Project management is becoming an increasingly critical skill for learning and development (L&D) leaders to possess. There are a lot of details to keep track of when developing a training program. From gaining alignment with key stakeholders to developing the content to rolling out the program to employees across the organization, learning and development (L&D) professionals must manage the entire process — sometimes as a team of one.

I recently had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion at the Training Industry Conference & Expo (TICE) this past June that focused on project management for learning leaders. Participants shared their key challenges and offered some useful tips to help other learning leaders. One tip that stood out to me was the importance of maintaining clear and open communication with key stakeholders throughout the development journey. Clear communication ensures that expectations are clearly outlined before the project is kicked off, which includes assigning roles, responsibilities and checkpoints along the way to keep the project on time and within budget. I left this discussion seeing the complexity of training development and how necessary a project plan is to successful execution.

The cover story in this issue of Training Industry Magazine provides actionable steps that learning leaders can take to ensure their training projects are successful. This can serve as a roadmap for new and seasoned learning leaders to use as they develop and deliver training programs for their organizations. Because let’s face it — leading people through process is tough. Keeping a training project within scope and on time may sound easy but it can feel more like herding cats in execution. Having a solid training project plan in place can help to alleviate common issues and pain points.

This edition also addresses other key training challenges, such as growing the internal leadership pipeline, improving the onboarding experience, building an inclusive workplace, creating immersive training that brings learning to life and much more. These articles share actionable tips and best practices to help you build training solutions that elevate business performance — at the pace of change.

As always, we love to hear from our readers, so please reach out to our team and let us know how you’re driving meaningful change in your organization!