From Order Taker to Strategic Partner: Why L&D Needs a Seat at the Table
March 17, 2026
Do any of these sound familiar?
“We need a two-day workshop.”
“Can you build a quick e-learning training?”
“Just add this compliance module.”
If you’re an L&D professional, requests like these can signal that your role has become reactive – responding to training requests rather than shaping strategic solutions. While these can be useful tactics as part of a wider L&D strategy, on their own, they’re not real solutions.
In many organizations, L&D is often viewed as compliance and box-ticking. Accepting these requests at face value often limits L&D’s strategic influence within an organization. By starting as an order taker, they set the precedent of making that role permanent. Even if the L&D team has a strong relationship with decision makers in the organization, they can easily get pulled back into the “reactive” instead of the “strategic” way of working.
So, with that in mind, what does it take to shift from learning content producer to strategic learning partner? Below are some tips and advice from Sue Donnelly, Program Advisory Council (PAC) member and course reviewer for The Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Learning Design at The Chang School. Sue is Managing Director, Head of Global Performance Solutions at KPMG in Toronto. She also brings nearly three decades of experience working in Executive Coaching, Learning and Development for her firm, Pathfinder Solutions.
Diagnose Before You Design
Training is only effective if the problem is actually a knowledge or skill gap. Sue says to start by asking the question, “What problem are we trying to solve?” This involves determining whether the issue might relate to:
- Process design
- Technology adoption
- Feedback mechanisms
- Incentives
- Leadership behaviour
- Or truly a skills gap
“One of the first questions L&D professionals need to ask is: What problem are we actually trying to solve? If it’s not a knowledge or skill gap, training alone won’t fix it.”
— Sue Donnelly
Sue cites the example of a team that isn’t effectively using a new technology that’s been rolled out across the organization. First, the L&D professional needs to find out whether that’s because they don’t know how to use it or that they didn’t know it was available or expected, or there is no accountability (i.e. employees aren’t held to account if they’re not using it), or a flawed process.
“Strategic L&D professionals diagnose performance systems – not just design courses,” says Sue.
In order to do that effectively, a degree of curiosity is necessary.
Curiosity Is a Strategic Skill
When diagnosing a problem, it’s important for L&D professionals to inject curiosity into their line of questioning. Instead of starting the conversation with, “What content do you want covered?” or “How long should the course be?”, these types of questions will help them arrive at a more strategic solution:
- “Tell me what a day in the life looks like.”
- “What does success look like?”
- “What happens when someone follows the process correctly?”
- “What happens when they don’t?”
“Curiosity is one of the most important skills in learning and development. Asking thoughtful questions — and truly listening to the answers — is how you move from order taker to strategic partner.”
— Sue Donnelly
Sue says some important things to remember when having these conversations with decision makers are to ensure they’re engaged in active listening, are mirroring and clarifying what’s being said, not jumping into ‘solution mode’, and avoiding intimidation when speaking with decision makers.
“By doing these things and asking questions in this way, they’re demonstrating curiosity, which builds credibility,” says Sue.
Think Beyond the Event: Learning in the Flow of Work
Another key difference between box-ticking training and strategic learning is a shift in the learning model itself.
If not applied immediately to the workplace, any knowledge that employees have learned from training fades quickly. That’s why practice, performance, and peer reinforcement matter, says Sue.
This also requires support from managers and systems when there’s behaviour change as a result of learning something new.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift in applying new information learned.
AI, Human Judgement, and the New L&D Skill Set
If they aren’t already, organizations should view AI not as a threat but rather an inflection point, or, in other words, a turning point. For example, AI makes information retrieval easier so L&D’s role is to help employees ‘learn how to learn through AI’ for example, determining what to memorize versus what to retrieve.
While AI-generated outputs may look polished, they’re still dependent on human oversight. That’s where strategic L&D professionals can help act as the ‘human in the loop’.
In summary, modern strategic capability requires AI fluency as well as critical thinking in order to be successful.
Follow the Money: Business Acumen as the Game Changer
L&D professionals don’t need to be a tech expert – they need to be business experts.
“Learning and development professionals don’t need to be experts in technology — but they do need to be experts in business. Follow the money and understand what the organization is trying to achieve.”
— Sue Donnelly
When developing training materials, L&D professionals should keep in mind how the organization makes money so that the work employees are doing ladders up to that. Equally important is what metrics matter to executives. It’s not enough to say that ‘x number of employees completed training’ but more how the training changes behaviours, improves quality, causes engagement or sales metrics to shift, and whether the original business problem was solved.
This is where it’s also important to consider what the organization’s one, three or five-year strategy is and where AI is impacting revenue or cost.
In the end it’s not always a numbers game – sometimes success means training fewer people but achieving greater impact, says Sue.
The Capability Gap: Where Many L&D Professionals Need Growth
Based on Sue’s experience reviewing programs and hiring talent, she’s found that many L&D professionals are strong in content design, learning tools, and delivery formats.
Where they tend to fall behind or need more development is in:
- Performance consulting
- Root-cause analysis
- Systems thinking
- Business alignment
- Measurement strategy
- AI-informed critical thinking
This is where structured upskilling matters.
Building Strategic Capability Through Education
The Postgraduate Certificate in Strategic Learning Design (SLD) is designed for mid-career professionals who already understand learning design and want to deepen their strategic influence.
The program helps learners move beyond tactical delivery to diagnosing performance challenges, identifying root causes, determining when learning is the appropriate solution, and when the underlying issue requires a different organizational response.
The skills developed in the program are highly transferable, supporting career progression across sectors such as banking, health care, employment services, and post-secondary education.
Earning, Not Asking for, a Seat at the Table
By practicing the areas outlined above as well as upskilling with continuing education, L&D professionals can build credibility and solve business problems. Their ability to be strategic starts with asking better questions. Their value is then proven by measurement and alignment with overall business goals. And finally, AI makes this moment urgent – and full of opportunity.
The future of L&D doesn’t belong to those who deliver more training – it belongs to those who solve the right problems.
