By Guillaume Gérard and Andre Scholtz, CrossKnowledge
For years, the learning and development (L&D) function has operated with a familiar mandate: deliver training, improve skills, and support professional growth. But if you’re feeling like this isn’t working anymore, you’re not alone—and you’re not wrong.
We are entering a new era where learning, in isolation, is no longer delivering the impact organizations need. The pressure is growing, the pace of change is accelerating, and leaders are facing complexity at a scale never seen before. What do we do when learning is no longer enough?
Let’s unpack what we’ve learned from our clients, our research, and from our own transformation at CrossKnowledge—and more importantly, what it means for the future of L&D.
The pace of change is outrunning L&D
The first, and perhaps most urgent, shift is the realization that business change is outpacing traditional learning models. Reskilling half your workforce over the next two years isn’t just a stretch, it’s a reality backed by research. But most L&D functions are still playing catch-up, using reactive methods that simply can’t scale.
When change comes faster than L&D can respond, learners turn elsewhere, often to tools like ChatGPT. While those tools offer convenience, they’re no substitute for strategic capability building.
The question is not, “How do we train faster?”
It’s, “How do we rethink what L&D is here to do?”
From skills to capabilities: A more sustainable model
There’s a subtle but critical distinction between skills and capabilities. Skills are what someone knows how to do. Capabilities are what someone can adapt and apply over time, across different situations. In a world defined by disruption, it’s the latter that holds real value.
A capability is built on four interdependent components:
- Skills – the knowledge and proficiency needed to complete a specific task.
- Habits – repeatable behaviors that shape how work gets done day-to-day.
- Behaviors – observable actions underlying mindsets, attitudes, and knowledge.
- Contextual application – the ability to transfer and adapt to learning in a changing work environment.
Capabilities extend the shelf life of skills. They help stretch time, not by slowing things down, but by making the impact of learning last longer and reach deeper.
Aligning L&D with business strategy (finally)
One of the most sobering statistics we’ve seen? Only 8% of CEO see L&D as having a clear business impact (LinkedIn Learning Report, 2024). That means the majority are creating learning experiences without a clear direction on what the business needs.
The consequences? Learning that doesn’t translate. Investments that don’t pay off. A staggering 73% of learning never gets applied back on the job.
True alignment requires more than a learning plan. It requires L&D to speak the language of the business, use data to tell a story, and connect learning efforts to measurable outcomes like productivity, readiness, or risk mitigation.
Rethinking impact: Beyond completion rates
Most organizations still measure success through course completions and satisfaction scores, metrics that say more about usage than about value.
To move forward, L&D needs to shift its measurement paradigm:
- From participation to performance.
- From volume to value.
- From input to impact.
This means linking learning to business KPIs, whether it’s reduced onboarding time, improved leadership transitions, or lower attrition. It means using data to predict and prevent performance gaps, not just to document activity.
A broader lens: Organizational Development meets L&D
If time is our scarcest resource, then the solution isn’t to add more training. It’s to look wider than learning, to the processes, structures, and cultures that determine whether learning sticks.
This is where Organizational Development (OD) comes in.
OD asks bigger questions:
- Is culture enabling or resisting change?
- Are leadership behaviors reinforcing the learning journey?
- Do processes and structures support the application on the job?
By integrating OD principles, L&D leaders can start addressing root causes, not just symptoms.
Introducing the Future-Proof Workforce Model
To help organizations shift from seeing learning as a support function to positioning it as a driver of business transformation, we developed the CK Future-Proof Workforce Model. Built on years of client collaboration and research, this strategic framework centers around our goal of Future-proofing the workforce. This is built on two transformation priorities, underpinned by two transformation enablers.
Our Goal: A Future-proof workforce
This isn’t a long-term ambition to be postponed, it’s a business imperative.
A future-proof workforce can adapt quickly, align with long-term goals and culture, and deliver impact in real-world conditions. It thrives in organizations where learning is continuous, embedded in daily work, and powered by meaningful data.
Transformation Priorities:
- Moving from Training to Transformation
It’s no longer enough to develop skills in isolation.
Organizations need a learning ecosystem that builds critical capabilities, like innovation, customer focus, and sustainability, and can evolve with the business.
Learning must become part of how work gets done, not something separate from it. And L&D must position itself as a strategic partner in enabling large-scale change. - Measuring Impact beyond training
To secure ongoing investment and strategic relevance, L&D must evolve from reporting on activity to demonstrating impact.
What counts now is the ability to show real business outcomes: increased performance, improved retention, better customer experiences. That requires sharper data, real-time insight into workforce capabilities, and a stronger narrative around the value of learning.
These two transformation priorities are only possible with two transformational enablers in place:
Transformation Enablers:
- Cultural and Leadership Alignment
Without executive support and a culture that values learning, transformation will stall. Managers must model the behaviors they expect, and learning must be embedded in how the organization operates. - Workforce Intelligence & Skills Data
Go beyond job titles and learning preferences. Understand your people’s real and often hidden capabilities. Too often, valuable internal talent goes untapped simply because it’s not visible.
Together, these four strategic focus areas form a model not just for better learning, but for building a workforce that is adaptive, aligned, and ready for what is next.
The L&D capability shift: it starts with us
Before we can build capability across the business, we need to ask ourselves: are we ready to lead the transformation we’re calling for?
Too often, L&D looks outward, toward learners, platforms, or business demands, without investing in its own development. To address this, we developed the CK Capability Framework for Learning & OD professionals.
This covers five essential capabilities for today’s learning professionals:
- Strategic consulting – Move from order taker to strategic advisor. Challenge needs, ask more strategic questions, and link learning to real business outcomes.
- Organizational development – Understand how culture, processes, and leadership dynamics shape performance, and how learning can enable change across all three areas.
- Change facilitation – Recognize that every learning initiative is a change initiative. Guide people through it with empathy, clarity, and intent.
- Behavioral science – Design for impact using the same drivers that shape behavior everywhere else: habit, motivation, social influence.
- Learning and Development – The heart of our craft has expanded. It now calls for fluency in emerging technologies, user experience, and the ability to design learning that’s not only effective but scalable and inclusive.
Strengthening these five areas helps L&D teams gain credibility, drive transformation, and deliver long-term value—without reinventing the wheel each time.
The bottom line: We’re not in the learning business anymore
We’re in the business of transformation.
For L&D, that means dropping the comfort of course catalogs and stepping into a strategic role to lead and reshape how we design, deliver, and measure learning impact. It means becoming fluent in strategy, culture, processes, and storytelling. It means building capabilities, not just delivering content or stopping at developing skills.
At CrossKnowledge, we’ve made this shift ourselves. We’ve integrated learning technology, content, services, and consultancy to help organizations like yours execute organizational development strategies, not just learning goals.
If you’re ready to lead the way in transforming learning, to build a workforce that’s not just skilled, but future-ready, we’re ready to support you.