L&D Order Taker No More!: Become a Strategic Business Partner

Transform Your L&D Team Into Your Organization’s Strategic Business Partner

Most L&D pros dream of the day when stakeholders will stop viewing them as mere order takers and consider them critical, strategic partners in shaping the future of their organization. But how do you get there? In this book, veteran talent development leader Jess Almlie introduces her formula for becoming the valued strategic business partner (SBP) that leaders in the C-suite and elsewhere in an organization need and want.

Partnering effectively with stakeholders requires a new mindset and behavior, a keen understanding of the business, a willingness to collaborate, and targeted tools. Almlie provides detailed guidance on how to succeed in each of these areas and invites you to start by taking an in-depth assessment of your strengths and gaps in working as an SBP. She shares her own wins and failures along with wisdom from three dozen other L&D pros who work in small, midsize, and large organizations across a wide variety of industries.

This step-by-step guide will help current and aspiring L&D leaders understand business basics, create a playbook for team collaboration, work productively with stakeholders, and teach others to work in harmony with L&D. The final chapter offers practical advice for those who need to take small steps toward becoming SBPs in organizations resistant to change.

This book includes questionnaires, worksheets, and other tools that will help L&D leaders understand business terminology and needs, see a stakeholder’s point of view, and develop strategies for creating effective partnerships and measuring impact. You’ll be able to create a plan for developing and advocating for a team of L&D professionals who all work as strategic business partners.

© 2025 Association for Talent Development (Ebook): 9781960231277

Release date

Ebook: 2 September 2025