Features
L&D’s moment to reboot management for a hybrid world
Hybrid working isn’t broken; but it is being left to chance. Gary Cookson shows how L&D can fix it: define team norms, build purposeful onsite experiences, enable collaboration and management capabilities, and support individuals with real-time learning tools. Enabling hybrid by design, can only drive improve engagement, productivity and retention. Why are we still talking about hybrid working? Isn’t it all so very 2022? Not so. It is often in the media as various organisations (or, more specifically, the leader…
Trust beats tech: why culture decides AI’s return on investment
Simon Blockley explores how AI can support workforce transformation when paired with strong leadership and investment in people. As skills gaps widen and business needs evolve, organisations must go beyond technical fixes. The future lies in smarter alignment of talent, technology and values, building agile, high-performing teams for the future. In a climate defined by rapid change, rising costs, and shifting workforce expectations, business leaders are under increasing pressure to address critical skills shortages. As demand for specialist contractor capabilities…
Build a future-ready leadership pipeline with targeted development
Steve George argues that developing senior leaders takes strategic, tailored support. Drawing on CIPD insights, he outlines how coaching, real-world stretch assignments, and structured feedback build resilience, agility and judgement. He shows why needs-led design, multi-tier pathways and succession planning help L&D create engaged workforces and future-ready leadership pipelines today. Change is a constant in today’s working world and during uncertain times, employees look to senior leaders for direction, clarity and confidence. But leading through complexity takes more than experience…
Meetings that spark commitment, not eye-rolls
When facilitated badly, leadership gatherings waste time and money. Facilitated well, they create energy, commitment and momentum. Laura Thomson-Staveley shares her fabulous toolkit for turning meetings into engines of collaboration. From Liberating Structures to visible accountability, she shows how skilled facilitation can transform in-person time into outcomes leaders can’t ignore. Picture this: 50 people in a room equals 50 working days of investment. Are you getting genuine value from that time, or watching one person dominate while others mentally check…
Action stations: What it takes to move from knowing to doing
Turning learning into actionable behaviour takes more than motivation. Rod Webb explores why so much workplace training fails to deliver change, and how clear goals, supportive cultures, and engaged managers are key to making learning stick. Without action, even the best-designed programmes risk fading into nothing once the training ends. I’ve been exploring the RIA model, which I developed to help people understand what supports that behaviour change: In my first article I looked at the role of Retention in…
Spark the shift: how inspiration fuels real learning
Memorable training doesn’t always inspire actual behaviour change. Rod Webb explores the second stage of his RIA model, Inspiration, and explains why relevance, behavioural focus and skilled debriefs are essential. Drawing on real examples, he shows how to move beyond fun for fun’s sake to learning that motivates lasting action. In my last article, I considered the importance of retention from my RIA model: I wrote about the learning journey and the fact that, if people don’t remember the learning,…
Don’t just deliver, delight: how fun fuels memory
Effective training creates change, and that starts with retention. Rod Webb shares why fun, emotion, and a bit of weirdness make learning memorable and sticky. In the first of three articles exploring the RIA model, he explains how to design experiences that help people focus, remember, and do something different. The purpose of all training is change – a change in beliefs perhaps, and certainly a change in behaviours. If we want people to do something differently as a result…
Burnout in the basement: The unseen cost of ignoring cyber awareness
René-Sylvain Bédard exposes the leadership gaps fuelling cybersecurity burnout. From misplaced responsibility to executive blind spots, cyber teams are left overwhelmed and unheard. He argues for a shift in mindset, where L&D plays a vital role in awareness, resilience, and restoring balance for those defending us against constant digital threats. In most organisations today, cybersecurity knowledge is often overlooked in employee training, leaving both staff and dedicated cyber teams overworked and exposed. Based on this, and the rise of cyberattacks,…
From knowledge hoarding to knowledge sharing: Social learning is the shift L&D can’t ignore
Social learning is more than a buzzword. It’s the missing piece for today’s Learning and Development teams. Nathan Kracklauer dives into why learning from, about and alongside others creates better outcomes. If you want real engagement and deeper impact, it’s time to put people back at the heart of learning “I’d never heard the term ‘social learning’ before,” said Sue, a Learning and Development professional at a recent roundtable. “But that sounds like exactly what I’m looking for – tell…
Deskilled by design: How L&D plays a key role in driving effective adoption of AI in aviation
A recent McKinsey report has cast a spotlight on the aviation industry’s future. As AI and automation accelerate across the sector, Charlie Kneen issues a stark warning: unless these technologies are intentionally embedded into learning and development and core business processes, the industry risks entering a dangerous era of deskilling AI will no doubt boost productivity, but it also threatens to erode something far more valuable: the human edge, judgment, communication and critical thinking – the very capabilities that frontline aviation staff…
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