L&D is a business unit. It doesn't always operate like one.
L&D teams are brilliant. Genuinely. They onboard people, build capability, shift culture, and occasionally pull off learning experiences so good that people actually talk about them at the pub. Remarkable, really.
But here's the thing nobody puts on a conference agenda.
Underneath all that brilliance, there's a business to run.
Are current processes efficient, or is there waste sitting quietly in the background? How much of the admin burden could be automated but hasn't been? Where are the handoffs between L&D and the rest of the organisation, and are they actually working?
Here's a personal favourite: L&D finds a brilliant vendor. Does brilliant work together. Goes to pay the invoice and discovers, surprise! The vendor isn't an approved supplier. Cue seventeen emails, two escalations, and a very awkward conversation.
We've all been there. Or something like it.
Research suggests that administrative work can consume up to 50% of L&D's total capacity. That's half the team's time. Half.
When that's the reality, strategy becomes the thing everyone agrees on and few have time to actually do.
Not the most glamorous corner of L&D, I'll admit. Nobody's writing a TED talk about procurement processes or LMS taxonomy. This is the spinach of L&D content, not what anyone orders, but probably what many L&D teams need.
Get this right, and the inspiring work doesn't just happen. It gets to keep happening.
References
NIIT
NIIT. (2026, March 18). Learning administration in 2026: Why 73% of L&D leaders are rethinking their operating model. https://www.niit.com/en/learning-outsourcing/learning-administration-ld-operating-model/
