It's not your job to create content.
But that doesn't mean you don't have to be creative.
On The Mindtools L&D Podcast, we’ve often talked about the various paths that lead people into this weird and wonderful profession.
Ross Garner has a background in journalism.
Our colleague Tracey McDonald studied art.
Our newest team member, Martin Sinclair, trained as an architect.
When we were kids, if you’d asked any of us what we wanted to do when we grew up, I’m fairly confident no one would have mentioned L&D.
Working in organizational learning isn’t exactly the stuff that childhood dreams are made of. No teenager has posters of famous learning designers on their walls.
Most of us ended up here because we had bills to pay, and just enough creative talent to be useful.
A job as a learning designer allows tortured artists to make a living, without forcing them to sacrifice their identities.
But the trouble with transferring a creative mindset to L&D is that we can become fixated on methods and materials: ‘What am I making (e-learning, workshops, videos, etc.) and what do I need to make it (information, policy documents, etc.)?‘
This distracts us from the real purpose of workplace learning, which is not to create cool stuff, but to change behavior.
For people who find intrinsic joy in writing compelling prose or designing funky graphics, this can be easy to forget.
It can also feel existential. The transition from self-conception as ‘creative’ to ‘instrument of organizational behavior change’ can be a difficult one.
But it isn’t one that requires you to abandon your creativity. Quite the opposite.
Those who fall under the broad, somewhat ambiguous banner of ‘creatives’ are essentially people who are expected to be creative on cue.
This is at odds with the romantic conception of creativity as something that arrives in a flash of inspiration, when the wistful artist is visited by one of the muses.
The kind of creativity that most professional ‘creatives’ exercise is based on the identification and repetition of patterns.
For writers, it’s an acquired appreciation for words and phrases that go well together.
For learning designers, it can be a reliance on interactions, activities, or methods that have proved effective in the past.
Framed in this way, much of what we understand to be the ‘creative’ work of L&D is not that creative at all.
This changes when your focus shifts from developing content to changing behavior.
Because when you’re focused on changing behavior, you start to think more expansively about the problems you’re trying to solve.
What if the solution isn’t an e-learning module, a video, or a workshop? 🤯
The uncertainty implicit in that question can be daunting, but it can also be exciting!
Without it, I don’t think I’d have stopped seeing learning design as ‘just a job’, and started seeing it as a career.
Want to share your thoughts on The L&D Dispatch? Then get in touch by emailing custom@mindtools.com or reply to this newsletter from your inbox.
🎧 On the podcast
Here at Mindtools Towers, we're no strangers to benchmarking in L&D. We've regularly mentioned our Learning Performance Benchmark over the years, and we dedicated an entire episode of the podcast to ‘The value of benchmarking’ back in 2021. So, naturally, we were intrigued when David James released the 'L&D Maturity Model', and wanted to invite him onto the show to discuss it.
Last week on The Mindtools L&D Podcast, David joined us to explore:
Why he developed his maturity model, and what makes it different
The limitations of self-assessment-based models
What practitioners can expect to get out of benchmarking
How L&D teams can move up the levels of the model and increase their maturity.
Check out the episode below. 👇
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or the podcast page of our website.
📖 Deep dive
Our friend Martin Couzins and the team at Insights Media recently came out with ‘What workers want in 2025’, exploring trends across corporate learning, management, wellbeing, and employee experience.
Synthesizing findings from 27 different reports, ‘What workers want in 2025’ identifies six key themes:
1. Career growth trumps perks
67% of workers say they’d choose upskilling over remote work.
2. Managers make or break the experience
Employees increasingly expect managers to act as coaches, advocates and supporters, not task masters.
3. Flexibility means autonomy, not just location
Workers want control over time, tasks and energy — with 59% saying they would trade higher pay for more control over their schedule.
4. Wellbeing is cultural, not a perk
Workers want fair workloads, inclusion, recognition, and psychological safety, not just wellness apps.
5. Building AI skills is seen as a priority
While business leaders expect AI to deliver profitability gains, many organizations are yet to incorporate it into their workforce and skills strategy.
6. Loyalty comes from values and belonging
Pay still matters, but belonging matters more. 79% of Gen Z and Millennials say a sense of belonging outweighs perks or pay.
The report dives into each of these themes in more detail, explaining what they mean for L&D.
Insights Media. (2025). ‘What workers want in 2025: A synthesis of 27 leading research reports across learning, work, wellbeing and the future of employee experience.’
👹 Missing links
🤖 AI won’t Fix L&D if Firms Don’t Fix Behavior Data First
As AI gradually removes friction from the process of developing learning content, there’s a risk that it will amplify the shaky, often untested assumptions that underpin many L&D initiatives. In this article for Consultancy.uk, I make the case that we should view the efficiencies offered by AI as an opportunity to invest more time in understanding the problems we’re tasked with solving — not just an opportunity to make bad content faster. (Don’t let the massive picture of my face at the top of the page put you off.)
🏛️ Lessons from History: How Technology Transformations Shape Learning
According to David Kelly, AI is merely the latest ‘This changes everything’ moment in the history of L&D. Before that, there was e-learning, mobile learning, social learning, and mixed reality. These technologies have undoubtedly impacted the way that learning is designed, developed and delivered in organizations. But in many ways, they’ve also failed to live up to their initial promise. David argues that, as we continue to grapple with AI, we should be mindful of the lessons of history, remembering that chasing hype likely won’t get us where we need to go.
🍅 Is Rotten Tomatoes Still Reliable?
Before watching a new movie or TV show, I’ll generally check its score on Rotten Tomatoes. Unless it’s ‘Certified Fresh’, I’m unlikely to decide that it’s worth my time. But can this label really be trusted? Here, Daniel Parris explores how and why average ‘Tomatometer’ scores have inflated over time, and what this means for viewers.
👋 And finally…
A throwback to 1961, when the IBM 7094 made history as the first ever computer to perform a song.
👍 Thanks!
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