Category Strategy

From completion to capability: Making skills visible where it matters

Completed

Completion rates look reassuring, but they hide whether people can actually perform. Leonidas Palaiokostas argues organisations face a skills visibility gap, leading to wasted hiring and underused talent. Leonidas shares four capability signals and shifts: verify skills in real work,…

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Your learning strategy makes too much sense 

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The New Coke fiasco in the ‘80s shows why L&D keeps repeating the same mistakes. When we design learning for the ‘logical human’, engagement, behaviour change and budgets suffer. Design instead for real people, who are time-poor, emotional and context-driven,…

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When leaders run on empty, strategy turns into firefighting

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Workplace stress is surging, executive burnout is a systemic risk to organisational performance. In a DUSTy polycrisis world, traditional wellbeing initiatives barely touch the root causes. Steve Macaulay sets out a practical HR and L&D roadmap to redesign roles, build…

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From learning to earning: A practical framework for skills-based compensation and workforce agility

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Skills-based pay is gaining traction as organisations seek clearer returns from workplace learning and really embedding this in culture. By linking skill development, assessment and reward, companies can boost motivation, target critical capabilities and strengthen agility. Johnson Wong outlines a…

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L&D’s biggest influence barrier is access to decision-makers

Influence

L&D can’t make impact visible an important from the side-lines. The TJ Readiness Enablers Index shows that the biggest bottleneck to meaningful change is access to decision-makers about strategy, budget and priorities. While L&D has momentum, readiness is inconsistent, and…

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How smarter training cultures could spark the next wave of productivity

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New research with insights from 2,000 employees shows strong appetite for lifelong learning, yet confidence in emerging skills is fragile and access to practical development tools varies sharply by sector. Emma O’Dell argues employers must move from episodic training to…

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The execution gap in L&D: Why strategic ambitions are outpacing reality

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In a world of huge rising demand, reskilling pressure and AI acceleration, L&D keeps saying it must be strategic. But operational data shows execution is where things fail: prioritisation, flow, capacity and measurement. Ryan Austin argues the real shift is…

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Skills, not job titles: Rethinking workforce strategy in the AI age

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AI is accelerating change, but so many organisations are still built for stability, not speed. Toby Hough argues that shifting from job titles to a skills-first operating models helps businesses see capability, redeploy talent and retain people. With AI powering…

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Culture reset case study: From attrition to high performance

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Growth can create internal “static”, especially in people-first industries where belonging is the product. By building psychological safety, practising radical candour, and shifting to human-centric leadership, teams move from transactional communication to collective responsibility. Fiona Wright outlines how this approach…

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Thinking in Systems – book review

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In her book ‘Thinking in Systems’, Donella Meadows shows why well-meant training often fails when structures, interconnections and purpose stay intact. Drawing on stocks, flows and feedback loops, Houra Amin explores what learning leaders can diagnose before intervening, and how…

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