How To Structure a Modern Learning and Development Team

Many corporate L&D teams are slow to evolve their philosophies.

The worlds getting psyched about AI, but 90% of L&D functions still use e-learning as their revolutionary delivery method.

Too many teams often don’t understand the value they can bring.

To change this, you need to learn how to structure your teams to provide the best service to your workforce (aka your customers).

Perhaps, the first question should be if we even call it an L&D team anymore? But I’ll leave that debate for another day.

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1/ Define the Goals of a high-performing learning team

Let’s keep this simple:

1. Enable performance and build organisational capability
2. Provide return on investment to the business
3. Support the talent lifecycle with the right skills at the right time

The ultimate goal of any learning function (for me) is to enable and support people in being better humans.

We serve our audience by improving their performance.

They feel good. We feel good, and the company feels good. Plus, better performance should = more revenue and access to improved career opportunities.

Corporate L&D is about making an impact on the bottom line. There is no getting away from that. No matter how much it sucks to say.

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2/ Explore the tasks and skills your L&D team needs

Before we delve into roles, you need to get clear on the tasks your team does and the skills needed to do these.

To get clear on the tasks and skills you need, try out this exercise.

Tasks vs Skills assessment

Create a table like the below. Spend time with your team to analyse the tasks they do today and cross-reference this with the skills the team needs to do these.

Tasks	Skills
What tasks will your team deliver?	What skills will they require to do this?

You’ll use this data to shape how and what your team delivers.

If you have no clue where to start, fret not. I have a wealth of industry data to help you get clarity.

The modern L&D professionals must-have skills

This image comes from the team at Redthread Research’s Future-proofing L&D: Developing the Right Skills report.

They distill the main skills teams need as:

1. Technology Strategy + use
2. Data and decision making
3. Consulting
4. Marketing/promotion
5. Decentralising learning with supportive business relationships
6. Adaptability to learn new skills and ways of working at speed

Something to keep in mind as you review your own tasks and skills.

In addition, HR research analyst, Josh Bersin, offers this perspective on the evolution of L&D teams role up to the modern day.

The modern L&D team focuses on performance instead of pushing education.

Well, it should do that anyway!

Where RedThread and Bersin take a more corporate approach.

I couldn’t round-up this section without including my analysis. Every year, I review and distill the latest industry data to identify the 7 essential skill for modern L&D pros.

The above image shows the focus for 2024.

Access the analysis and a full step by step guide to craft there skills here.

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3/ How to identify the most critical roles for your L&D team

Let’s unpack the learning and development team for the modern age.

Content Curators

Why reinvent the wheel by creating more content when we have a library of information at our fingertips already?

The world is littered with content.

For a workplace L&D perspective, a lot of it is questionable in its quality and usefulness. Save yourself time (and your sanity) by adopting a curation model of finding the best stuff.

Don’t create more stuff.

Top organisations and leaders often share Knowledge freely. Most of us will consume this content in our spare time through social media.

We can make better use of it in the workplace and share the right content with people?

Some may think curating content is easy but it’s actually an art form.

You need to understand your audience, their problems, the type of content that will connect with them and is appropriate for your workplace culture.

You want to help people by giving them the right stuff, not more stuff.

Pro tip: Let AI help you

I wrote the first edition of this guide in 2018.

The only decent tool to surface content was Google. Times have changed friend. In 2024, conversational AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot can enhance your curation strategy.

Do not look to these as a total replacement for this role.

It is complimentary. The intersection of AI for good is in human collaboration. You still need a human to validate and provide the contextual layer with any content you surface.

The digital world is dark and full of terrors.

Humans can help AI make sense of this. To get an idea of how you could collaborate with AI with this task. Check out this video:

In sum:

Curators allow you to filter the best content that delivers value for your audience.

Content Creators 

Although I’ve given a glowing endorsement for content curation that doesn’t mean you don’t need people to build bespoke content. 

Don’t outsource all of this to AI, either!

