New to L&D
Winning buy-in: Why L&D leaders need sharper communication
L&D leaders face budgets, hybrid distraction and sceptical audiences, so influencing matters more than ever. Isobel Rimmer argues presentation and communication skills are a strategic capability for every leader, not just sales. She shares tools, from audience outcomes to an ABCD structure and storytelling, to build confidence and win buy-in. It’s tough being a leader in learning and development, and it’s getting tougher. How do you influence sponsors to fund development when budgets are squeezed? Persuade employees to embrace training,…
From vanity metrics to business impact: How L&D can prove its value
If you’re feeling the pressure to prove L&D’s value, you’re in good company. Synergy Learning shares a practical approach to proving impact in business terms. See just how to begin with organisational goals, baseline the right data, choose credible evaluation models, and decide when training isn’t the answer for everything. As we go into the new year, are you feeling mounting pressure to prove the value of learning and development in your organisation? While tracking course completions and training hours…
Into the unknown: Why 2026 marks a turning point for L&D
Donald H Taylor shares insight from his 2026 L&D Global Sentiment Survey, which shows a profession leaving familiar patterns behind. AI is foundational but no longer the only story, as budgets tighten and value demands intensify. Yet practitioners are acting: embedding AI, using data, redesigning learning, and redefining L&D’s role. The 2026 L&D Global Sentiment Survey (GSS) may prove to be the most significant in its thirteen-year history – not because it signals a single dominant trend, but because it…
Stop calling everything a skill
Ben Satchwell argues that muddled language is undermining people frameworks, HR systems and L&D credibility, especially as skills data becomes machine-readable. Ben clarifies the building blocks from knowledge to behaviour, explains why competencies evidence individual performance while capabilities describe systemic potential, and shows how aligning both creates readiness without duplication. This article is the first in a three-part series exploring how organisations can clarify, connect and modernise their use of competence, capability and skills frameworks. There’s a quiet crisis of…
Starving for questions in the age of instant answers
Gargi Bhatt explores why disciplined questioning is making a comeback as work gets more complex and AI makes quick answers effortless. Drawing on Socratic dialogues, coaching and action learning, she shows how inquiry strengthens critical thinking, surfaces assumptions and builds reflective capacity, helping navigate uncertainty with clarity, curiosity and courage. In a world obsessed with having the answers quick, clear, and confident, there is something quietly revolutionary about not knowing. As organisations grapple with rapid change, complexity, and the uncomfortable…
“Workplace learning is at its best when it sounds like real work”
TJ Editor Jo Cook comments about the new Podcast Learning Festival, hosted by Andrew Jacobs in London, February 2026: “We strive for the most efficient and realistic learning interventions, and workplace learning is at its best when it sounds like real work: curious, human and specific. The Podcast Learning Festival brings learning and conversation craft into the same room, so we can build audio that travels, lasts, and genuinely changes what happens for people every day at work.” The Podcast…
The six biggest challenges keeping L&D professionals up at night
L&D teams are operating in a climate of constant change. Economic pressure, digital acceleration and shifting workforce expectations have placed capability development at the centre of organisational strategy. Yet teams responsible for delivering this capability often face shrinking budgets, rising expectations and increasing scrutiny. Totara share a resource to help. A new eBook from Totara, The Six Biggest Challenges Keeping L&D Professionals Up at Night, examines the forces shaping the future of workplace learning. It highlights the tensions many HR…
The Uncertainty Toolkit – book review
Cathy Hoy investigates why competency-based L&D falls short when uncertainty, not skill, blocks performance. Drawing on Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar Lewis’s new book The Uncertainty Toolkit, she highlights evidence from UCL research, practical exercises and new metrics for tolerance. The aim is to shift teams from threat to challenge. Book: The Uncertainty ToolkitAuthors: Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar Lewis For years, learning and development has been built on competency; we spot a gap, design a course, and measure if…
How coaches can use AI in practice without becoming “prompt jockeys”
AI can be genuinely useful in coaching, but only when it serves the craft, not the other way round. The goal is not to turn coaches into people who spend their days iterating prompts. It is to help them do better work, more consistently, with clearer boundaries. AI for the parts of coaching that benefit from structure and reflection, while keeping the relational, ethical, and contextual judgement firmly human In practice, that means using AI for the parts of coaching…
How AI can help save jobs, not eliminate them
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping work, but job losses aren’t inevitable. For L&D and HR leaders, the real challenge is turning disruption into capability at speed. With the right learning strategy, AI can protect roles, close skills gaps and future-proof organisations. Skills expert Robin Adda has the tips you need AI’s presence is ever-growing in the business world, and with it, the uncertainty among the professional community that their roles will become redundant. This stark fact is already becoming apparent, with new research from Adzuna suggesting that new entry-level…
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.
