Independent Professionals
The mid-career crisis employers aren’t talking about: How L&D can fix the mid-career plateau
Somewhere between ‘settled’ and ‘stuck’, mid-career talent hits a quiet dip that drains energy and invites exits. Drawing on workplace happiness data, Kimberley Rowbottom shows why employees at the five/ten-year point feel least recognised and developed. Potential solutions include personalised pathways, visible appreciation and renewed social connection across the organisation. We’re at a critical, yet overlooked, inflection point in the employee experience: the mid-career dip. According to the Global Workplace Happiness Report, employees with five to ten years of tenure…
The skills obsession is creating a performance blind spot
Charles Jennings highlights the issue no training programme addresses: behavioural patterns inside teams that derail performance. He shows why Behavioural Risk should be on every L&D leader’s agenda, shifting focus from individual upskilling to interaction. Diagnose dynamics, track psychological safety and knowledge flow, and strengthen collective outcomes where strategy sticks. Learning and development teams are stretched. Skills taxonomies and individualised learning pathways are growing more sophisticated. AI is seen by L&D leaders as both a challenge and an opportunity. And…
TJ podcast: The rise of the supermanager: Why AI transformation still needs human leadership – episode 330
Julia Bersin joins Jo Cook to explore the rise of the supermanager and why AI transformation still depends on human leadership. As organisations rethink management layers, managers remain critical to trust, experimentation and adoption, helping teams turn AI investment into meaningful change rather than another tool-led initiative with limited impact. Key takeaways: Created by ChatpGPT Podcast summary: Created by ChatpGPT Jo Cook speaks with Julia Bersin, Director of Research at The Josh Bersin Company, about the changing role of managers…
From controller to keyboard: Why gamers are an untapped IT pipeline
Could your next cybersecurity analyst be a gamer? Ben Smith explores five gaming-honed strengths, from pattern recognition to resilient problem solving, and shows how L&D can convert them into job-ready capability. Expect practical ideas for onboarding, labs and simulations that bridge technical gaps and expand pipelines beyond traditional credentials today. Speedrunning Super Mario 64 may not appear on a CV, but the skills developed through modern gaming are increasingly relevant to today’s IT workforce. As organisations face ongoing talent shortages…
Gen Z – rebuilding workplace culture, break by break
We’ve been told that Gen Z are reshaping the workplace, and not always for the better. They’ve been typecast as less focused, more demanding, and more likely to challenge traditional ways of working. Russell Cowley argues that taking proper breaks may be fixing something that the rest of us broke. Across the UK workforce, the lunch break has been in steady decline for years. Various studies consistently show that many employees now take fewer than 30 minutes for lunch, and…
The leadership blind spot: Managers who stop listening when it gets awkward
Difficult workplace conversations are now routine, but many managers lose confidence when emotions rise and listening matters most. Joseph Conway explores why employees feel dismissed, what the psychological safety data reveals, and how L&D can build people’s skills for listening under pressure, with practical strategies that strengthen trust and wellbeing. Difficult conversations in the workplace are no longer few and far between. For line managers, they’ve become a routine part of leadership, whether it’s navigating performance concerns, responding to interpersonal…
Research: CIPD Skills and Learning at Work Survey 2026
L&D professionals have a valuable and important opportunity to share the reality of workplace learning today. Honest responses will help benchmark current practice, shape future tools and resources, and inform national policy, making it vital that voices from across the profession are heard. Find out more about the CIPD research. The CIPD Skills and Learning at Work Survey 2026 is open, and it matters that L&D voices are part of it. Since 2020 the CIPD have worked with Laura Overton,…
The missing step after restructuring: Lessons from a government department reset
Turn restructure into a practical reset, not a quiet drift. A government department team used an anonymous participant survey, output-driven working day and a virtual follow-up to agree priorities, decision routes and co-ordinate working rhythms. The result was measurable gains in clarity, effectiveness and confidence, case study from Yoav Zand. Following a period of organisational restructuring, a team had reached a natural transition point. A new structure had been implemented, roles and responsibilities had been clarified, and the team was…
SOFest: A learning festival where everything is an invitation
Kirsty Lewis shares what makes SOFest different, from focused speaker sessions and practical workshops to silent discos, sound baths, business development and creative reflection. With everything framed as an invitation, delegates choose their own route through learning, connection, rest and experimentation. All at this year’s must-attend festival for learning professionals. Learning events can sometimes feel over-designed. Delegates are moved from room to room, sessions are fixed, choices are limited and the day can become something to endure rather than explore.…
From breakdown to backbone: Helping people thrive under selfish leaders
Selfish leaders can drain confidence, distort reality and trigger burnout, but support can be a turning point. Drawing on a case study, this article shares coaching tools to build awareness, protect boundaries and respond strategically. Josefine Campbell shows how clients can restore resilience, reclaim agency and even thrive at work. Selfish leaders prioritise their personal gain over the well-being of their teams and can create a toxic ripple effect in the workplace. Whether as a professional coach, an empathetic colleague,…
Want smart, useful L&D insight in your inbox (without the fluff)?
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Editor-only commentary, and exclusive insight that isn’t published anywhere else online.
If you want a quick roundup of what matters, fresh ideas you can use, and the best new reads from Training Journal, this is where it lands
It’s free, only takes a minute, and you can unsubscribe any time.
