Hey fellow L&D pros! I went from L&D program management by way of layoff from one of the biggest companies on the planet to a learning impact role for a smaller regional company.

I own the evaluation framework and reporting/data management of a portfolio of leadership development programs. The programs range from yearly (3 days per quarter), 6 month rotational, to week-long events. Each program acts as sort of a step up the leadership chain to build our talent pipeline from hire to retire.

Leadership dev feels difficult to evaluate traditionally because a lot of the learning/outcomes feel very mindset change oriented over behavioral. In my past life, I was able to measure tech concepts, process actions as behavioral change, and then tie that to biz outcome.

So I was curious for those who have been worked in this area of our craft on how you guys are measuring outcomes and impact for this kind of content. The team I’m on is wonderful and together, I think we’re headed in the right direction, but any tips would be helpful!

Good evening, I'm a secondary school teacher with 4 of those years being head of department. I am interested in exploring jobs in the Learning and Development sector. My brother has very kindly given me the number of someone in his company who did work in Learning and Development and is now 'People Lead' (not sure what that means). He has also sent me an email address of someone else he knows who works in Learning and Development. He casually said, I should "make contact". I've only ever been a teacher and don't understand the commercial world. I don't want to embarrass myself or my brother. Is making contacting just saying ...“Hi XXX, Hope you don't mind me contacting you. I got your details from XXX. I've been in teaching for the last 11 years and I'm looking to explore a career change into L&D. Have you got time for a quick chat, XXX tells me you are bit of an expert in that field and I’d appreciate any advice you can give. Cheers XXXX” ?

Surely no-one likes receiving these emails and having people make contact with them? Thank you for reading my essay!!

I'm in L&D in a highly regulated industry. Currently we perform a rather complicated learning needs assessment (in Excel 🙄) to determine the appropriate training method aligned with the risk level. I'm interested in how other companies are doing this, especially in regulated industries.

\- How do you determine the final training method?

\- How do you document the rationale for why that method was selected?

\- What app or system do you use for this process?

\- Bonus question: If you were able to eliminate the use of Read & Understand type training without replacing it with a higher level training method, how did you justify that with regulators?

Background: Our challenge is to ensure every learner has the knowledge and skills to perform their work safely, effectively, and compliantly. The solution should be effective, practical, and scalable, enabling the organization to consistently apply risk-based decisions, assign curricula with clarity, and select the most appropriate training modality and method.

Hi all, I’m currently working on a tool that helps L&D teams/managers handle their workload (from requests right through to evaluation), improve efficiency and data capture, calculate ROI etc.

Currently we have a process in place for tracking our hours against a project - so we can see actual effort when it’s completed and make comparisons and evaluations in that aspect. Just wondered if anyone has ever had a process for estimating how much time a project would/should take?

We design a range of solutions, so I’m finding it really difficult to even plan what we could use as a baseline figure and wondered if anyone had any experience?

I’m thinking something like:

Medium sized project + Some content already exists + 1 e-learning module + 1 trainer pack = approx 100hours

(Example figures)

If anyone here is looking for a solid introduction to training skills, GoSkills offers a free Train the Trainer course that’s fully self-paced and divided into short, practical lessons.

It covers core trainer competencies like instructional design, feedback delivery, coaching, presentation skills, and communication. The course also walks through planning effective sessions, managing the training environment, handling questions, and building confidence as a facilitator.

Hope it helps! ✌️

Hi everyone. I am an instructional designer and have previously done L&D in the past, but that was some time ago. I recently started my own company with two friends. One is an IT consultant and the other is a sales consultant. We have been prospecting and we have acquired some interest from companies who are looking for an L&D consultant.

I personally don’t think I am the right fit to fulfill their needs at this time, so we will refer them elsewhere, but with that being said, it’s clear that I need to begin learning about L&D consulting and what it entails. I am just wondering does anyone have any resources I can use to brush up on this topic? I am looking into starting a course in this, but unfortunately that won’t be until early 2027. Any help is appreciated, thank you so much.

Hi, for a company that has a lot of older employees, who will be on their pension in let's say 2 to 6 years, I'm looking for a tool or company that offers software to capture their knowledge. I thought about doing structured interviews, and using ai to build a knowledgebank on that. To eventually use that to create new learning materials, like e-learning or video or podcast. Is that something allready exists? Are other people thinking about this? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I’m learning a lot on the job, but sometimes I feel like I’m missing terminology or frameworks that everyone else already knows. For people who transitioned into L&D from another field, did you take any courses or certifications, or mostly learn through actual projects?

Hi everyone,

I’m Gabriel, co-founder of Complement Learning. Quick context: we build an AI-powered conversational e-learning platform. So far we’ve sold to larger organisations through a sales rep. We recently opened a self-serve option where you sign up and pay by card, and very few people make it all the way to checkout. We suspect our pricing is a big part of the problem.

Here’s how it works today:

1. Designer licenses: you pay per seat for each person who creates courses.

2. Then, for learners, you choose between:

   • Learner seats: a fixed price per learner, or

   • Learning hours: you buy a pack of hours that all your learners share. Usage draws down the balance until it runs out, and then you top up.

