In our February 2026 blog, we talked about laying the foundations for impactful work in L&D, particularly in thinking about Learning Strategy. Now we’re exploring the forces that shape these foundations in more detail. We have all heard the old tropes: people professionals need to be more strategic or L&D don’t need a seat at the table because they’re not strategic enough. These old tropes don’t serve us well. They certainly don’t help us understand what “being more strategic” actually means.
Strategy is at the heart of what we do at Learning Uncut. We’ve helped many organisations to develop and implement a high-impact learning strategy. In our experience, impactful work starts with intentional thinking. Intentional thinking about a broad range of context and ideas build the firm foundation upon which we build our L&D practice. When we say ‘strategy’, we help you understand what that means for you and your context, because every organisation is different.
What does it really mean to build an L&D strategy?
At its simplest, building a strategy means committing to a longer-term, higher-impact approach to workplace learning. So often in L&D, we are reacting: a request for a course, a complaint, a regulatory change. These are all valid reasons for L&D involvement. Yet being reactive alone keeps us on the back foot. A strategic approach shifts us towards proactive work, where we can be genuinely useful to our organisations and prove that usefulness against business metrics. We can help shape behaviours that move the organisation towards fulfilling its purpose.
This is where thinking and working systemically matters. When you build an L&D strategy, you are not working in isolation. You are connecting your plans to the wider organisational system in collaboration with system stakeholders.
What strings are being pulled in your organisation?
In The Learning and Development Handbook (page 37), I talk about String Theory, the theoretical framework in physics around dimensions and space. Whilst perhaps tongue in cheek, I stretch the metaphor simply to remind us that all things are connected:
“The fundamentals of string theory are that dimensions operate on a string which weaves through space and interact with each other through gravitation, magnetism, strong force and weak force…. Thinking about the interaction of such forces helps us layer up strategy within an organisation. Who are the gravity-pulling people? Who are the magnetic people that go to other people? Who are the repelling magnetic people that pull away? Who are the strong pushing forces within an organisation, and who are the less strong ones?”
We need to know what forces are at play which may shake our firm foundation. Knowing which strings to pull and which to leave alone are critical to moving your work forward. We can only know that when we both know our businesses well and also ‘feel’ them. The emotional pull may not sit in a theoretical physics setting, but it certainly fuels the old tropes. We ‘feel’ like we are missing out when we are not at the table in the conversations which influence our work, when other people are pulling our strings.
But we really don’t need to be ‘at the table’ because we can create our own conversations by asking the right consultative questions to the right people, in the right way to get to know what is going on. We can learn the forces at play in our contexts in this way.
What happens when the forces shift?
To illustrate, I worked with Virtual College. They created and sold packaged off-the-shelf elearning and recognised they were in a crowded market. They needed a new strategic direction. A lot of work went into determining that direction, as every decision has ripple effects across the business. When it was agreed to expand into bespoke elearning production, that shift changed everything. The business rebranded, repositioned in the market and recognised that selling bespoke products needs a much more consultative sales approach than selling fixed packages. Learning and Development at Virtual College simply wasn’t set up for this business shift and the rebrand.
A new L&D strategy was needed, one that connected directly to the new business direction and ensured the whole organisation could deliver on it. Without that strategic intent, the Sales Director could have put the whole team on a generic sales programme and hoped for the best. That’s a “spray and pray” approach, not grounded in evidence or planning.
Instead, we started with discovery: understanding the ripple effects of the shift across the business, identifying which teams were most affected and in what ways, and working out what needed to change first. The L&D strategy had to address capability across the organisation, not just one team. It had to sequence priorities, align to the new brand positioning, and build strategic capability alongside tactical skills. Working together within the new business strategy, we went from discovery to intent to implementation, ensuring the L&D response was as considered as the business decision that drove it. It was a pleasure to work alongside Virtual College to both build a new L&D strategy and build the strategic capability to deliver on it. Whenever there is change, there needs to be a plan, not just a wish and a hope that everything will work out.
What is rocking your firm foundation?
What is the one thing in your organisation right now that needs a strategic L&D response rather than a reactive one? Do you know which strings to pull?
If you’d like a thinking partner to connect your L&D work to the bigger organisational picture, we’re here. Get in touch.
We’re offering a free 30-minute Learning Strategy Consultation, a genuine conversation about your situation, with concrete recommendations whether you engage our services or not.
