It’s 8:47 p.m.
Most of the office lights are off.
A Learning & Development (L&D) Manager is still working.
Tomorrow’s workshop isn’t quite ready.
The e-learning module needs another review.
A department manager is waiting for a skills assessment.
Compliance training must be updated before month-end.
Three stakeholders are asking for new learning programs.
And somewhere in between, they’re expected to think strategically about workforce development.
Sound familiar?
Many organizations view this as commitment.
I view it as a warning sign.
Because when your most capable L&D professional is trying to do everything, the organization eventually pays the price.
We’ve Created an Impossible Role
Today’s Learning & Development professionals are expected to:
- Conduct training needs analyses
- Consult with stakeholders
- Design learning journeys
- Create participant materials
- Build e-learning
- Facilitate workshops
- Manage Learning Management System (LMS) platforms
- Evaluate effectiveness
- Track compliance
- Support organizational change
- etc.
In many Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs), all of this sits with one person or a very small team.
The expectation is admirable.
The reality is unsustainable.
No matter how talented someone is, there are only so many hours in a day.
The Market Is Sending a Clear Message
Organizations across industries are quietly reaching the same conclusion.
According to the 2024 Training Industry Report, U.S. organizations spent approximately $98 billion on training in 2024. More importantly, spending on external training products and services increased by 23%, reaching $12.4 billion, despite an overall decline in total training expenditures.
Think about that for a moment.
While companies were tightening budgets in many areas, they increased investment in outside learning expertise.
Why?
Because leaders are realizing that learning and development has become too specialized and too important to rest entirely on overstretched internal resources.
This is not a reflection of weaker internal teams.
It’s a recognition of reality.
The Cost of Doing Everything Internally
When organizations insist on managing every aspect of training in-house, they often focus on the visible cost:
“How much would a consultant cost?”
Far fewer ask the more important question:
What is the cost of doing everything ourselves?
Strategic Work Gets Crowded Out
The more time L&D leaders spend producing slide decks, editing manuals, creating assessments, and coordinating workshop logistics, the less time they spend on the activities that actually influence business performance.
Things such as:
- Workforce capability planning
- Leadership development strategy
- Succession readiness
- Skills-gap analysis
- Performance consulting
Eventually, learning becomes reactive rather than strategic.
Development Cycles Slow Down
Business needs rarely wait.
A product launch happens.
A compliance requirement changes.
Customer expectations shift.
Sales teams need new capabilities.
Yet overloaded learning teams often lack the bandwidth to respond quickly.
Projects that should take weeks take months.
And opportunities are missed.
Quality Suffers
This isn’t a talent problem.
It’s a specialization problem.
Great facilitators are not necessarily expert instructional designers.
Great instructional designers are not always LMS specialists.
Great LMS specialists may not be video producers, graphic designers, translators, or performance consultants.
Expecting one individual to master every domain is unrealistic.
At some point, quality becomes constrained by capacity.
Burnout Becomes the Hidden Business Risk
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the people responsible for developing everyone else’s capabilities are often running on empty themselves.
Burnout doesn’t always look dramatic.
It appears as:
- Delayed projects
- Reduced innovation
- Lower engagement
- Increased errors
- Higher turnover
And when experienced L&D professionals leave, years of institutional knowledge leave with them.
The Strongest Learning Leaders Don’t Try to Do It Alone
One of the biggest misconceptions in our profession is that effective L&D leaders personally create and deliver everything.
The most successful leaders I’ve worked with do something entirely different.
They focus on the work that only they can do.
They build relationships.
They understand the business.
They influence stakeholders.
They shape learning strategy.
And they leverage specialists when specialized expertise is needed.
In other words, they spend less time being producers and more time being leaders.
A Better Question for SMBs
Perhaps the question is no longer:
“Can our L&D team create this training internally?”
Perhaps the better question is:
“Is this the best use of our L&D team’s time and expertise?”
Sometimes the answer will be yes.
Sometimes it won’t.
The most effective organizations understand that external learning partners are not substitutes for internal expertise.
They are extensions of it.
They provide additional capacity when workloads spike.
They bring specialist skills when needed.
And they allow internal teams to focus on the high-value work that drives business results.
Final Thought
Your best L&D manager should not be spending evenings trying to be a strategist, instructional designer, facilitator, graphic designer, LMS administrator, video producer, and project manager all at once.
That’s not efficiency.
That’s organizational dependency disguised as dedication.
If your learning team is constantly operating at capacity, it may be worth asking whether they need more responsibility.
Or simply more support.
How is your organization balancing internal L&D capability with external expertise? I’d be interested to hear what has worked well, particularly in SMB environments where resources are often stretched but expectations continue to grow.
#LearningAndDevelopment #TalentDevelopment #HRLeadership #WorkforceDevelopment #LearningStrategy