What is the Future of Learning and Development?

On today’s episode, I want us to look to the future of L&D. 

However, I don't only want to talk about the future of L&D from an L&D lens; I want us to be holistic and well-rounded and hear from a diversity of perspectives. That’s why I’ve invited some of my favorite L&D and L&D adjacent thought leaders to join me to talk about what they hope for the future of L&D. 

We’re sharing valuable insights, actionable strategies, and innovative ideas for the future of workplace learning.

Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓

Key Points:

10:53 Using technology and AI to optimize L&D workflows and personalize the learning experience

17:47 How L&D will grow as Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to come into the workforce

24:06 Becoming a strategic partner 

25:20 Making learning more inclusive

27:04 Personalized coaching with context

28:38 The importance of having a learning leader in the C suite

30:03 Well-being as a competency, not just a buzzword

35:17 Focusing on behavior change in community with each other

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What is the Future of Learning and Development?

I have been in L&D for about 20 years, and I am often shocked that I'm still formatting trainer guides in Word. 20 years later!

However, instead of looking to the past today, I want us to look to the future of L&D. 

I've invited some of my favorite L&D and L&D adjacent thought leaders to join me to talk about what they hope for the future of L&D. Our goal is to share valuable insights, actionable strategies, and innovative ideas for the future of workplace learning. 

I invited these experts, these thought leaders, because I want us to hear a diversity of perspectives. 

I don't want to only talk about L&D from an L&D lens. I want us to think about this from an HR perspective, from a DEI perspective, from a well-being perspective, and so much more. We really want to be holistic and well-rounded as we think about the future of our work. 

We're part of a larger ecosystem and I want us to keep that in mind while we talk about the future today.

In this blog post, I’m sharing 5 experts' hope for the future of L&D:

1. Using Technology and AI to Optimize L&D Workflows and Personalize the Learning Experience

2. How L&D Will Grow as Gen Z and Gen Alpha Continue to Come into the Workforce

3. Becoming Strategic in How We Implement Learning and Development and Making L&D More Inclusive

4. Personalized Coaching with Context and the Importance of a Learning Leader in the C Suite

5. Nonprofit Employee Well-Being as a Competency, Not Just a Buzzword

6. A Focus On Behavior Change in Community with Each Other

1) Using Technology and AI to Optimize L&D Workflows and Personalize the Learning Experience

Kim Davis is the first expert I asked about her hope for the future of L&D. She is working to innovate L&D and is a well-respected speaker who has attended and spoken at many training industry events.

Kim’s first thought - AI.

“It's always great when we can have tools [...] to get some of our things done.” - Kim Davis

Kim explains that depending on the size of your nonprofit, you may be doing a little bit of everything.

“How we can use technology to innovate and optimize our workflows and personalize the learning experiences?” - Kim Davis

Kim explains it in the same way that we get personalized options from any streaming service. If you already like this, you might also like this or this is what I should take next based on what I've already done. 

“Using all those automations and having them become more mainstream is where it's going to help the nonprofit organizations become more innovative and agile and quick to adapt.” - Kim Davis

This is going to benefit everyone because the learner is going to get something very personalized and the organization is going to be able to provide personalized learning while still having the capacity to focus on other tasks.
Another one of our experts, Lotus Buckner, shares that something different about AI from other technology trends is that many options are low cost which is great for organizations with a smaller budget.

For Chloe Chen, AI helps her with the blank page problem.

“AI is great for getting a first draft or getting something on paper, and then we still get to do the parts that are the most interesting and the most human, which is curating it for our audience, making it really intuitive” - Chloe Chen

Dave Allman shares that there is tremendous potential for AI as a smart interaction, not as a substitute for human interaction.

I’ve recently released an episode on how to make generative AI your L&D thought partner, you can check that out below:

• Episode 98: How to Make Generative AI Your L&D Thought Partner

2) How L&D Will Grow as Gen Z and Gen Alpha Continue to Come into the Workforce 

The next expert I asked about her hope for the future of L&D was Chloe Chen. Chloe supports L&D through workforce development at a San Diego nonprofit.

Part of Chloe’s work is working with young people in her local school system. So she gets to do a lot of thinking about how Gen Z and Gen Alpha want to learn about work.

“Something I've been thinking about for our Gen Z audience and experimenting with is what does it look like to curate learning on TikTok. I think as we talk about the idea of AI really offering people personalized learning, I think Tiktok is a really fascinating space for that.” - Chloe Chen

Chloe explains that when you first log onto TikTok, the videos you see are all random, and within just a couple of days, they are completely personalized to what you want to learn about.

Another one of our experts, Darren McKee, shared that we have to be aware of how people want to learn.

“All of our people are scrolling all day anyway. How do we make sure that they're scrolling stuff that's actually going to better them? [...] How can we, as L&D leaders and L&D professionals, [...] help in a scroll based culture?” - Darren McKee

3) Becoming Strategic in How We Implement Learning and Development and Making L&D More Inclusive

The next expert I asked about her hope for the future of L&D was Lotus Buckner. She is bringing the HR perspective to the group. 

