The understanding of value in learning is wrong on so many fronts. As well as a lack of understanding of the benefits we are supporting in the workplace, we often fail to recognise all the other benefits which people get for engaging with us.

The sponsor who wants people to just be able to ‘do the thing’ is getting it wrong. The underappreciation of the sophistication and breadth of the learning function has been programmed out.

By us.

In our drive to produce more, quicker, and cheaper we are reframing the expectation of L&D as a low-cost and low-value business partner. In the race to be a lower cost, we deliver too little.

The rest of the organisation looks at us and assumes that we can – and will – ship at scale at pace. Since we don’t recognise the value of our work, we also ship cheaply.

The people we work with want more and better. We have to prove that it might also cost them a little more.