Discover how you can achieve smarter solutions, stronger teams and measurable organizational impact when business leaders and L&D work together.
Learning & Development (L&D) is about solving real business problems, driving growth and building stronger organizations. In many companies, however, L&D is treated as an afterthought, not a true business partner. Here are some strategies to ensure your partnership with L&D is impactful and strategic.
Not every business challenge can be solved with learning. Effective L&D partners ask the right questions to uncover whether a gap stems from a lack of skills, a process issue or another root cause.
As a business leader or manager, you can strengthen your partnership with L&D by:
When L&D is involved in true problem solving, they can bridge gaps across the organization and design interventions that address real needs.
Great L&D Partners ask the right questions to really get to the heart of the problem.– Jenna Lauren, L&D partner, D2L
Too often, L&D isn’t pulled into initiatives early enough.
“So often, we can be brought into a project halfway through, or even reactively versus at the beginning,” says Jenna Lauren, L&D partner at D2L. “Bringing us in earlier can help leaders define the actions that will result in the greatest success.”
By engaging L&D from the get-go, you gain access to expertise in organizational development, change management and talent strategy. Your L&D team is expert in clarifying goals, recommending interventions that align with strategy, and building solutions that will have lasting impact.
Think of your L&D team as internal consultants—trained to use both qualitative and quantitative data to identify critical needs and design effective approaches. The earlier they’re involved, the better the outcome.
Discover how aligning practical learning content with business goals, driving learner engagement, measuring impact and planning for continuous improvement can effectively develop leadership.
Effective learning programs require strong subject matter expertise. L&D can design frameworks and experiences, but they rely on business leaders to bring content expertise and context.
“It really is crucial to truly partner with us. Your program becomes so much stronger when you provide subject matter experts for us to work with,” says Lauren. “We also need your support in identifying strong champions and change agents to drive the changes that your programs are aiming to achieve.”
Some ways to gather content expertise and context include:
When leaders model engagement and demonstrate commitment, employees are far more likely to see programs as valuable and worth their time.
One of the greatest risks to partnership is trying to solve too many problems at once. L&D teams, like any function, have limited resources and must prioritize.
To maximize impact, L&D teams should:
By zeroing in on what matters most, L&D can deliver solutions that truly move the needle for your organization.
Ask yourself: what is the one thing that would have the greatest impact for my function or the organization as a whole if I could leverage the support and partnership of L&D?– Kristina Tsiriotakis, senior director, learning and organizational development, D2L
Partnership with L&D doesn’t end once a program is launched. To prove value and sustain investment, leaders and L&D must measure and communicate outcomes.
“When working with L&D teams, expect us to ask you to show us the data,” says Kristina Tsiriotakis, senior director, learning and organizational development at D2L. “We’re trained to verify your qualitative experiences with strong data, and a thorough analysis of resources, processes and other components of needs assessment.”
Several ways to quantify and communicate outcomes include:
When impact is visible, L&D earns credibility as a revenue-generating function—not just a cost center.
Even with strong partnerships, L&D teams face challenges that can limit their effectiveness, like:
Overcoming these challenges requires open communication, mutual accountability and a shared commitment to strategic outcomes.
When business leaders and L&D work together, the result is smarter solutions, stronger teams and measurable organizational impact. Treat your L&D team like the strategic partner it is—because when they succeed, your people and your business succeed too. rograms that not only develop stronger leaders but also drive meaningful organizational success.
Let Them Cook is a sizzling video series where your hosts, Kristina and Jenna, stir up timely, relevant topics in L&D. From strategy to upskilling, leadership to learner engagement, we serve it all with heart, humor and a side of heat.
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