Here is what I think, and here is the specific thing you can do about it, whether it applies to you or someone you know.
We have spent this month naming a pattern. The meeting where careful work gets called “just slides.” The gap between holding the L&D title and having a seat at the table. What surfaces when someone finally maps the whole training picture instead of reacting to whichever request is loudest? Underneath all three of those is the same root problem, and I want to name it plainly.
Most mid-size organizations do not have anyone whose job it is to think about learning strategically. Not tactically, not operationally, strategically. They have people building courses. They sometimes have people managing an LMS. They rarely have anyone connecting training decisions to what the business is trying to become. That is not a training problem, but rather a leadership gap.
Let’s unite and agree that the order taker era of L&D is over. The strategic partner era is here.
What does this look like when someone fills it?
This is where I will be straightforward with you, because that is how I would like someone to talk to me. I have started taking on a small number of fractional L&D leadership partnerships, working alongside organizations, usually a few hundred employees, sometimes more, that have real training complexity and no one steering it strategically. Not full-time hire and not a consultant who parachutes in for one project and disappears, but instead, an ongoing strategic partner, embedded enough to understand the business, without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive.
It usually starts small and specific. A roadmap engagement, the kind of mapping I walked through last week, redundancies, gaps, the places training has been asked to solve problems it never could. From there, some organizations need one clear fix. Others realize they need an ongoing hand on the wheel, someone thinking about learning the way they already think about finance or operations.
Pick Your Spark
Here’s my challenge for you this week. Pick at least ONE that feels right, but still a little out of your comfort zone. The kind that makes you a little squeamish, but not the kind that makes you want to hide under your desk.
Option 1: Just notice.
Sit with the question honestly. Does this sound like your organization, or one you’ve worked with before? You don’t have to do anything with that yet, just let yourself answer it instead of scrolling past.
Option 2: Low risk forward
If someone came to mind while you were reading, forward to them this post. No note required, no explanation needed. Let the post do the talking.
Option 3: Start the conversation.
If this is your organization, or you’re ready to make the introduction, reply to this email or reach out directly. One sentence is enough to start, “I think you should talk to Dani.”
Know a company like this?
Let’s talk.
If this is someone you know
Here is the thing nobody talks about when it comes to referrals like this one. You might read all of this, recognize your organization completely, and still never say anything, not because you do not want to help, but because you genuinely do not know how to bring it up without it feeling like you are speaking above your role.
So let me make that part easy. You do not have to make the pitch. You do not have to explain fractional leadership to your VP or convince anyone of anything. You just have to make an introduction. If you have ever heard someone in your leadership, say something close to, “we really need someone owning this,” or “training keeps landing on whoever has time,” that is your cue. Forward this post, or send me a quick note with their name, and I will take it from there.
A note if you are the one making the introduction, not the one deciding: you are not vouching for a purchase, you are connecting two people who might be a good fit. That is a low risk, generous thing to do, and it is genuinely one of the most useful things you can do for your organization from inside a role that does not hold the budget.
Where we go from here
You already know more than you think, about your organization, about the gaps I have described this month, about whether any of these apply to you directly or to someone two floors up. I am not asking you to have it all figured out today. I am asking you to notice, and if it is worth a conversation, to start one.
Let’s talk.
About Dani Watkins
Dani is the founder of #IgniteLearning and the owner of Zenith Performance Solutions. She is an instructional designer, trainer, and eLearning developer who creates practical resources for in-house L&D professionals and now works with a small number of organizations as a fractional L&D leadership partner. She presents regularly for Training Magazine and believes deeply that good learning design changes outcomes, and that the right strategy makes those possible inside real organizational constraints.