ELE brings leaders together across companies and industries to work through the messy stuff: decisions, risk, handoffs, execution drag, and what it takes to move from idea to action.

UPCOMING CALENDAR

LATEST IDEA EXCHANGE

RECENT INSIGHTS

WHO WE ARE

About ELE

Companies In Our Network

Contact ELE

Figure out if ELE is for you. Straight answers on what ELE is, who it’s built for, and how contributing members actually work together. Still have a question? Contact us.

ELE Group, LLC

Journyz

<blockquote data-start="772" data-end="868">
“Most of what surfaced here has nothing to do with learning—and everything to do with how work is designed.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/brian-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Gold</a>, Acrisure.
</blockquote>
The ELE Ideation Sprint offered a timely reminder that many of today’s capability challenges do not show up as obvious skills gaps. Instead, they surface quietly in everyday work: in manager workarounds, ambiguous decisions, delayed conversations, and teams absorbing more risk than expected just to keep things moving.

What leaders heard during the sprint was not a call for more training. Managers were not asking for new programs or tools. They were describing work that had changed without being formally redesigned. Roles were stretching beyond their original scope. Expectations were shifting without explicit conversation. Decision rights were becoming less clear.

That friction isn’t noise. It’s signal.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/What-Managers-Actually-Surfaced.jpg" alt="" width="779" height="466" />
What surfaced across manager conversations

As participants compared real manager moments across organizations, a consistent pattern emerged. Reskilling needs are showing up first as judgment, risk, and decision challenges, not as requests for learning. Capability gaps appear as hesitation, uncertainty, and overload long before they show up in performance metrics, engagement surveys, or development plans.

Managers are navigating higher stakes work with faster timelines, tighter scrutiny, and greater system dependence, often without updated guardrails or shared definitions of “good work.” In response, many compensate quietly by stepping in, redistributing work, or softening expectations. Over time, these adaptations normalize risk and hide deeper structural gaps.

This reframes how leaders should think about reskilling altogether.

Three insights felt especially important for leaders designing team-based learning experiences:

First, manager conversations are the earliest capability sensor.
When leaders look across manager input not one story at a time, but in patterns they can detect role drift, uneven adaptation, and system strain early. These signals surface in everyday decisions, not in formal development requests. By the time learning demand is explicit, the organization is often already carrying risk.

Second, many “reskilling” challenges are actually design challenges.
Unclear workflows, broken handoffs, ambiguous decision ownership, and outdated role definitions cannot be trained away. The sprint helped leaders slow down long enough to diagnose whether an issue was rooted in skill, system, or structure and to respond intentionally rather than reflexively. This distinction proved critical for avoiding well-intended but misdirected learning interventions.

Third, learning works best in the flow of real work.
A key shift for participants was learning how to ask open-ended, work-centered questions that surfaced real problems instead of defaulting to one-track training conversations. When L&amp;D leaders resisted the urge to jump to solutions and instead invited managers to describe what felt hard, risky, or unclear, the conversation changed.

Rather than narrowing quickly to “what course do we need,” discussions opened up into a clearer understanding of how the work itself had changed and what kind of response was actually required. This approach consistently elevated L&amp;D’s role with the business.
<blockquote data-start="1289" data-end="1362">
“This gives L&amp;D a way to go back to the business with real value—not just more programs.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/brian-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Gold</a>, Acrisure.
</blockquote>
A different role for L&amp;D

One of the most important outcomes of the sprint was how it reframed the role of learning leaders. Instead of acting primarily as program designers or solution providers, participants left better equipped to serve as sense-makers and partners in diagnosing change.

Even when the answer was not training, L&amp;D leaders could guide their business partners toward clearer problem definition, better decisions, and more appropriate responses. That shift alone changes the credibility and impact of learning in the organization.

The bigger move is not about faster deployment or better content. It is about designing experiences that help teams see what has changed in the work, make smarter decisions together, and adapt in real time.
That’s the kind of capability-building work that will matter most in 2026.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓: The ELE Ideation Sprint focuses on reskilling closer to real work. Rather than starting with large-scale frameworks or tools, the sprint centers on practical manager–employee conversations and the early signals that reveal where capability is actually breaking down. The goal is not to jump to solutions, but to identify and validate the real problem space worth solving.

𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒? Explore the <a href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/innovation-sprint-reskilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELE Ideation Sprint FAQs</a> or reach the ELE team at help@ele.llc.

ELE Ideation Sprint — Reskilling Closer to Real Work

future of work

Future of Work

Leadership

dirk.tussing

azizeh.constantinescu

missy.gonzales

Performance Improvement

organizational capability

Performance Consulting

brian.gold

manager effectiveness

work design

Talent Leadership

capability building

manager coaching

deepa.kartha

ali.glaser

Ideation Sprint

1Q2026

workforce adaptation

learning in the flow of work

work clarity

reskilling signals

manager moments

elevated HR

root cause analysis

rapid learning

AI practicality

scaling capability

AI and talent

manager conversations

Is Your System Sabotaging Your Team's Performance?

Unlock Your Potential: Our Sprint Framework Uses Daily Checkins!

Managers Overloaded? Training Isn't Always the Answer!

Manager Reveals How Your Job is Secretly Growing!

Managers Face New Challenges: Coaching, Politics, AI & More!

Fail Fast! MASTER the Sprint Framework for Rapid Success

Broader Perspectives & Drilling Down: Your New Conversation Guide!

Reskill Your Team: Managers Aren't The Only Ones!

Stop Training for Every Problem! Fix Your Org First

Managers Absorbing the Risk: Your Job Changed, But YOU Haven't Reskilled!

AI Summarized Data? Let's Validate Its Interpretation Together!

Unlock Manager's Skills Conversation: How to Coach & Collaborate for Success!

ELE Ideation Sprint — Reskilling Closer to Real Work

Login