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Beyond Instructional Design: Building Agile, Business-Aligned L&D Functions

Author
TechSmith Corporation
Published
Wed 03 Sep 2025
Episode Link
https://the-visual-lounge.captivate.fm/episode/beyond-instructional-design-building-agile-business-aligned-ld-functions

What if we had to rebuild L&D from scratch? What could we do differently?

There have been rumblings in the L&D world that roles are gradually going to be replaced by AI. While we don’t predict an L&D apocalypse coming our way, maybe it’s time to start thinking differently about the role of L&D in broader business terms. 

Joining this episode is Tracie Cantu, Chief Learning Strategist at her company, Your CLO, and a Training Advisory Board Member at TechSmith. Tracie comes on the show with two decades of experience leading L&D transformation at organizations like Meta, Atlassian, and Whole Foods Market.

Tracie shares a bold vision for the future of L&D – we need to start thinking like business partners, not just L&D. She explains what she’d like to see more and less of in L&D, why we need a service catalog, and why the intake stage is the most important step in a consultation.

Learning points from the episode include:

  • 00:00 – 01:52 Introduction to Tracie
  • 01:52 – 02:47 Tracie’s biggest tip for using images and video
  • 02:47 – 07:23 How Tracie would rebuild L&D from scratch as a team of business partners
  • 07:23 – 12:13 How smaller L&D teams can do more with less
  • 12:13 – 18:28 The most repeatable tasks you can do to scale your impact
  • 18:28 – 23:23 Skills all L&D professionals should start focusing on
  • 23:23 – 24:54 Tracie’s challenge for L&D people
  • 24:54 – 28:31 Speed round questions
  • 28:31 - 29:57 How to connect with Tracie and Your CLO
  • 29:57 - 31:00Tracie’s final take
  • 31:00 - 31:57 Outro

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