I often hear a lot of talk about the next big thing in learning.
AI-generated content. Immersive experiences. Learning in the flow of work. Skills-based organisations.
And those conversations matter. They're absolutely worth having.
But somewhere in the race toward what's next, I wonder if we're leaving a significant portion of the market behind.
Because the reality is, not every organisation is starting from the same place.
There are teams managing compliance training on spreadsheets. Organisations where the training record is a folder of printed sign-in sheets. Organisations doing everything manually because nobody has ever helped them build anything better.
In many cases there's no dedicated L&D function, learning sits with a manager, a coordinator, or an HR generalist juggling ten other priorities. Modern L&D practice simply isn't on the radar. And even when the need is felt, knowing where to start is a different challenge entirely.
The industry conversation assumes a baseline maturity that many organisations haven't reached yet, and may not even know they're missing.
Progress doesn't move at the same pace across every sector, every organisation, every team. Aged care, disability services, community organisations: the larger players in these sectors are increasingly getting with the programme. But the smaller operators? The ones with a handful of staff, a coordinator wearing five hats, and compliance obligations that don't get smaller just because the organisation is? They're largely invisible in the conversation about where L&D is heading.
Maybe the opportunity isn't always at the frontier.
Sometimes it's in helping the organisations who are still finding their footing, meeting them where they are, and moving forward from there.
That's a different kind of work. But it might be just as important.
