Learning, much like digital transformation, is a journey that evolves as organisations mature. In the early stages, organisations often rely heavily on external providers for learning design, content creation, delivery, and even participant management. While this approach works well initially, true maturity comes from internalising these capabilities, making learning more sustainable, strategic, and tailored to the organisation’s unique needs.

 

I’ve worked with organisations that asked us to manage every aspect of their learning initiatives—from design and content creation to participant selection and delivery. While this can be effective if the provider is excellent, how often do you find facilitators who truly customise their content and delivery to address the client’s precise needs? It’s rare and challenging. As organisations mature, they begin to see the value of developing these capabilities internally, allowing for greater agility and relevance.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, I’ve partnered with highly mature corporate universities that operate as though they’re running their own executive education businesses. These organisations have well-developed capabilities, including state-of-the-art facilities, bespoke content, skilled facilitators, established methodologies, efficient operations, and robust impact measurement frameworks. When they work with external providers, it’s only to fill specific gaps—a niche workshop or a new topic outside their core expertise.

 

This journey highlights the need to build capabilities across multiple domains: strategy, design, content creation, facilitation, technology, delivery, operations, and impact measurement. It’s a complex process, but one that is essential for making learning a strategic asset that drives meaningful, measurable outcomes.

 

At CLO Laboratories, we help organisations at every stage of this journey. Whether you’re just beginning or already operating at a high level of maturity, we equip your teams with the tools, skills, and frameworks to internalise learning capabilities. Together, we build teams that can design and deliver agile, impactful learning experiences aligned with your organisation’s mission and vision.