Problem Solutions

Upsurge Advisors

Pacific Cycle

ELE Group, LLC

Froedtert ThedaCare Health

What if Learning &amp; Development stopped reacting—and started reshaping what’s next?
That challenge took center stage at the Milwaukee Talent Development Conference 2025, where <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/janice-simmons" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Janice Simmons</a>, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/guillermo-gutierrez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guillermo Gutierrez</a>, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/michael-hruska" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Hruska</a>, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/kelly-wojda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kelly Wojda</a>, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nicole-defalco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nicole DeFalco</a>, and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/inna-conner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inna Conner</a> made one thing clear: the future of L&amp;D isn’t coming—it’s already here. And it demands a different mindset.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WISE2025-Future-is-Now-CLO-panel.jpg" alt="" width="719" height="405" />
Today’s most effective L&amp;D leaders aren’t behind the curve; they’re shaping it. That means no more order-taking, no more siloed solutions, and no more waiting for “perfect.” Instead, they’re embedded in business conversations, fluent in data, and focused on co-creating value across the enterprise.
Key Strategies That Stand Out:

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⚡ Design disruption on purpose. The best L&amp;D teams don’t brace for change—they launch it. Think less “training as usual,” more “learning as innovation infrastructure.”
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🤝 Cross-functional partnerships are a competitive edge. Building shared ownership for change reduces resistance and scales impact.
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📊 Data isn’t a dashboard—it’s your language of influence. Showing clear, business-relevant outcomes transforms L&amp;D from cost center to strategic enabler.
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🛠️ Prototype boldly. Don’t wait for polished programs—test, learn, and iterate like a product team. Agility is the new quality.
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🌟 Be the learner you expect others to be. Future-ready teams start with L&amp;D owning its own development—curiosity, creativity, and AI fluency included.
</li>
</ul>
Panelists shared real examples: scaling inclusion programs through ERGs, challenging managers to rethink requests before training launches, and using data to predict—not just explain—impact. These aren’t just tactics. They’re signs of a function claiming its strategic seat.
If L&amp;D wants to lead, not lag, it’s time to shift: from support to strategy, from reaction to anticipation, from perfectionism to progress.
The takeaway? Don’t wait to be invited into the future—design it.

The Future is Now: Transforming L&D for Tomorrow's Challenges

future of work

Strategy

Future of Work

dirk.tussing

learning culture

inna.conner

janice.simmons

leadership development

Talent Strategy

employee experience

guillermo.gutierrez

continuous learning

organizational agility

learning and development

kelly.wojda

cross-functional collaboration

HR Innovation

Workforce Transformation

data driven HR

michael.hruska

nicole.defalco

wise2025

Strategic L&amp;D

business-aligned L&amp;D

proactive learning design

Alter Domus

What does it really take to implement a global LMS in a complex, matrixed enterprise? According to <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/carlos-velazquez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carlos Velazquez</a> (Caterpillar) and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/anton-maletich" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anton Maletich</a> (Alter Domus), success isn’t just about adopting Workday Learning—it’s about redefining how organizations scale learning with security, data, and business accountability at the core.

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“We’re moving from a compliance-based checklist to a data-powered, skill-focused ecosystem.” -- <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/carlos-velazquez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carlos Velazquez</a>
</blockquote>
At Caterpillar, 120,000 employees across 18 languages complete 1.5 million learning activities annually. That kind of scale demands more than a system—it calls for a governance model with structured learning roles, regional ownership, and data that drives action.
Anton echoed the risks of unchecked decentralization: messy content, inconsistent quality, and potential compliance issues. His solution? Role-based permissions, curated admin training, and strict oversight balanced with business agility.
📊 Power BI dashboards built on Snowflake now guide smarter decisions—from content investments to campaign timing. 🔐 Security roles don’t just protect data—they shape culture, clarify accountability, and safeguard learning integrity. 🛠️ MVP thinking beats full-suite fantasies—start small, adapt fast, scale what works.
While Workday Learning is still maturing, both leaders believe its integration potential is worth the bet. The real differentiator? A cross-functional learning ecosystem where IT, HRIS, and L&amp;D co-own outcomes.
If your LMS strategy still revolves around completion rates, it’s time to rethink what learning success looks like in a skills-first world.
👉 Want to explore how others are navigating this transformation? Continue the conversation on ELE Idea Exchange—where forward-thinking talent leaders unpack what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.

