on digital learning has just been released, and there are some hard truths in it that learning professionals need to read and reflect upon.

You can get it here: https://www.fosway.com/9-grid-2/digital-learning/

At first glance, the report positions digital vendors on a grid to analyse their market share, thought leadership, and potential. This is useful for anyone working client-side with a learning challenge and a professional service budget.

However, the report also provides an accessible snapshot of where L&D is today – key challenges and trends. It's an easy read and, in my view, an accurate summary of what is happening right now.

My key takeaway is that L&D teams have not kept pace with the changing needs of the business, individuals, and technology. As a result, their relevance and value to the business is unclear.

A few key factors at play here:

1. Other functions in Human Resources have proven to be more adaptable and agile in the face of change and, indeed, have shown real leadership. As we see a shift towards organisations becoming skills-based, functions like talent acquisition, talent management, and workforce planning own the narrative rather than L&D.
2. There is a change of focus in the learning offer from prescribed pathways pushed by the organisation toward employee-centric development owned by the individual. L&D teams traditionally deliver the former; structured courses and programmes. However, interventions that have more obvious value to an individual today, such as coaching, proactive line management, and communities of practice, are often developed by the business themselves without the support of the central learning development team.
3. Where learning content still has value to the individual, it is likely content that has been served by an AI system that automatically personalises the content library to their need or is user-generated content developed by experts in the business. Or a blend of the two. In both scenarios, the business functions can deliver these themselves by directly using vendor-supplied systems. The L&D team might procure and facilitate the use of this system, but the business manages its actual application as a learning tool. Many off-the-shelf content vendors now offer professional coaching embedded inside their solutions.
4. Where all of this comes to a head is the increased pressure on learning teams to demonstrate the value they add to the business. Despite having access to more business data and often being invited to take part in strategic decisions, there is a "continued systemic weakness" in L&D functions in measuring the success of their effort. The teams seem unable to articulate, let alone "prove their value proposition".

I believe we have a moment of opportunity for learning and development teams to take a massive leap forward. Organisations must be able to prove adaptable and resilient in a competitive market. The way to accomplish that is through a workforce actively engaged in its own continuous development.

It is concerning that L&D functions appear to be missing this opportunity, and others are meeting this need.

Personally, I am hopeful that we can turn around this trend and, as a profession, seize the present opportunity – a spotlight on learning - to prove what we can do.