Selling L&D as a Strategic Driver for Effectiveness and Change

What gets L&D teams a seat at the strategy table? CEO Mark Savinson explains in this week's newsletter. For actionable insight you can implement right away, grab yourself a seat at one of our upcoming webinar sessions.

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Here's an uncomfortable truth from someone who works with learning suppliers: we often go around L&D departments to speak directly to functional leads.

Why? Because too many business leaders don't see L&D as strategic partners. Instead, they see you as the compliance training people or the tactical suppliers who respond to managers' knee-jerk training requests.

The hidden competitor problem

I call this problem "the hidden competitor"—and it's not another learning provider. It's 'decidophobia': the very rational fear of making the wrong decision. When staying with the status quo feels safer than changing, that's exactly what people do.

This often means you, as L&D, are fighting this battle with the wrong weapons. This is what we often see:

• you lead with solutions instead of discussing challenges 

• you talk about training features instead of business outcomes 

The end result is you are seen as tactical when you want to be strategic.

What strategic L&D looks like

The L&D teams that get invited to the strategy table do something fundamentally different. They don't start conversations with "Here's what we can train on." They start with "Here's why we need to change what we're currently doing."

The L&D teams that get invited to the strategy table do something fundamentally different.

They understand their business strategy inside and out. They know the external pressures—legislation, competition, technology shifts. They speak the language of quantifiable risks and opportunities, not learning objectives.

Most importantly, they've mastered the art of helping business leaders discover for themselves why change is necessary. They facilitate rather than dictate.

The framework that changes everything

There's a specific approach that transforms how business leaders perceive L&D—from order-takers to strategic advisors. It's the same approach I use to help my clients move from price-based decisions to value-based partnerships.

This framework has four distinct phases:

1. Why Change - Creating consensus around the need for change

2. Change to What - Building strategic solution criteria

3. Change to Who - Selecting the right partner

4. Commit to Change - Contracting and starting the work

Each phase has specific conversation techniques, stakeholder management strategies, and decision-making tools that turn L&D into the heroes of their own story.

The bottom line

When L&D teams master this approach, everything shifts. Budgets become easier to secure. Business leaders seek them out for strategic discussions. Training becomes an investment rather than a cost center.

The difference between order-taking and strategic partnership isn't talent or budget—it's how you approach the internal conversations.

Want to learn the complete framework? 

Join our upcoming webinar where I'll walk through:

• conversation techniques

• stakeholder strategies, and 

• tools that transform L&D from tactical to strategic.

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Because being seen as strategic isn't about luck—it's about approach.