Transforming Workday: Practical Lessons from Enterprise Implementations

learning strategy

Integrated Talent Management

digital transformation

carlos.velazquez

Change Management

talent development

anton.maletich

learning analytics

skills-based learning

HR Technology

Data-Driven Learning

Learning Ecosystems

Workday Learning

Enterprise LMS

Learning Governance

Role-Based Security

Global Learning

Most talent leaders aren’t suffering from a lack of data—they’re facing either data overload or data blind spots. In this session, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/angelica-janina-stilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Angelica Stilling</a> and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/ben-warner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Warner</a> shared how they moved from analysis paralysis to strategic action—and transformed both employee experience and business outcomes along the way.

[caption id="attachment_43044" align="aligncenter" width="736"]<img class=" wp-image-43044" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Data-Driven-Talent-Processes-with-BenW-and-AngelicaS.jpg" alt="Harnessing Data to Enhance Talent Development and Elevate Employee Experience" width="736" height="405" /> Harnessing Data to Enhance Talent Development and Elevate Employee Experience[/caption]
📉 At a fintech firm with minimal HR data, Ben used leader-led focus groups and embedded review prompts to uncover what surveys missed. These qualitative insights reshaped onboarding, engagement, and retention strategies in real time.
🏭 Angelica’s story at ITW started on the opposite end: overwhelming amounts of disconnected data. By integrating HR, demographic, and operational machine data, her team discovered that 60% of operators were nearing retirement. That triggered a fast-track training program—reducing onboarding time from two years to just three months and expanding the hiring pool.

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“Listening became conversation—not just data. That built bridges across silos and a foundation we could scale.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/ben-warner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Warner</a>
</blockquote>

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🎯 Key Takeaways for Senior HR Talent Leaders:

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Get Creative in Data Deserts: Qualitative insights can be just as actionable as dashboards.
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Break the Silos: Operational and people data must work together to reveal talent risks early.
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Act on Imperfect Data: Waiting for perfect data is a missed opportunity.
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Design for Agility: Rapid upskilling reduces dependency on niche experience and builds future-ready teams.
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Build for Belonging: Culture isn't a “nice-to-have”—it’s a retention strategy.
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Keep it Iterative: Feedback loops are essential for scalable, lasting change.
</li>
</ul>

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Forward-thinking HR teams aren’t just collecting data—they’re using it to build systems that are predictive, inclusive, and built to scale.
➡️ What untapped data could you activate to drive real change in your talent strategy? Share with us on <a href="https://www.ele.llc/idea-exchange" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELE Idea Exchange</a>.

Harnessing Data to Enhance Talent Development and Elevate Employee Experience

Engagement &amp; Culture

employee engagement

people analytics

HR transformation

HR Strategy

data storytelling

Workforce Agility

ben.warner

angelica.janina.stilling

predictive workforce planning

listening culture

Quad/Graphics

In this session, you will walk away with practical ways to use skills data in moments that matter in the employee journey. We will explore how skills data can be used to identify and prioritize these critical moments in an employee's journey. We will discuss use cases for skills data, such as:
<ul>
 	<li>Onboarding: How can skills data be used to personalize the onboarding process and ensure new employees have the necessary tools and resources to succeed in their new role?</li>
 	<li>Recognition and Feedback: How can skills data be used to provide personalized recognition and feedback to employees based on their strengths and improvement areas?</li>
 	<li>Career Development: How can skills data be used to identify career development and training opportunities that align with an employee's interests and skills?</li>
 	<li>Work-Life Balance: How can skills data be used to help managers understand their team's workload and identify opportunities for flexible schedules or time off?</li>
 	<li>Team Building: How can skills data be used to build strong teams by identifying complementary skill sets and facilitating cross-functional collaboration?</li>
</ul>
Through this roundtable discussion, we will explore these use cases and share best practices for leveraging skills data to create a culture of engagement that supports employees at every stage of their journey.

Moments that Matter Skills Data

engagement &amp; culture

Analytics

career development

serena.huang

darren.boyce

insights-wise-2023

skills data

employee journey

moments that matter

work-life balance

In the talent space, we often spend months (or years) debating a new initiative, only to launch it and find that employee adoption is lukewarm at best. What if you could compress months of deliberation into a single week of high-impact action?
This is the power of the Design Sprint. Written by veteran practitioners, this guidebook outlines a five-phase process—Understand, Diverge, Converge, Prototype, and Test—designed to move a team from a messy problem to a validated solution in record time.
For an HR or L&amp;D leader, a "Design Sprint" isn't just about pixels and code; it's about Strategic Agility. It’s a framework for cross-functional collaboration that forces stakeholders to stop talking and start building. By using these tools, you can prototype a new talent strategy or a digital learning tool, test it with real "users" (your employees), and iterate before you’ve spent a single dollar on a full-scale rollout.
This book provides the practical toolkit to stop guessing and start proving what works for your people.

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