The constant orders and tight constraints that stakeholders impose on L&D professionals can sometimes leave them feeling small and confined. However, performance improvement practitioners can evolve beyond their constraints to become sought-after, listened to, trusted, and respected partners.
How? Dr. Keith Keating, Chief Learning & Development Officer at BDO Canada, gave some valuable strategies for becoming a business partner during his well-received DevLearn 2025 keynote.
Gain trust by building credibility
Earn authority by putting in the work to build your expertise by:
- Rooting your recommendations in science. Educate yourself about brain science, then design your learning according to these practices. Not only will it make your learning more memorable and sustainable, but it will also offer scientific support for the learning design suggestions you’re providing.
- Using data and research to create your proposals. Spend time collecting quantitative data but also speak with your learners and stakeholders to gain qualitative data to shape your learning. And don’t just rely on internal research; also conduct external research using scholarly publications or white papers to understand how your competitors address similar issues.
Using science and data enables you to propose ideas to your stakeholders that are backed by credible methods. Plus, there’s the added bonus that this strategy makes your recommendations more difficult to disagree with.
Build your own table
Stop trying to gain a seat at someone else’s table and build your own. Create a learning champions network and meet with them at least quarterly. Spend most of your time asking questions and listening to your learning champions. Most importantly, ask them what’s keeping them from being successful in their job and then work to solve those challenges.
If the challenges are related to a learning problem, begin conducting your research and collecting data to develop a solution. Then you can come to your stakeholders and present the problem you heard directly from their employees and your learning plan to fix it. Imagine the value of solving a problem they may not have even known they had!
If it isn’t related to a learning problem, work on it anyway. See if anyone else in the organization is facing the same challenges and how they have solved them. Then, offer to connect the two departments and be part of the journey to find the answer. L&D practitioners are in the unique position to be connectors, and it is one of the most valuable services that performance improvement professionals can offer.
Learning and development needs are different at every organization. That’s why it’s essential to build your own table to communicate with learners and stakeholders regularly, ensuring you meet their unique demands.
