Recently, we hosted a customer roundtable discussion on a crucial topic for today’s Learning & Development (L&D) teams: Elevating L&D as a Trusted Advisor. As organizations increasingly recognize the impact of learning on business outcomes, L&D leaders have an opportunity to shift from being seen as service providers to strategic advisors.
During our January Think Tank session, we explored key strategies for positioning L&D as a business-critical function, gaining stakeholder trust, and aligning learning initiatives with executive priorities. Here’s what we learned—and how Cognota can help drive this transformation.
One of the biggest challenges L&D teams face is demonstrating direct business impact. Leaders in our roundtable emphasized the importance of:
- Partnering with business units to understand their challenges and objectives.
- Connecting learning initiatives to measurable business outcomes like revenue growth, customer satisfaction, or operational efficiency.
- Using data to showcase how learning contributes to key performance indicators (KPIs).
With Cognota, L&D teams can manage learning requests, track demand, and ensure that training aligns with high-priority business goals—all within one centralized platform.
For L&D to be seen as a strategic function, gaining executive and stakeholder buy-in is critical. Our discussion highlighted ways to do this effectively:
- Communicating in business terms rather than L&D jargon.
- Demonstrating quick wins to build momentum and credibility.
- Engaging leadership early in the learning design process to ensure alignment.
Cognota’s collaborative features allow L&D teams to bring stakeholders into the process, ensuring transparency and alignment from the start.
Beyond aligning with business strategy, L&D must actively shape the company’s future talent and workforce development strategies. Best practices shared included:
- Presenting learning data in executive dashboards that connect learning impact to business performance.
- Leading conversations about workforce readiness, upskilling, and digital transformation.
- Positioning L&D as a driver of innovation and competitive advantage.
With Cognota’s program strategy feature, teams can leverage the ROI Methodology to track and communicate the value of their programs—helping L&D leaders elevate their role at the executive table.
The conversation at our roundtable made one thing clear: L&D teams that proactively align with business needs, build stakeholder trust, and demonstrate measurable impact are the ones that elevate themselves as strategic partners. By leveraging the right tools and frameworks, L&D can move beyond being reactive and become a trusted advisor in shaping the organization’s success.
We’d love to learn more from you on how your L&D team is positioned as a strategic partner within the business. Feel free to share with us in the LearnOps Community.