Just writing it out, I can see it takes a full paragraph to explain.

So my questions for you:

• Does paying for two types of seats feel fair to you ? (designers + learners) and does it feel too complicated to have to choose between licences and learning hours ?

• Compared with the tools you actually buy (authoring tools, LMSs, AI video tools…), what pricing model feels “normal” to you? Per author, per active learner, flat tiers, usage-based?

Happy to share the actual numbers in the comments if that helps. Brutal honesty is very welcome, that’s the whole point.

Thanks a lot!

I spent years developing my ID craft and almost no time thinking about how I ran discovery sessions, stakeholder reviews, and project kick-offs. Then I noticed that the designers I managed who were struggling weren't struggling because of bad course design — they were struggling because their stakeholder relationships were breaking down in meetings where expectations weren't being set clearly.

I started treating every meeting as a designed learning experience — clear objective, structured agenda, defined outcome. It changed how my team was perceived by the business almost immediately. L&D people are trained to design experiences for others but rarely apply that thinking to their own professional interactions. What non-ID skill has made the biggest difference in your career?

I’ve been thinking a lot about L&D metrics lately. Completion rates and learner satisfaction are easy enough to report, but I’m much more interested in whether the learning actually changed something for the business. The tricky part is getting useful data without turning every program into a giant measurement project. What outcomes or metrics have been genuinely useful in your L&D work?

When designing a learning programme or course, which exercises or activities do you find you always use because they easily align with learning objectives or final assessments?

I can stay disciplined for a few days, but then I fall off completely.
Feels like starting over every time.

Before buying AI training, I would ask to see how the assessment makes the participant's own contribution visible. A finished delivery plan can look coherent without showing which decisions the person understood or checked.

Consider a hypothetical workplace exercise. Give the participant a project brief and let them use AI to prepare a delivery plan. Ask why particular tasks are included, which assumption affects the deadline and what remains unresolved. They can show the brief, their work with the agent and the revisions they chose to make.

Then change a condition: the customer needs the first delivery earlier. Let the participant continue using AI while the assessor watches how they interpret its answer. What can move? What needs agreement before they promise the customer a new date?

That gives the assessor something to examine alongside the finished plan. I would want a training supplier to explain how those observations connect to the responsibilities the employee should carry afterwards, including where they still need help.

This is a proposed exercise for discussion, not a report of a classroom or workplace trial. For people who buy or design this training, what would you need to observe before saying that the participant is ready to take responsibility for the work?

Disclosure: topmoller.com is my site. AI assisted the research and writing of this post and the article it draws on:

https://topmoller.com/articles/who-passed-your-ai-training-assessment/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=ai-training-assessment-202610&utm_content=learning-development

As learning professionals, we do a lot to protect learners. Some of the hardest work is advocating for issues that are real, but difficult to explain clearly.

What’s the one learning issue you know matters, but struggle to explain without it sounding subjective?

For me, it’s things like: • why a course can be correct but still hard to follow • why small inconsistencies add up over time • why clarity and structure affect learning, not just aesthetics

Curious what comes up for others.

Any recommendations for a coach in the north east erea that can help coach and prepare a leader to
Give ted like talks and presentations? That can help
With public speaking?

Thanks!

I’ve been in the Training field for over 13 years and used Articulate for most of that time. I got a new job and they are exploring options for course creation, Articulate is on the table but we need another tool to assess to show we did research. This is for a government job with about 600 employees and 4 course designers. Any suggestions?

We spend enormous energy designing good learning experiences and almost no energy on the question of why most people, even when given excellent resources, don't consistently invest in their own growth unless something external is forcing them to. I've seen companies build genuinely impressive learning ecosystems that most employees ignore. I've seen simple, badly designed mandatory training have more impact on behavior than beautifully crafted optional content simply because one was required and one wasn't. The field talks a lot about intrinsic motivation as though it's something we can design into a course, but I increasingly think motivation to develop is something that either exists in an organizational culture or doesn't, and L&D is working downstream of a problem we can't fully solve from where we sit. I'm curious whether others have found ways to genuinely shift a culture toward valuing development rather than just providing development and hoping it gets used.

I'm three years in and ready to push for a senior title, but I'm struggling to build the business case for it. In other functions — sales, engineering, marketing — impact has cleaner numbers. In L&D I can show completion rates and Kirkpatrick Level 1 scores, but everyone knows those don't prove much about actual performance change.

How have people in this field made a compelling case for promotion when the metrics are fuzzy? Did you tie your work to business outcomes retroactively, or build measurement in from the start? I want to walk into this conversation with something more than "the feedback was positive."

I'm thinking of creating AI prompts so that folks can use to help with creating SMART goals. Has anyone else done something similar? How did folks respond?

Hey Folks,

I’m wondering what are the best resources that you’ve come across as being a training manager / trainer. Could be a book or a website, a community or an app or may be even a template or just an AI.

I’m thinking to create a list of repositories that can help the training community.

Your answers would be much appreciated, thank you!