From Overlooked to Indispensable: A Real Story of Elevating an L&D Team’s Influence and Impact

Learning & Development teams are often tasked with supporting large-scale organizational change while also establishing their own strategic relevance. Many L&D functions remain overlooked—perceived as service providers rather than partners—struggling to influence priorities, navigate resistance, and demonstrate their value during moments of transformation. This session addresses the challenge of shifting an L&D team from low visibility to indispensable impact amid significant organizational daily challenges.

In this candid, story-driven session, I share what was truly at stake as I rebuilt an L&D function within a global organization: the decisions made under pressure, the leadership behaviors that moved the work forward, the missteps that slowed progress, and the organizational conditions that shaped the outcome. 

To ensure an engaging and interactive experience, attendees will participate in “leadership decision points,” choosing how they would navigate pivotal moments from the transformation and comparing their approaches to what actually occurred. Paired reflection prompts and mini-application activities will help participants connect these lessons to their own contexts and capability-building challenges.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the leadership behaviors and organizational conditions that enable—or hinder—L&D influence during change.
2. Apply a practical decision-making framework for leading through ambiguity, resistance, and competing priorities.
3. Use relationships, business acumen, and internal marketing strategies to elevate L&D’s visibility and credibility.

This session equips L&D leaders with actionable insights to transform their influence, deepen partnerships, and increase organizational impact.