Doing More With Less With David James Interviewed By Adam Harwood

With global economic uncertainty and hardship, organisations are likely to be making tough decisions in 2023, and if Learning & Development departments are going to survive and succeed, they are likely to be challenged to achieve more with fewer resources. In this episode, David explores his experience of leading L&D at Disney during the post-2008 banking crisis and shares lessons on how he rose to the challenge of achieving more with less.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Whenever there is a recession, it is normally the L&D and marketing departments that are cut.
• Becoming more visible is an important part of ensuring the organisation appreciates the value of L&D.
• The fact that employment rates in the UK are high means that developing people is going to be important for businesses. L&D is not a perk, it is essential.
• L&D must stop leaning on generic online content that is not effective. If they don´t they will fail, and the department will be slimmed down.
• Focus on addressing issues that impact the organisation’s profitability and solve real problems.
• Technology is expensive, it must be a solution that is designed to solve the actual business problems your organisation has.

BEST MOMENTS

'My stock internally rose because I grasped the nettle, and I knew what needed to be done.'

' Help stakeholders to address critical points of failure in their operation, what's not working, what's costing them opportunity? what's costing them good people?'

'Any good digital product needs to work with a notepad and a pen first, if you can't make it work with a notepad and a pen, it's not gonna work with a website. '

'If you're laser-focused on solving real problems, then your solutions are smaller, thinner, lighter, and more agile,

ABOUT ADAM HARWOOD

Adam Harwood Bio

Adam is Associate Director of Talent & Culture at Genomics having previously led L&D at luxury hospitality brand D&D and challenger bank Revolut. Adam has also worked in the L&D departments at ASOS and Ted Baker.

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523 

L&D Master Class Series: https://360learning.com/blog/l-and-d-masterclass-home/

ABOUT THE HOST

David James 

David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. 

As well as being the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D. 

CONTACT METHOD 

• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ 
• L&D Collective: https://360learning.com/the-l-and-d-collective/
• Blog: https://360learning.com/blog/
• L&D Master Class Series: https://360learning.com/blog/l-and-d-masterclass-home/