Content creation in modern times is a somewhat necessary evil given the right context. I say this as we have a content chaos problem. The stuff is everywhere.

The typical L&D platform probably has hundreds of duplicates of the exact same topic.

That sucks for your user.

So, what does a content creator do in 2024?

The trendy answer is to say “Get ChatGPT to do this”.

You’re smarter than that.

The term content creator is kinda misleading, as they will

• Repurpose existing content
• Build fresh content
• Improve existing content assets

Great creators move from idea conception to execution quickly.

So that means no building stuff behind closed doors for months to discover that no one needs it anymore.

Curation is good. Yet, sometimes you need to build an original product that is fit for your current context.

Pro Tip: Combine curation and creation

This might seem obvious to you already.

With access to the pretty slick tech we have today. I can’t see a reason not to have people doing both of these tasks together. Of course, context matter in all things.

In sum:

Even though generative AI has disrupted the content creation process. You still need people to review and validate content to deploy. Relying on generative AI for this right now would be risky.

Learning Experience Architects

This is not about building stuff in authoring tools.

It’s the capability to build the right experiences to solve the problem at hand. Forget about creating paint by number delivery experiences.

→ This is not what these people do.

This is human centred design – building solutions that will evoke change and solve a real problem.

These people are part innovators, part experimenters and part experience designers. These should understand tech, specifically learning tech.

Tasks in this role will focus on:

• Answering questions like what’s the best platform
• The ability to map out the user experience.
• How to build digital learning architecture which will enable performance.

These people can not only design experiences but facilitate too. However, they are not ‘facilitators’. Think of them as architects. Those who turn ideas into reality.

A strong set of LX consultants can be the crown jewel of your unit.

You need to look for people who can build strong relationships, trust and bring credibility to the organisation.

In sum:

L&D is a business of people. LXA’s (learning experience architects) are the driving force of critical thinking to cut through the noise of what works for your company.

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4 shared skills every L&D team needs to have

Let’s focus on the shared skills across the team, aka the skills that all members of your unit should possess.

📊 Data analysis

The skill of data analysis should be shared by each member of your team, not just pushed onto one data analyst.

Here’s some data on this:

1. The skill of data analysis is a common skill needed by 80-90% of careers in today’s world. It’s a skill gap for many and learning it will for sure help with any future career path.

2. If you don’t understand how to effectively collect and use data, then you aren’t able to create the best learning experience for any audience. Data is an enabler. One you cannot ignore when building any solution.

3. Assigning just one person with the skills in data analysis is a point of failure. If only one member of your team has this knowledge, what happens if they leave? Avoid creating a point of failure.

Bottom line, having the whole team possess data analysis skills is a win for them and the team.

📣 Comms and marketing

I have spoken at length on why if you build it, they won’t come.

90% of the time, most products become what 6 week wonders because there was never a engagement plan.

Well not unless you actually tell people about your product and they know why it’s amazing.

This is something I’ve seen far too many times. Teams spend months working hard on new content, throw it out into the world and then no one looks at it…..ever.

Then the holy question arises – why has no one used our product/resource/swanky new thing?

It’s simple. You didn’t tell anyone.

Don’t expect to build a product and people will naturally flock to use it. You need to become marketing savvy. Many learning teams underestimate the power of a communications and engagement strategy.

Actually, I find many learning teams don’t understand how to connect their people with learning opportunities at all.

You can have the most amazing learning content in human existence, but if no one knows it exists, what it does and why it’s important for them  –  you’re pretty much digging your own grave.

You need the whole team to buy into this way of thinking.

Don’t make this classic L&D mistake

It’s an overlooked skill of not only L&D pros, but humans in general.

It’s something we each do, every day, in many ways. You market your skills to a potential employer, you market ideas to business leaders and you even use marketing techniques to convince your crush to go on a date with you.

Building stuff is one thing, getting it in front of people is another.

