Strategy
Skills, not job titles: Rethinking workforce strategy in the AI age
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 skills visibility and managers enabling growth, organisations can adapt faster. AI is reshaping work at speed. New tools are emerging regularly, automating tasks, augmenting decisions and changing what “good” looks like at every level. However, while technology is evolving quickly,…
Culture reset case study: From attrition to high performance
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 reduced attrition, improved collaboration, and strengthened customer experiences at Haulfryn. In the hospitality and residential park industry, a brand is only as strong as the people who represent it. For Haulfryn, a family-owned business with a- 90-year history of excellence,…
Thinking in Systems – book review
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 patience, mental models and better metrics reshape sustainable organisational change. Book: Thinking in SystemsAuthor: Donella Meadows Donella Meadows opens with a quote from Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “If a factory is torn down but the…
Why skills intelligence is the missing link in workforce planning for the talent crisis
Workforce planning is being rewritten by AI, and old build-or-buy thinking can’t keep up. Ciara Harrington sets out the Four Bs framework, Build, Buy, Borrow and Bot, powered by skills intelligence and skills gap analysis. It helps HR and L&D leaders make faster, evidence-based decisions and shape agile, future-ready workforces. Traditionally, organisations have tackled workplace planning and closing skill gaps through two main strategies: building on internal talent in the organisation through training and upskilling and recruiting external talent to…
What influence looks like for L&D in 2026
A new TJ video brings together expert contributor reflections on adaptability, business alignment and intentional boldness in L&D. Drawing on themes from the TJ Influence Report 2026, the discussion explores why learning leaders need to focus less on delivery detail and more on organisational priorities, capability and measurable business impact. Summary These conversations, inspired by the TJ L&D Influence Report 2026, brings together reflections from contributors on what L&D needs now: constant adaptability, stronger business alignment, and a more intentional…
The TJ L&D Influence Report 2026
After months exploring why L&D’s best evidence and intentions still stall, Editor Jo Cook shares a new report shaped by Training Journal’s 60th Anniversary Conference. It introduces the Readiness Enablers Index and highlights practical conditions like stakeholder access, data, experimentation and support. Download it free and join the 2026 survey. What helps L&D move from good ideas and strong intentions to meaningful action? That question sits at the heart of this new report. At the centre of the report is…
The AI upskilling mandate: An L&D strategy for the AI era
In the rush to govern AI and fear automation, organisations are ignoring the most urgent issue: capability. This article argues HR and L&D must distinguish autopilot risks from co-pilot opportunity, move beyond basic AI prompt training, and prioritise critical thinking, synthesis and change leadership. Lee Whitmore sets a four-point plan. For the people profession, the conversation around AI has been dominated by two themes: the anxiety of automation (which jobs will be lost?) and the ethics of governance (how do…
The efficiency paradox: Why AI is speeding up work but slowing down leadership
Andrew Bryant argues that AI-driven efficiency is outpacing leadership capability, creating an “efficiency paradox” where organisations perform better on paper but grow strategically weaker. He explores Klarna’s AI lesson, the shift from performance management to potential development, and why L&D must build leaders who unleash human judgement, creativity, and meaning. Organisations are getting faster. But they are not getting better at leading people. That is the uncomfortable truth at the centre of the AI revolution. As companies race to automate,…
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…
How one council made training measurable, strategic and value-led
Martin Furminger explains how a UK council adapted the Systems Approach to Training to build a structured, flexible learning system aligned to its People and Culture Plan. He shares how analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation create measurable impact, improve governance confidence and shift culture from ad hoc to planned. The Systems Approach to Training (SAT) was developed in the 1960s and ‘70s for the US Department of Defense. It was later formalised by NATO and has become the gold…
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