For too long, L&D has been seen as the department that delivers training for training’s sake. But the real value isn’t in how many courses you run… It’s in how much impact you make on performance, culture, and results.
In this episode of L&D Disrupt, our guest Ajay Pangarkar pulled no punches: if L&D wants a seat at the table, we need to stop speaking “learning” and start speaking “business”.
“We don’t understand the business side of things... L&D people need to become business and, dare I say, financially literate.”
It’s not about throwing more learning solutions at the wall. It’s about solving the problems decision-makers care about. And those usually fall into three categories: managing risk, managing change, and managing performance.
Ajay summed it up perfectly with advice from their mentor: “Sell them what they wanna buy, not what you wanna sell.”
When you start by understanding the business objectives (whether that’s increasing sales, improving retention, or navigating a big change), you position L&D as a problem solver, not a content factory.
"L&D is invisible, but the results are very visible. They’re visible in the way we perform and do our job." Nelson
Learning should be woven into the fabric of daily work, not bolted on as a one-off event. Just as marketing doesn’t boast about how pretty a campaign looks (they show sales results), L&D should prove its worth in measurable outcomes.
The shift is to move from “look at our courses” to “look at the performance improvements we enabled.”
Ajay: “Stop looking at learning as learning. It’s a vehicle to the destination.”
Managers don’t care if employees enjoyed a course. They care that they can now do the job better. That means moving beyond Kirkpatrick Levels 1–2 (reaction and learning) to Levels 3–4 (behaviour and results).
If your reports are full of completion rates but light on performance metrics, it’s time to rethink what you measure.
The best way to understand business priorities? Get out of the L&D bubble.
Ajay: “Go on a field trip. Meet your internal customers; They’re paying for your solutions.”
When you take the time to listen, observe, and understand what’s happening on the ground, your recommendations carry more weight and your stakeholders see you as a partner, not a supplier.
Yes, L&D often gets labelled as a cost centre. But instead of seeing that as a stigma, see it as a reminder that you’re here to manage performance wisely.
And remember: you’re one cog in a bigger wheel. For your initiatives to succeed, you need to understand the other moving parts (e.g. culture, leadership, systems) and work with them, not around them.
The future of L&D isn’t about more learning; it’s about more impact. That means:
When L&D operates like marketing, finance, or operations (aligned to outcomes and accountable for results), we move from “nice to have” to business-critical.
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