You’re in service of your audience, but most workplaces aren’t aware of what’s available to them. This is where a focused approach to building a connection with the people you serve can be a huge enabler.

I talk about this lots in my own work.

Here’s some of the best bits for you:

1. What L&D gets wrong about marketing, and how to do the stuff that works
2. How to use the power of content marketing to amplify your L&D products
3. The ultimate mini-guide to positioning your L&D products for success

🤝 Performance consulting

Think of Performance Consulting as being the workplace detective of the L&D world.

It’s not just about throwing a training program at a problem and hoping it sticks (or not spraying and praying as I was once told).

Nope. You dig deeper.

You chat with the team, look at the data, and figure out what’s really going wrong. Then, you come up with a game plan that might be training, but could also be other stuff like better tools, process changes, or even a morale booster.

The end game is making sure everyone performs better and the business scores a win.

The art of consulting seems lost in L&D teams.

We take a lot of questions, but ask few questions. Sometimes, you have to do this. The nature of your organisation can be tough to change.

Your mission is to partner with the workforce to understand their needs and propose the best solution.

→ Unpack why performance consulting is so important for the modern L&D pro here.

🖥️ Digital Intelligence

We are all digital people living in a digital world.

This skill isn’t exclusive to our industry. It’s a must for every human.

I’ve spent too much of my career watching people shy away from tech. We just cannot do that anymore. I hate to sound like one of those morons on social media that says “Do this or be left behind”. But I’m going to make an exception here.

If you don’t invest in your digital intelligence you will be left behind.

Defining Digital Intelligence

Let’s keep this simple.

It’s about being savvy, aware and adaptable with new digital technologies. You don’t need to be an expert but you must be aware of what’s available. Be curious, always.

Our world needs more digital-savvy pros.

As the world of learning continues to be eaten up by tech. You would be wise to become fluent in the language of technology to become a valued strategic business partner.

Even outside of L&D, a basic level of understanding how different technologies work, connect and support one another is essential.

Not every member of your team needs to be an expert in this field, but they should have an understanding.

Again, some of you reading this might be resistant and suggest that a technology team should do this.

Your team will know the application for any learning tech better than anyone. They will understand how it works in practice, so, keeping up to date with modern technology will always be an enhancer

This knowledge which will separate your team from the industry.

If you keep up with trends, absorb what is useful, avoid what is not and apply what works for your audience. You will create a high performing learning function.

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The L&D leader

You might have clocked onto this already.

But I have missed out a high level strategic role.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m talking about the leadership role in the team. You may know it as the Head of Learning, Director of Learning, Chief Learning Officer or whatever flavour of the month title is today.

What does a L&D leader do?

The learning leadership role for me is one of a strategist, coach and enabler.

You should be a strategist who has operated in all of the team roles I’ve outlined in some capacity. For some of you, like me at times, you might be a solo act so you’re playing all of these roles right now.

Like your team, you will be on top of evolving trends, insights and practices which allow you to nurture a clear vision for the team to work towards.

You act as a coach to support your team’s development. Collaborate with them to solve problems and find answers together.

Don’t tell them to do this or that, instead you take the journey with everyone too.

You enable your people to do what they need to.

A modern learning leader should provide the freedom to experiment, propose new ideas, test stuff and ultimately innovate the way you work.

Much like any learning function, the leadership role is one in service to its people. 

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This will evolve

As I said from the get-go, this is just how I would build a team today.

Of course, you might have different requirements.

These will evolve as the world changes and the dynamics of the workplace with it. So, don’t take what I’ve shared as set in stone.

I’m sure a year from now my recommendation could look different.

Instead, use these as the foundational building blocks to the function you want to shape.

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Final thoughts

When you look at your L&D team today, ask yourself:

1. Are they providing the service your audience needs?
   
   
2. If not, why not?
   
   
3. Has your team been setup to deliver the service your workplace requires for continued development?

I hope this helps.

If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them below, message me directly, find me for a chat on LinkedIn.

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