Lotus is a chief people officer, HR consultant, a founding member of Hacking HR's Experts Council, and the author of the newly published book The Joy of HR.

“My entire career I've seen leaders and executive teams throw learning, development, or training out as a be-all solution whenever there’s a problem.” - Lotus Buckner

Lotus explains that she would like to see a shift to where we're more strategic about how we're implementing learning and development within our companies. 

Her other big hope is that learning and development will become more inclusive.

“We focus a lot as organizations on leadership development.” - Lotus Buckner

While this is great, Lotus explains that these people are already at the top and probably have more access to training and development.

“Not everybody wants to be a leader, and you don't see as much development for people to go into a path other than just the leadership path.” - Lotus Buckner

Lotus shares that the way we implement training is not always inclusive from the tools that we're using to the language that we're using within our training.

4) Personalized Coaching with Context and the Importance of a Learning Leader in the C Suite

The next expert I asked about his hope for the future of L&D was Darren McKee and he brings the coaching perspective to this conversation. Darren partners with talent and OD leaders to build global executive coaching programs.

Darren explains that when he partners with a chief learning officer, an OD leader, or somebody in HR who is managing employee development, coaching, and succession, typically there is something around the competencies and frameworks of the business to help individuals grow and thrive both professionally and personally.

“If you're not thriving at home, it's really hard to show up at work, and if you're not thriving at work, it's hard to show up at home, too. How do you mesh those two together?” - Darren McKee

Darren calls this coaching with context and he explains that he is starting to see people wanting coaches who are not necessarily only coaches but have been in those individual’s shoes.

Darren also talks about the importance of having a learning leader in the C suite.

“If I look at all the organizations that I've worked with over the last three years, the ones that have continued to rise and stocks have continued to climb, and they continue to hire people, they are the ones that have a learning leader in the C suite.” - Darren McKee

Darren explains that if an organization really, truly cares about their people, there should be somebody at the very top, next to that CEO, who is pushing the conversation about people development forward.

5) Nonprofit Employee Well-Being as a Competency, Not Just a Buzzword

The last expert I asked about his hope for the future of L&D was Dave Allman. Dave is our well-being expert and the founder of Wellbeing@Work - an amazing platform that delivers Gallup science-backed guidance and resources to support well-being.

Dave has previously been on the podcast, you can check out his episode below:

• Episode 80: How to Add Well-Being to Your People Strategy

Dave shares that in 1966, Peter Drucker wrote a book called The Effective Executive and his definition of an executive was everybody responsible for results. 

And therefore, everybody should have access to L&D and coaching.

“I was always fascinated with the term learning and development. And my hope is that we just call it performance.  Because done right, it's all about performing at our best, playing to our strengths and obviously having extraordinary results in the things we love to do.” - Dave Allman 

Dave hopes that executives will see L&D as not something convenient when we have extra money but a necessity. 

“I believe well-being is a competency. And we're called Wellbeing@Work because it's a verb that you should be able to observe and see amongst leaders, amongst managers, amongst teams, amongst individuals as a competency. I think it is one of the most fundamental life skills. Without the well-being in place, building other competencies is building on ice.” - Dave Allman

Darren shares that Gen Alpha and Gen Z are going to be the first generation to come into the workforce where L&D is a non-negotiable for them because all of their parents had coaches and L&D teams in the last 15 years of their career.

“There's a very promising future here. It will take some folks to be bold to break down what have been historical limits in structural thinking.” - Dave Allman

6) A Focus On Behavior Change in Community with Each Other

I have two things that I hope for the future of L&D. I hope that we will focus more and more on behavior change and that we will do it in community with each other. 

Behavior change is a very independent individual thing, but we can't do anything without each other.

With the loneliness epidemic continuing to get bigger and bigger, we have an opportunity as L&D to really bring people together and to create that community so that we can achieve all of your hopes for L&D.

I hope we'll work together to make our people and our community stronger. No more silos and no more gatekeeping. I want us to connect with each other and share our experiences. I want us to bring our questions to each other so we can hear firsthand what's working in other nonprofits and organizations.

That’s why I’m so passionate about the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective - the only community that's for nonprofit and association L&D pros, and it's by L&D pros. 

It is a community. It is a gathering place and a great way to add people to your network, but also to bring those questions, to share those insights, and to learn from each other.

To hear the full conversation I had on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 100.

The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective

Helping to change the world for good is hard enough as it is. Finding good support shouldn’t be difficult, too.

I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. 

Nonprofit L&D leaders have been overlooked for too long. You need a place where you can meet like-minded talent development pros, learn from industry leaders and tech vendors, and find the support you need to make a real impact. 

Thankfully, great nonprofit support is no longer hard to find or financially inaccessible.

Welcome to the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – the only community specifically for nonprofit talent development professionals. 

When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs. 

So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.