In L&D… we need to invest in ourselves with the same energy that we invest in others | Kylie Sturday

“I sort of had this revelation that pushing aside our own learning isn’t helping us. And it’s also not helping the people that we’re trying to help as well.”

In this episode of in L&D, we unpicked this challenge with Kylie Sturday, Senior Training & Exercise Coordinator at Transport for NSW and Co-Manager of Crackin’ LnD (Down Under) – Learning Community.

There’s a cliche that L&D is often last to learn, but it’s true for a lot of professionals.

Kylie shared how:

• She’s added structure to prioritise her own development.
• How she’s building development opportunities into her existing work.
• How she uses AI to stay accountable.
• The power of community, and a lot more.

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5 lessons on investing in our own development in L&D

1. Use existing opportunities to build skills

As part of her commitment to development, Kylie recently began a graduate certificate in organisational and workplace learning.

“What I’ve found has been really helpful is choosing things for assignments that are related to things that I need to do at work.”

“I think we need to probably get a little bit more creative with how we look at ways to develop ourselves and not always think that it’s going to be something that is going to take too much time so we never start.”

For Kylie, this mindset feels similar to what we do for learners — asking them to think about how they can apply it to their job, so “we need to do that for ourselves too.”

“For example, we’re learning about different theories of learning design. And so while I’m designing learning at work, I’m like, well, how can I apply this in practice and give it a go, iterate?

“So that’s been one of the ways that I’ve found really helpful to just dedicate the time without having to think, where am I going to find that on my already full calendar?”

2. Communities give you the opportunity to try new ideas and grow

Kylie describes the Crackin’ LnD (Down Under) community as being there for the messy middle:

“What does the everyday L&D practitioner need? And often it’s just to be able to discuss those messy challenges and learn from each other.

“So it’s about creating more of those opportunities, I think, to get the real practice happening in a community of practice.”

Some of Kylie’s first-hand examples were someone having an idea for a new framework and wanting to get feedback. For others, it’s practising their presentation skills without pressure.

They’ve even started “seeing people wanting to learn AI together and how we apply that in L&D, and we’ve been doing that practically through some monthly challenges.”

3. Use AI to create personalised accountability prompts

It’s easy to make excuses around development, especially if nothing or nobody is holding you accountable. 

Kylie shared that she hears people in the community using a trusted friend or co-worker to do this, but she’s approached it differently using AI.

“I’ve got a prompt set up, at the same time, once a week. It’s when I usually would spend that time reflecting anyway.”

“If you’re familiar with habit stacking from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, it’s to try and see what’s already happening in your day and build around that. So for me, I was already picking a time where I knew I was going to be reflective anyway.”

Kylie also gave it context around where she might normally struggle or need help:

“I’m very good at planning, but I may need some help with the follow through, not making excuses.

“So having those questions aligned to where I know some of my shortfalls have been in the past has been helpful because it’s made me realise where I’m seeing patterns of just planning and not actually following through. So that’s been great.”

4. Getting to know yourself will help

“It may sound a little bit silly, but we all have our own quirks when it comes to learning. For me, inspiration is something that I need.

“So finding some quotes or stories, things like that, and having them visually displayed has been helpful for me.

“For other people it may be that you’re doing your best thinking at a certain time of day. It sounds really simple but we’ll often start with, okay, what’s the free time in my calendar?

“When what we should be really starting with is what’s the best time for me to get the best out of what it is that I’m trying to learn?”

5. Play sessions can help you build practical or technical skills

Let’s imagine you want to learn to use a tool like Miro. You could go to their help centre, spend some time going through their materials on their own…

But what if you could join practical sessions, where you played around with the tool, alongside people in similar roles?

This is what they’ve been doing in the Crackin’ LnD (Down Under) community.

“Darryn, who is our founder, is really keen on getting people to have a go at playing. And one of the things that came out of that was, because people could get together and discuss and learn from each other…

“They could get different ideas about how to use the tool and have a bit of a play in a safe space, no pressure environment.”

“I think in some ways people actually got a lot more out of that learning experience than sitting by yourself and being like, I’m just going to learn a technical skill.

“Whereas, when you’re in a group, you are more likely to question things or be open to different perspectives. So for us, that was a little bit of a softer twist on technical skills.”