"Everyone needs to know everything… quickly. Just build a course, and problem solved!"
Sound familiar?
In L&D, this mindset is everywhere, but it’s holding teams back. Learners don’t need more content. They need the right content. And L&D’s real superpower isn’t being subject-matter experts. It’s facilitating knowledge in a way that sticks.
On the L&D Disrupt podcast, we sat down with Raquel Gonzalez, Blended Learning Specialist at CitizenM Hotels, to call out the biggest myths plaguing our industry (starting with the idea that L&D’s job is to "train all the things").
Raquel’s approach is a breath of fresh air. Because the future of learning isn’t about adding more. It’s about getting clear on what really matters and helping people learn what they need, when they need it.
Many organisations believe L&D can solve every problem with training. The assumption goes: If we build a course, people will learn everything they need to know.
But as Raquel points out, this simply isn’t true. When teams are expected to train on everything, it leads to overload, for L&D and for learners.
The real value of L&D is getting crystal clear on what skills actually matter and making learning relevant, timely and personalised.
The best L&D teams aren't subject matter experts on every topic. They are facilitators. Their expertise lies in guiding effective knowledge sharing.
As Raquel explains, their real value comes from uncovering real learning needs, asking the right questions, and connecting people to the knowledge that matters.
It’s about moving away from creating content for the sake of it, and focusing on designing experiences that actually help people grow. Because performance doesn’t improve when you know everything, it improves when you learn the right thing, at the right time.
The idea that staff should absorb every piece of information immediately simply doesn't work. It’s a fast track to overwhelm.
As Raquel Gonzalez points out, employees can't possibly master everything about everything quickly. The real question isn't how much they can learn, but what they genuinely need to know and when they need to know it.
The real challenge isn’t knowledge hoarding, it’s knowledge flow. Most employees are keen to share what they know; they just need the right systems to do it well. That’s where L&D steps in: curating, connecting, and creating the space for learning to happen in context.
Being an expert in a topic doesn’t mean you know how to teach it. As Raquel highlights, even the brightest SMEs need a bit of help turning their know-how into something people can actually learn from.
L&D teams play a crucial role in bridging this gap and that’s where they can step in - not to rewrite their knowledge, but to shape it. The real skill lies in helping them understand why their requested training matters to the business and how to adapt their expertise for diverse learner levels.
Guiding SMEs to focus on what really matters, tailor it for different learner levels, and tie it back to business goals is what turns info dumps into impactful learning.
The best L&D teams aren’t trying to do everything. They’re focusing on the things that matter which is clarifying what people need to learn, when they need it, and how to make it stick.
It’s not about being the expert. It’s about building systems that connect the right people to the right knowledge, at the right time. That’s where the real impact comes from.
Want to tune in to the full episode?
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