All good learning strategy starts with planning. Once you know your why, turning that why into actionable strategy will not happen by accident. This month Learning Uncut has started working with a new client on our Strategy Builder process. In these first few weeks it almost looks like nothing is happening on the surface, because the work is all behind the scenes. It is all the planning: the contracting, the cadence of the work, the project plan, the task lists, the client agreement, the project charter and the design principles.
Why not simply just begin? Why not just start writing the learning strategy? For the same reason we need a learning strategy in the first place. It is very tempting, as solution-driven L&Ders, to dive into solution mode from the off. What we know works, however, is thorough and effective discovery, and that requires a plan.
What happens in the quiet weeks
Quiet does not mean empty. In these weeks we agree what success looks like and who needs to be involved. We settle how, and how often, we will meet, and who will hear what and when. We also name the people who will (and can) make time for interviews and data requests, and those who may feel uneasy about what discovery work might find.
The client agreement and project charter put all of this in writing. They also give everyone explicit permission to spend time on the work, which is the P in my EPC framework from The Learning and Development Handbook. Strategy work is often the first thing to slip when the day job gets busy, so permission needs to be in place from the start.
What the evidence says
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” is widely attributed to the time management writer Alan Lakein, and is often credited to Benjamin Franklin. Either way, it is absolutely true. The quote lasts because project research keeps backing it up.
The Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession 2026 reports that roughly one-third of complex projects fail to achieve the full scope of their intended benefits. That is more than twice the 12% rate PMI reported for projects overall in 2024. It also finds that high performers do not rely on tighter control or more detailed plans. They focus on outcomes over activity, alignment over compliance and learning over certainty. PMI describes them as “sensing and adapting rather than planning and controlling”. We believe effective planning is what makes that possible. Recent Learning Uncut podcast episode 191 with Lindsay Uittenbogaard and John Dobbin talked about the importance of alignment in projects. This is all why we always start with careful planning!
This research covers projects across industries rather than L&D specifically. Sometime we don’t think of L&D as complex, but our impact actually is. We change hearts and minds, culture and impactful change with our work. So as a prompt for your own thinking, it is important to consider the broadest complexities. How do you know how your learning projects impact? Do you do enough of your own data gathering in order to do effective planning at the start? Are you clear on what success looks like from the start?
Why Diagnose needs a plan
Strategy Builder has four phases: Diagnose, Strategise, Implement and Sustain. Diagnose is the longest, because it is where we look at your industry context, your business strategy and the current state of learning in your organisation, using both internal data and external research. A plan keeps this discovery cumulative, so each conversation builds on the last.
We saw this with Ironbark Financial Group. Elyse Toomey, their Head of Learning and Development, told us that breaking the work into phases and doing the Diagnose phase first helped her demonstrate value back to the business. Over three years the L&D team grew from one person to six, and elearning completion rates rose from 40% to 80%. Without taking the time to set that foundation, she says, they would still be “flying by the seat of our pants.” You can read more about Ironbark’s experience of the Strategy Builder process in this blog (Source: https://learninguncut.global/ironbark-learning-strategy-scale/ ).
Five questions before you begin
Whether or not you work with us on your Learning Strategy, these questions can help you plan before you dive into a strategy solution:
- What does success look like, and who agreed it?
- Who needs to be involved, and have they said yes to giving their time?
- What evidence will you gather in the discovery work, and where will it come from?
- What is the rhythm of the work, and when will stakeholders hear from you?
- Who decides what is in scope and what is out?
Planning also gives you something to point to. When a stakeholder asks what is happening, you can show the charter, the cadence and the plan, and the progress is already on the table. You can answer our favourite question, ‘How do you know?’ Planning is the work, and needs to be allowed to be seen as work.
If your next project began with three weeks of planning and no solutions, what might you find out that you would otherwise have missed?
Perhaps you have not reviewed your learning strategy for some time and would value a thinking partner for those first weeks. Learning Uncut, powered by Kairos Modern Learning, would be glad to help. Contact us through our website.
