L&D Strategy & Operating Model Design
Most learning functions don't get designed. They accumulate.
A compliance course here, a manager who asks for leadership training there, an onboarding deck someone built three reorgs ago, a tool a department bought without telling anyone. Before long you've got training happening everywhere and a learning function nowhere — no clear front door for requests, no standards, no way to tell leadership whether any of it is actually working. It runs on the goodwill of a few overloaded people, and the moment they leave or budgets tighten, it shows.
That model is quietly running out of road. The expectation now is that learning earns its seat at the table by connecting to business goals, and the programs that can't make that case are the first ones cut. For L&D leaders, 2026 is an inflection point: the organizations that modernize toward scalable delivery and measurement tied to business KPIs will be positioned to demonstrate impact, while those still running reactive, compliance-heavy programs will struggle to secure executive investment. The bar has moved from "we offer courses" to "we drive business outcomes" — and getting there isn't about buying more content. It's about building the structure underneath it. D2LLearningtechnologies
That structure is what this work delivers. L&D Strategy and Operating Model Design is about turning scattered, reactive training into a real learning function — one with a clear strategy, a way for requests to come in and get prioritized, standards that keep quality consistent, and a line of sight from any program back to a business goal. It's the difference between learning that happens to an organization and learning that's actually built for it. I've done this from a blank page, including standing up a global enterprise learning function from nothing, and the same principles scale all the way down: a growing company, a nonprofit, a campaign organization, or a league office needs the same backbone, just sized to fit.
Services Include
Learning strategy — A clear point of view on what learning is for in your organization, which business priorities it serves, and how it earns investment. Everything else hangs off this.
L&D maturity assessment — An honest look at where your learning function sits today, from reactive and request-driven to strategic and embedded, and what the realistic next stage looks like. You get a roadmap, not a grade.
Training intake model — A real front door for training requests, so they get captured, prioritized, and routed instead of landing in someone's inbox and turning into yet another one-off.
Governance structure — Clear ownership, decision rights, and standards so learning stays consistent as it grows, and so people know who decides what.
Curriculum standards — Shared quality bars for how programs get built, so a course made by one team holds up next to one made by another.
Learning paths — Structured, role-based progressions that show people what to learn and in what order, instead of leaving them to guess their way through a content catalog.
Onboarding redesign — A reworked first-30/60/90 experience that gets new people productive faster and signals what the organization actually values from day one.
Leadership development strategy — A deliberate plan for building managers and leaders, rather than hoping good leadership emerges on its own.
LMS governance — Standards and practices that keep your learning platform clean, current, and trustworthy, so it's a system people rely on rather than a graveyard of dead courses.
Learning analytics — Measurement that connects learning activity to the things leadership actually cares about, so you can prove impact and steer with data instead of anecdotes.
Vendor and tool evaluation — Clear-eyed assessment of platforms, content libraries, and tools, so you buy what fits the strategy instead of collecting subscriptions.
Global/local learning model — A structure that balances enterprise consistency with local autonomy, so a shared standard works across regions, business units, chapters, or affiliates without forcing everyone into an identical box.
Best For
Growing companies that have outgrown ad-hoc training and need real infrastructure before the cracks start to show.
HR teams drowning in scattered, one-off training requests with no system to manage them.
Organizations building a learning or L&D function for the first time and wanting to get the foundation right rather than rebuild it in two years.
Any organization that needs scalable learning infrastructure connected to its goals — enterprises and commercial teams, certainly, but just as much nonprofits, civic and political organizations, and sports administrations that run real training across staff, volunteers, members, or affiliates and need it to hold together.
Outcome
A practical learning system that supports performance, growth, and transformation — one with clear ownership, consistent standards, a real intake and prioritization process, and measurement that lets you show leadership exactly what learning is contributing. Instead of training that happens in scattered pockets, you get a function people trust, that scales as you grow, and that leadership recognizes as a driver of the business rather than a cost to be trimmed.
