TLB #38🧠 Is your leadership nurturing organizational health?
A bi-weekly inside scoop on all the hottest events, juicy discussions, and oh-so-many other exciting things happening in our dynamic L&D community. 🧡
Hello Shaker,
Here’s all that you’ll experience in today’s issue:
💡Learning Bites: Are you leading your organization’s health or simply keeping pace?
🗓️ Community Calendar: Be a part of Building a Memorable Online Session and many more cool local hub meet-ups.
🖌️ Community Creations: Launching of Parents and Carers Buddy Programme by Supriya Harikumar.
🔖 Resource Reel: A collection of resources on Top Learning Tools, Facilitation, Listening and many more.
🎤 Shaker's Stage: This week’s stage is taken by Jenny Theolin.
Learning Bites 💡
Are you leading your organization’s health or simply keeping pace?
The game of organizational health has changed. McKinsey's latest research on the Organizational Health Index (OHI) reveals that while alignment, execution, and renewal still define a healthy organization, the approach to achieving them has evolved dramatically over the last two decades.

The question for L&D professionals is: Are you equipping your leaders and teams to thrive in this shifting landscape?
McKinsey’s research shows that today’s most successful organizations understand that health is not static. You can’t set a course and stay there. Leaders must continuously adjust their focus on alignment, execution, and renewal as the external environment shifts. This requires understanding what organizational health is and the why behind it, driving change from within.
Here are my top three takeaways:
Leaders can no longer rely on yesterday’s playbook: The way organizations were led 20 years ago won’t work today. L&D has a critical role in helping leaders adapt to new realities, like navigating digital disruptions, global instability, and the changing nature of work.
The essence of health is evolving: While alignment, execution, and renewal are still vital, how leaders achieve them must shift. For instance, what does alignment mean in a hybrid work environment? How can execution remain sharp in a constantly disrupted world? Renewal isn’t just about innovation—it’s about resilience.
L&D must step up as strategic partners: This is your moment. The C-suite needs more than just leadership training—they need L&D to foster an agile mindset and equip employees with the tools to continuously adapt and renew. You’re not just providing skills, you’re enabling transformation.
What this means for practice:
1. Host Strategic Alignment Workshops: Leaders often struggle with aligning their teams under a shared vision, especially in today’s hybrid and fast-paced environment. L&D can bridge that gap by organizing strategic alignment workshops where cross-functional teams clarify and realign on core organizational values and goals. Use storytelling and future-scenario planning to help leaders visualize different paths to the same vision.
Tip for L&D: Build exercises that push leaders to co-create new alignment strategies that reflect today’s remote realities, using real case studies from companies like Shopify or Airbnb that successfully shifted their alignment in response to external pressures.
2. Design Agile Leadership Programs: The days of rigid leadership models are over. Help your leaders adopt a flexible mindset by designing programs emphasising agile decision-making, emotional intelligence, and rapid learning cycles. Borrow from agile project management to teach leaders how to pivot quickly, not just reactively but proactively.
Tip for L&D: Introduce mini-learning sprints—short, high-impact sessions where leaders tackle current challenges in real time. These can be weekly “leadership problem-solving huddles” where leaders collaborate on real organizational pain points.
3. Facilitate Renewal Through Innovation Labs: Organizational renewal goes beyond maintaining the status quo—it’s about staying ahead. As an L&D leader, you can create innovation labs where teams brainstorm, prototype, and test new ideas. Facilitate these sessions with design thinking methodologies and encourage bold experimentation.
Word of Caution: Ensure innovation doesn’t become a buzzword. True renewal is grounded in data, customer feedback, and strategic foresight. Remind teams that innovation for the sake of innovation will fall flat if not tied back to the organization’s long-term vision.
4. Build Execution Muscles Through Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Execution falters when departments operate in silos. L&D can create “Collaborative Action Labs” where teams from different departments work together on shared business objectives. This fosters a more integrated approach to execution, ensuring smoother implementation across the organization.
Tip for L&D: Set up an organizational task force to handle company-wide projects, rotating members from different departments for each task. Each team presents its solution, and L&D can facilitate it by providing the structure and tools for collaboration.
