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A Practitioner-driven Effort to Strengthen

The Field of Learning & Development   

At The Learning Forum, we empower senior leaders from the world's most influential companies and government agencies to excel in a rapidly changing world. Our mission is to facilitate high-level peer learning and collaboration within a trusted network, ensuring that our members are at the forefront of innovation and strategic development.  


We aim to solidify LIFT’s position as a practitioner-driven movement shaping the future of learning and work — advancing insights into action, shared value, and thought leadership supported by a cross-partner collaboration between The Learning Forum, Udemy, Docebo, and Harvard’s Future Forward Institute.

What is CLO LIFT and Why Does it Matter? 

Learning and Development does not suffer from a shortage of tools, platforms, frameworks, or commentary. If anything, it suffers from the opposite. The field is saturated with solutions, yet many of its central problems remain perpetually unresolved. Organizations continue to invest heavily in learning while expressing limited confidence in its impact. They continue to expand content libraries while remaining uncertain that employees are learning what matters most. They continue to adopt new technologies and trends without a sufficiently clear standard for determining what effective practice actually looks like.

The CLO LIFT initiative grew out of this context and discussions within The Learning Forum's  CLO Council — a confidential, high-trust network for cross-industry collaboration — where a recurring frustration had become difficult to ignore: despite years of innovation, many of the field's foundational problems remain stubbornly resistant to improvement.

 

  • Practitioner-Driven Leadership: Seasoned practitioners reclaiming the thought leadership agenda, countering the industry’s tendency toward "shiny object syndrome" and fleeting trends.
  •  Focused on Solving Persistent Problems: Tackling the most complex, pervasive, and intractable issues in L&D—those that have remained unsolved across generations despite the constant churn of new ideas from industry players.
  •  Building a Collective Voice: Amplifying practitioner-led influence to cut through the noise and provide clear, actionable direction for the industry.
  •  Establishing Industry Standards: Emphasizing the need for a common language, accepted standards, and shared metrics to measure and calibrate the true value of the L&D function

CHALLENGES

Authored by Chief Learning Officers from diverse global organizations, along with ecosystem partners who collectively embraced first principles to pave the way for a more impactful future.

We continue to address the following challenges as practitioners and peers.  Please reach out to learn about the many opportunities to engage!  Contact Us

 

  • The Skills Accelerator - Upskilling needs to move at a speed equal to or greater than the pace of the business and markets.  This requires the ability to surge a skill as it becomes strategically critical, making a material difference in compressed time periods.
  • From Time to Value: Reframing the challenge of organizational learning—the need for a systematic approach to demonstrating value for the time invested in upskilling and aligning learning initiatives with business objectives.
  • Unleashing The Power of L&D Through Governance: Governance as a Strategic Enabler - the need to effectively govern learning, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, resource optimization,  and the scalability of a coherent learner experience. 
  • The Evolving Role of the CLO and the Future of the L&D:
  • The "Role of the Chief Learning Officer" project is dedicated to defining and exploring the evolving responsibilities and impact of the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) within modern organizations. Recognizing the growing importance of continuous learning and development in maintaining a competitive advantage, this initiative examines the strategic role of the CLO in fostering a culture of learning, driving talent development, and aligning learning initiatives with business objectives. The project delves into the challenges CLOs face, including integrating new technologies, measuring the ROI of learning programs, and ensuring learning strategies meet the diverse needs of the workforce. 
  • Learning How to Learn
  • The "Learning How to Learn" project is dedicated to defining the complex problem area surrounding the meta-skill of learning. Recognizing that traditional education often overlooks the strategies and cognitive processes underlying effective learning, this initiative explores the multifaceted nature of learning itself. It examines barriers to efficient learning, including fixed mindsets, a lack of metacognitive awareness, and ineffective study habits. By investigating these challenges through interdisciplinary research in neuroscience, psychology, and education, the project seeks to identify the key components and underlying mechanisms that contribute to successful learning. Ultimately, this project aims to articulate a clear understanding of the obstacles and enablers in the learning process, laying the groundwork for developing targeted interventions and resources to help individuals become more adept, self-directed learners.
  • Driving a Performance Culture
  • The "Performance Culture" project is dedicated to defining and addressing the critical issues involved in cultivating a vibrant learning culture within organizations. Recognizing that many companies struggle to embed continuous learning and adaptability into their core values, this initiative investigates the specific challenges of fostering an environment where learning is consistently prioritized and encouraged. It examines barriers such as resistance to change, insufficient leadership support, and a lack of psychological safety for experimentation and growth. The project seeks to identify the key elements and practices that contribute to a thriving learning culture. Ultimately, this project aims to provide a clear roadmap for organizations to overcome these challenges and implement strategies that promote ongoing learning, innovation, and development, thereby enhancing overall organizational performance and employee satisfaction. 
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  • ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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  • CLO LIFT: Elevating Global Learning Standards: Try out our new Notebook LM