In this episode of The Voices of The Learning Network, Bill Banham speaks with Anna Poluektov, Finance Learning & Development Manager at Reckitt, about performance consulting, stakeholder management, working effectively with subject matter experts and designing learning that delivers results when time, budget and attention are limited.
Anna brings a pragmatic approach to L&D. Rather than automatically treating every stakeholder request as a training requirement, she looks at the problem behind the request: who needs support, what isn't working today and what needs to happen differently as a result of the intervention.
The conversation explores why urgent requests for training can sometimes be symptoms of a deeper performance problem. Asking the right questions about the audience, context, expected behaviours and desired outcomes can reveal that another intervention may be more effective than creating more learning content.
Bill and Anna also discuss one of the most important relationships in learning design: the partnership between L&D and subject matter experts.
SME collaborations can go wrong at both extremes. L&D can become too controlling, dictating a learning process without sufficiently respecting the expert's knowledge. At the other end of the spectrum, learning professionals can become order-takers, simply converting documents and presentations into courses.
Anna shares practical ways to create a better partnership, including establishing clear roles, time-boxing contributions and being specific about the feedback required from SMEs at different stages of development.
The conversation also challenges the assumption that innovation needs to mean transformation. A completely redesigned learning experience may sound exciting, but radical change can create resistance among busy SMEs, facilitators and learners.
Sometimes small improvements are more effective. Adding a well-designed activity, poll, discussion or breakout exercise to an existing learning experience can demonstrate value quickly, build trust and create support for bigger changes later.
Anna also shares an example where digital learning wasn't the right answer at all. Instead, action learning based on real work and genuine business outputs created a stronger connection between development and performance than a generic e-learning module could have achieved.
Finally, the conversation looks at what "good enough" means in L&D. Limited budgets and deadlines don't have to mean ineffective learning. The key is to focus resources on the parts of the experience most likely to influence behaviour, including what happens before and after a learning intervention rather than concentrating solely on the session itself.
In this episode, we explore:
• Why urgent training requests can hide deeper performance problems
• How performance consulting helps L&D move beyond order-taking
• The questions to ask before deciding that training is the solution
• How to identify what people actually need to do differently
• Why L&D and SME collaborations sometimes fail
• How to establish clearer roles and expectations with subject matter experts
• Using time-boxing and targeted feedback to make SME partnerships more effective
• Why learning innovation doesn't always require major transformation
• How small changes can build trust and demonstrate impact
• When action learning can be more effective than e-learning
• How to design effective learning with limited time and budget
• Why the learning experience should include what happens before and after formal training
• How L&D teams can focus more closely on behaviour change and performance
For L&D professionals, instructional designers, learning business partners and anyone responsible for workplace learning, this conversation is a practical reminder that the job isn't simply to deliver what has been requested. Sometimes the greatest value L&D can provide is identifying what people actually need.
Connect with Anna Poluektov
Connect with Bill Banham
Voices of the Learning Network is the Learning Network podcast connecting the learning and development community. https://thelearning-network.org/
