By Jess Almlie
For the first time ever, the “L&D Must Change Podcast” hit record in front of a live audience at the Learning Leadership Conference in Orlando. Here’s what happened.
October in Orlando gave us palm trees, conference buzz, and a little extra adrenaline while we recorded the “L&D Must Change Podcast” live at the Learning Leadership Conference 2025. No editing. No retakes. Just a room full of leaders, a few mics, and two powerhouse guests: Dr. Alaina Szlachta (proud data nerd) and David “DJ3” Jackson III (strategy-and-governance whisperer), to unpack how L&D earns real influence and credibility in the C-suite.
And yes, we got actual audience noise on the track. Proof of life. Proof of live.
The vibe: Conference energy meets C-suite real talk
There’s something electric about watching heads nod in unison when a point lands or hearing that low rumble of “mm-hmm” when someone says the thing everyone’s been thinking. Influence was the topic and the directive with an audience ready to engage as we discussed what really moves the needle in the boardroom.
We kicked off with a fast reality check: L&D gets ignored when we speak our language instead of the business’s. Yes, our nerdy L&D hearts soar when we talk about learning outcomes, the ADDIE model, engaging learning experiences, and more. Truth is executives don’t really care about the specifics of the learning profession. They’re focused on keeping the company moving forward. If we want to demonstrate that we care about that too (which we do, right?), then we need to start by speaking in business terms. Words like customer satisfaction, revenue, risk, and retention are the language of the C-Suite that we best adopt as our own.
Biggest ideas that stuck (& got applause)
1. Speak business. Full stop.
DJ3’s take was refreshingly simple: leaders care about goals, risk, efficiency, and outcomes. Translate learning into those terms. Talk quarters and pipelines, not delivery cycles and objectives. Use your organization’s industry acronyms and metrics. In other words, their vernacular is your door code.
2. Find (& align to) your organization’s core metric
Dr. Alaina framed it brilliantly: every org has a core metric. That’s the thing that “keeps the C-suite up at night” and signals whether the mission is being fulfilled. It might be customer satisfaction, clinical quality, on-time delivery, safety, etc. Whatever it is for your organization, you’ll earn credibility by connecting every initiative to that core metric, not just to learning activity.
3. We are enablers of people, processes & systems
Dr. Alaina encouraged us to stop obsessing over “direct” ROI. Everyone in the organization contributes to ROI which means nobody owns the outcomes alone. L&D’s superpower is enabling the people, processes, and systems that collectively drive revenue, retention, and the core metric. It’s a story of dominoes that starts with intervention, leads to a change in behavior/process, impact KPIs, and then leads to a business result. That’s the story she encourages us to share.
4. For small/solo teams: Live by the “Big 3”
DJ3’s playbook for teams of one (or close): Strategy. Governance. Infrastructure.
- Strategy clarifies what you will and won’t do (and both are equally as important).
- Governance brings in cross-functional leaders as decision partners and champions.
- Infrastructure comes last. In other words, don’t buy tech before you know your strategy.
5. Data is a story, not a spreadsheet
Start with listening tours, audits, and interviews, then build data narratives that executives can act on. Pilot something small, capture the before/after, and use that story to earn a bigger swing. In DJ3’s case, he re-imagined onboarding and dropped first-year turnover from 41% to about 19% over a year. That’s a mic-drop data point.
Audience moments that made the session
This recording wasn’t all about the guests. Brittany, who is about to launch an L&D function as a one-woman show, asked how to make the biggest splash with the C-suite. The room leaned in.
The advice: spend your first month listening and building governance, not building courses. Invite leaders into a collaborative learning council; make them your champions and your pilots.
Josh, currently navigating a post-acquisition world, asked how to gain a voice (not just a seat) with a data-driven C-suite.
The answer: right-size the data, pick the KPIs that ladder to the core metric, and tell a clean before/after story. Start with 10 new hires, not 10 business units.
Behind the scenes: The fun stuff
- We opened by asking the audience to make noise so the recording would capture proof of “live.” (They delivered.)
- Conference soundtrack cameo: a burst of excitement from the room next door. Authenticity: 10/10.
- My favorite guest intros: “I’m a data nerd” (Alaina) and “I live for the light-bulb moment” (DJ3). Same energy, two lenses.
Practical takeaways you can use tomorrow
- Run a listening tour. Meet leaders where they are; learn their acronyms, timelines, and pain points.
- Name the core metric. Even if you’re 80% sure, socialize it and refine it with an exec sponsor or senior leader.
- Inventory your initiatives. Draw a straight line from each initiative to people/process/system outcomes, followed by KPIs, and finally the core metric. Kill or pause anything you can’t connect.
- Stand up governance. Create a cross-functional learning council. This leads to instant visibility, smarter decisions, and built-in advocates.
- Pilot with intention. Aim for a small win with a clear data story that will build momentum for a bigger mandate.
- Set the rule: Decisions require data. That expectation should flow both ways for both your team and your requesters.
My personal aha
Recording live forces clarity. You can’t hide behind jargon or bury the lead when the room is staring back at you. The experience reinforced a truth I want our field to embrace. Influence is earned in the way we frame the work. When we show up speaking the language of the business, aligned to the core metric, and armed with data stories, we stop asking for a seat and start getting asked for our opinion.
If you only do one thing this week…
Just do something. (Hat tip to DJ3.) Book two listening meetings. Sketch your org’s core metric on a napkin. Map one current program to a KPI. Tiny actions, stacked consistently, create credibility faster than the perfect comprehensive plan that never ships.
Thanks to everyone in the room who laughed, questioned, and nodded along. And huge gratitude to Dr. Alaina Szlachta and David “DJ3” Jackson III for bringing the spark. If you missed the session, the episode is now live! Find it here or wherever you like to listen (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.). Download the episode and listen for the crowd. Do you hear it? That’s the sound of L&D stepping into its power. Let’s do this!
Image credit: ronstik
