Today’s turbulent business landscape requires an agile, adaptable learning and development (L&D) playbook.

Unfortunately, not every business has laid the groundwork required for this—the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 made that evident.

Few—if any—businesses had an existing playbook for dealing with a global pandemic! Combined with the relentless march of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and data technologies, the pandemic radically reshaped the demands placed on L&D to reskill the workforce at an unprecedented pace and scale.

L&D Teams—It’s Time to Pivot

It’s time to adopt new rules for delivering learning, assess team roles, and realign the L&D mission with business goals. Brandon Carson, CLO at Starbucks, outlines a new mindset in his book L&D’s Playbook for the Digital Age.

He shows how to position L&D as a strategic driver of organizational transformation rather than a mere passenger along for the ride. In this way, L&D departments can set the stage for bridging skill gaps required for companies to execute their long-term plans.

Of course, earning that coveted seat at the executive table is easier said than done. Carson advises L&D pros to develop both a keen “top-down” understanding of high-level business strategy and strong "bottom-up" partnerships with functional leaders to zero in on the highest-priority learning needs. In essence, L&D must become bilingual—fluent in both the language of the business and the needs of learners.

Tenets of an L&D Playbook Built for Adaptability

Carson’s book outlines the crucial components of a successful L&D playbook:

• A crisp L&D mission, vision, and operating principles aligned with company goals

• A clear-eyed assessment of the current L&D operating model and learning culture

• Flexible one to three year plans with ample room to pivot as business needs inevitably shift

• Well-defined critical skills and capabilities needed now and in the near future

• Proactive strategies to enable continuous learning and close widening skill gaps

• Positioning L&D as a proactive business partner versus a reactive cost center

Aligned with your company goals, the mission that forms the foundation of your playbook may not change. But next to that, you should have a flexible playbook that can adapt to major industry or economic changes, while still supporting the critical programs you want to deliver.

Strategies for Crafting an Effective Playbook

Every organization is different, but there are some overarching strategies that can apply to any business or industry:

• Change is the new normal, so embrace it.

• Plan in 20 percent flexibility in case of unforeseen circumstances.

• Use internal technologies (Hello, AI!) in the same way the business deploys externally.

• Align L&D’s scorecard with business metrics.

• Stay focused on the highest-impact initiatives and resist excessive pivoting.

To get started, organizations must first clarify the L&D strategy and the “why” before working out the rest of the playbook. Investing in relationships with the C-suite and functional leaders is also crucial to ensure the playbook reflects the business’s true mission.

While conjuring a new playbook from scratch can seem like a Herculean task, embracing an agile product development mindset, complete with a prioritized backlog, can help L&D teams find their footing. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a great playbook.

The effort required to align on a flexible playbook is well worth it, as it positions L&D as an indispensable partner in navigating an increasingly unpredictable business environment. In a world where the only constant is change, an agile playbook may just be L&D’s secret weapon. Check out Brandon Carson’s book L&D’s Playbook for the Digital Age to learn more.