The 8Levers workshop · Internal L&D
Internal L&D. From the if to the how to.
For learning leaders looking to deconstruct and reframe their strategy, from the “if” to the “how to”. The no-tech investment to transform L&D.
For CLOs, VPs of L&D and L&D Directors. Part of the 8Levers workshop.
Framework: The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation by Lori Niles-Hofmann
A lean-forward, hands-on framework build: a discussion and tear-down of what you are doing in the current state, and a build of what the future state could look like. It is designed to transform L&D functions without necessarily requiring new technology investments.
01 · The problem
Project by project is not a strategy.
Functions often arrive already working on several levers at once, in separate workstreams. The session is where those pieces get put on one table.
The questions a function at this scale has to answer.
Scale and complexity
A learning strategy that holds across countries, languages and business units, including where those units are separate entities with their own governance and their own budgets.
Investment defence
Connecting an AI initiative to business outcomes leadership already recognises, and making the case for learning investment while costs are under scrutiny.
Operating model maturity
Moving from project-based delivery to a strategic operating model, with the governance and measurement to defend the shift once it is made.
02 · What this is
A working session, not a talk track.
A structured working session for your learning leaders and the partners who need to be in the room. The day uses the 8Levers framework as a diagnostic and a design lens, not a model to adopt.
It is not a learning session, and there is nothing to certify. Against each lever, you establish where your organisation actually stands and define the specific work required next.
The workshop gives a learning function three things most lack: clarity on where the function is strongest and where the gaps are, direction on what to invest in versus what to stop doing, and defence of its contribution in revenue, cost and risk terms rather than completion rates.
There are no sales pitches (unless you ask for one during a break).
The shape of the day
Welcome and overview
The frame for the day and how the diagnostic works.
Working sessions
The diagnostic, lever by lever, against your own function.
Synthesis and roadmap build
The decisions from the working sessions, put together as one roadmap.
Wrap-up
Decisions captured, next steps, your roadmap in hand.
03 · Who it is for
The learning leader, and the people who make it real.
For CLOs, VPs of L&D and L&D Directors who know the function needs to transform and are prepared for drastic redesign, not incremental tweaks. The day is built for your own team, in your own organisation, so the people in the room are the ones who will carry the strategy afterwards.
A senior decision-maker
At director level or above.
The learning leader
Whoever owns the strategy the day is about.
The individual contributors
The people who know the operational reality.
The AI initiative or technology side
Someone who can speak for it in the room.
04 · Before the day
Arrive with a running start.
One hour of preparation between us and the workshop owner before Day 1. Ahead of the day, each participant completes a short intake covering your operating model, data readiness, stakeholder position, and the single biggest challenge you are wrestling with right now. It calibrates the day to the room in front of us and gives you a running start.
Beyond that, come ready to talk candidly about where your function really stands, rather than a tidied-up version of it. The diagnostic works on your actual situation, so the more honest the starting picture, the more you leave with. If headline numbers are easy to reach, such as adoption, attrition, or time-to-value, bring them, but there is no deck to build and nothing to hand in. Please bring a laptop or tablet with you and a willingness to get your hands dirty.
05 · What you walk away with
Defensible at the next budget meeting.
A diagnostic across all eight levers and an initial pain map. It outputs a shared baseline your team can build from independently, even if the engagement ends there.
A coherent strategic position across all eight levers
Not a slide deck of aspirations. A working diagnostic of where your learning function is strongest, where the gaps are, and where the trade-offs sit.
A defensible narrative for change
Connected to making money, saving money or reducing risk. The language to take into conversations with senior leadership, the AI initiative team and budget holders across the business.
Clear strategic priorities
What to invest in, what to stop doing, and what to revisit when conditions change. A lens to evaluate the strategy your team is building, rather than a finished strategy handed over.
A contained pilot to take forward
Scoped using the Skills Calculation: cost to build, cost to hire, cost of inaction. Clear success criteria, a measurement plan, and the first concrete move after the workshop. Not a wishlist.
Both sides of the table
Between us, we have sat on both sides of the table, which is exactly why this works. Every session is delivered by Josh or Lori, or both. We do not outsource delivery.
Then whatever the day surfaced
The format is responsive rather than pre-scoped: optional deep-dive days respond to the pains actually surfaced on Day 1. Scope is defined after Day 1, never before. How the workshop runs
06 · Where the day goes deepest
All eight levers. The diagnostic decides where.
The day covers all eight levers, as a diagnostic and a design lens. Where it goes deepest is not fixed in advance for an internal learning function: the diagnostic decides it, against your own operating model, data, stakeholders and ecosystem, and the deep-dive days that follow are scoped from what it surfaced.
The eight levers, what each one pulls, and how they depend on each other are on the workshop page. The eight levers
Next steps
The quickest way in is a short conversation.
The quickest way in is a short conversation about your function, the workstreams already running and who would need to be in the room.
Led by Lori Niles-Hofmann and Josh Squires. About us