Features
What if poor decision-making isn’t a leadership problem?
Better decisions require more than capable leaders. Steve Macaulay explores how HR and L&D can tackle the cultural, structural and psychological barriers to sound judgement. From challenging bias and creating psychological safety to navigating AI, he explains how organisations can build decision-making capabilities that deliver lasting business impact and resilience. Poor decision-making remains one of the most persistent and costly issues in the life of an organisation. Research from McKinsey shows that companies making faster, higher-quality decisions consistently outperform their…
Stop focusing on training delivery and start driving business performance
The most valuable development opportunities don’t always happen in a classroom. Johnson Wong explores how organisations can turn everyday experiences, collaboration and reflection into powerful drivers of performance. From empowering managers to encouraging knowledge sharing, he explains why embedding learning into work is essential for adaptability, innovation and long-term success. In today’s volatile business environment, organisations are under increasing pressure to adapt quickly to technological disruption, changing workforce expectations and evolving customer demands. Yet many organisations continue to approach learning…
AI is speeding up work, but can your organisation keep up?
AI promises greater productivity, but hidden workloads, unchecked errors and growing risks are challenging that narrative. Erica Farmer explores why learning and compliance professionals must work together to rethink accountability, strengthen human oversight and equip employees with the confidence to challenge AI outputs before costly mistakes become big organisational failures. The one thing I hear myself saying to many people right now is, ‘there is no playbook for AI’. Typically, with new system and software deployments we rely on case…
Expertise is no longer enough: Three things senior leaders now need to learn
What does it take to stand out as a senior leader when experience is no longer enough? Richard Edge identifies three essential capabilities that could reshape leadership development and career progression, and explains how L&D teams can help leaders build the confidence, connections and clarity needed to thrive in changing times. For most of the last thirty years, senior development has been built around one idea: deepen your expertise and progression will follow. Leadership programmes, accreditations and technical masterclasses all…
Is it time to rethink how L&D measures AI success?
As AI transforms workplace productivity, traditional measures of learning success risk overlooking a growing skills gap. Dr Gleb Tsipursky explores why time to proficiency should become L&D’s defining AI metric, helping organisations assess independent judgement, preserve essential learning experiences and ensure employees develop expertise rather than increasing dependence on technology. The most urgent AI problem for L&D may be hiding inside a productivity win. When software drafts the routine email, summarises the case, prepares the first analysis and answers the…
Is AI making your organisation’s echo chamber louder?
AI promises smarter decisions, but can it also reinforce the assumptions organisations need to challenge? Jennifer L. Bryan explores why diverse perspectives, psychological safety and better questions matter when adopting AI, and how leaders can prevent powerful technology from turning familiar biases into increasingly convincing answers that nobody dares question. Artificial intelligence is changing how organisations gather information, analyse problems and make decisions. Yet as businesses rush to adopt increasingly powerful AI tools, there is a less obvious organisational risk…
Culture is not an afterthought, it’s a commercial imperative
Culture is not a people profession side issue. It shapes retention, productivity, innovation and commercial performance every day. Sandi Wassmer asserts that leaders must treat culture as a strategic priority, role-model the right behaviours and create psychologically safe workplaces where people can contribute fully, learn openly and perform sustainably together. When leaders treat culture as an afterthought, rather than a core business imperative, they don’t just put the well-being of their people at risk, they put commercial performance on the…
Please send adults: Is immature leadership holding organisations back?
Pressure can make even accomplished leaders default to certainty, speed and control, shutting down the perspectives they most need. Karlee Fain reasons that mature leadership depends on awareness, curiosity and the capacity to tolerate discomfort, creating the conditions for wiser decisions, stronger trust and more sustainable organisational performance over time. We were already running behind when a fork went flying across the tour bus and shattered a television. Which, in case you’re wondering, is not typically how leadership decisions are…
The L&D playbook for building psychological safety into teams
Teams do not become safe to fail through slogans or good intentions alone. Dr Melisa Buie explains why leaders must model openness first, before teams can build stronger norms around challenge, experimentation and reflection. Melisa offers a practical two-stage approach L&D professionals can use to strengthen psychological safety at work. A senior engineer stays quiet in a design review, even though she spots a flaw, because the last person who flagged a problem was labelled “not a team player.” A…
Confidence is a business issue, not a personal weakness
Workplace self-belief affects who speaks up, progresses, takes risks and contributes ideas, making it far more than an individual concern. Penny Haslam argues that organisations should actively develop confidence through training, supportive managers and everyday conversations. This helps employees perform more effectively while strengthening inclusion, wellbeing, engagement and business performance. Most people see confidence as something you’re born with, or not, like brown eyes or curly hair. But I have seen over the last decade, as an executive coach and…
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