A Word of Caution for Us (L&D):
In the rush to support your organization’s health, don’t lose sight of the ‘why.’ Sometimes, the biggest barrier to organizational health is a lack of understanding of why alignment, execution, and renewal matter. We as L&D professionals need to champion this ‘why’—ensure that every leadership program, workshop, and initiative is linked back to the larger strategic vision.
Ask yourself: Am I equipping leaders to understand the bigger picture, or am I simply ticking the box?
Be the voice in the room that encourages deeper reflection, pushing leaders to not only think about how they are leading but why they are leading in a particular way.
Coming Up Next
Community Calendar 🗓️
Looking for ways to connect, learn, and grow with fellow professionals?
Check out our list of exciting events happening— from local hubs to community mixers and interactive playgrounds, there's something for everyone— curated by the hardworking Core Team at L&D Shakers for YOU!
Community Creations 🖌️
🌱Kudos to Supriya Harikumar for launching the Parents and Carers Buddy Programme!
This initiative connects "Getting there" parents with "Been there" parents who have volunteered to share their invaluable experiences. Balancing parenthood and a career can be challenging, and having a supportive buddy can make all the difference.
Why this matters: Parenthood can bring stress, loneliness, and emotional ups and downs. Whether you're just starting or deep into the journey, connecting with a buddy for advice and support can be incredibly beneficial.
This programme is for you if:
You're a "Getting there" parent or carer seeking 1:1 support and practical tips.
You're a "Been there" parent or carer ready to volunteer and share your experiences.
How it works:
Personalized Support: Thoughtful matching with a relevant buddy.
Shared Wisdom: Regular connections for advice and support.
Quarterly Connects: For "Been there" parents to discuss progress and share resources.
How to join:
Stay tuned for the open-hour kick-off invite in the last week of September to learn more, share thoughts, and collaborate on the programme’s vision. We can’t wait to see you there!
Cool Stuff You Don’t Wanna Miss Out
Resource Reel 🔖
Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers by Brian Cole Miller if you are looking for creative ways to start your meetings and group discussions. This book with more than 50 icebreakers, energizers and activities will become your go-to guide.
To be a Designer is to be a Facilitator by Marielle Sam-Wall explores the intersection of design and facilitation, reflections coming especially from the point of view of designing community and collective spaces.
Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace by Christina Lai 賴浩賢 where the author talks about psychological safety and offers ways to embed it in your way of working.
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2024 by Jane Hart is out and there are no guessing points that AI Chatbots are taking over the list.
A Six-Step Guide to Building a Company Culture that Evolves by Mertcan UZUN from Blinkist explores six key steps for building and maintaining a healthy, adaptable company culture that fosters resilience and success.
The Four Villains of Listening by Oscar Trimboli highlights the concept of "Listening Blind Spots" and how they impact communication.
R U OK? resource guide to inspire and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with the people around them and start a conversation with those in their world who may be struggling with life.
Community Corner:
Shaker's Stage 🎤
Let’s welcome Jenny Theolin, Head of Learning at Abracademy to take the stage.
What factors have most powerfully shaped who you are today?
-The most powerful factors shaping who I am today stem from living in seven different countries over 32 years. Although moving as a child was challenging, the exposure to diverse cultures, people, food, music, and art has made learning part of my DNA. These experiences have shaped me into a confident, empathetic, curious, and open person, deeply appreciative of the world’s variety and always eager to learn more.
What are you currently learning?
-I’m currently immersing myself in all things magic! At Abracademy, where I’m Head of Learning, we design learning and development experiences that harness magic as an innovative tool to spark curiosity and foster a learning mindset. We integrate psychology and professional development to create profound and impactful learning experiences. With so many areas to explore and learn from, the journey is endlessly exciting!
What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone starting out in your career?
-Trust in the power of your transferable skills and let intrinsic motivation guide your choices. I’ve pivoted my career twice, and through each transition, I’ve learned that your core strengths can adapt to new challenges, and no one has everything figured out from the start. Embrace the uncertainty, stay curious, and focus on what genuinely drives you—it’s what will keep you moving forward, no matter where your career takes you.
What does being an L&D Shaker look and feel like for you?
-Being part of a network full of magical people.
〜See you soon
Till then, keep spicing up your learning! 🧠🧂
Sejaal