Moving L&D from "Nice to Have" to a Strategic Business Driver with Neil Cunningham

In this excellent interview, Brigid sits down with Neil Cunningham.

Neil is a strategic L&D people partner at the Children's Investment Fund Foundation with over 15 years of experience across diverse sectors such as tech, comms, utilities, and philanthropy. His expertise lies in developing key capabilities, measuring learning impact, and driving digital L&D strategy.

In this episode, Neil discusses the philosophy of where L&D belongs in an organisation and how to navigate major external challenges. He provides a masterclass on stakeholder management and agility, including:

• L&D’s Core Function: Neil defines the core function as helping people acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviours they need to perform at their best, acting similarly to R&D by researching needs and developing solutions.
• Create Your Own Table: Rather than worrying about where L&D sits hierarchically or fighting for a "seat at the table," Neil advises creating your own table by inviting stakeholders to engage one-on-one.
• Moving from "Nice to Have" to Business Driver: How to shift from reporting on activity and enjoyment to telling a data story that demonstrates monetised ROI, productivity gains, or staff retention.
• Navigating Major Challenges: Neil offers three tips for handling crises or restructuring: ensure solutions are agile and can pivot quickly, remove your ego from the work, and keep your ear to the ground with senior stakeholders.
• Building Trust: Why trust is not something you can teach, but an output of your actions—doing what you say you will do until you reach a level where leaders refer others to you.
• Decenter Yourself: Neil’s key advice for anyone in the industry is to remember that L&D is a support function existing to make everyone else's lives better.

Neil offers a pragmatic and ego-free approach to L&D that focuses on service and strategic partnership. If you want to learn how to build stronger relationships and respond effectively to organisational change, this is a must-listen-to episode.

Connect with Neil on LinkedIn: Neil John Cunningham

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