Webinar Recap: Introducing the Era of Impact-Driven Learning

The conversation around learning and development is changing — fast. 

In the webinar Introducing the Era of Impact-Driven Learning, Stephanie Ketron, VP of Learning & Development at Westgate Resorts, and Lefteris Ntouanoglou, President & CEO of Schoox, laid out exactly what it takes to make the shift from training order-taker to true business partner. 

It Takes Courage to Redefine Good Training

The most powerful reframe? Stop asking what training someone wants, and start asking what problem they’re actually trying to solve. As Stephanie put it “Training is maybe one possible lever to solve that problem, but it’s not always the default solution.” That means having the business acumen to understand workflows, the data literacy to speak a leader’s language, and — most importantly — the courage to push back. Her go-to gut-check question says it all: “If this training were to work perfectly, what will be measurably different in 60 days from now?” If there’s no good answer, the problem probably isn’t a training problem.

Measurement Only Counts When It’s Valuable

On the measurement side, both speakers were clear: completion rates are activity metrics, not success metrics. Stephanie drew a sharp line — “Completion rates only answer the question, did it happen? Impact answers the question, did it matter?” When her team at Westgate Resorts ran the numbers on a multi-month project and translated time into real dollars, it was a wake-up call. Learning isn’t free just because it’s done internally. The real ROI conversation starts when L&D ties performance before and after an intervention to outcomes leaders actually care about — guest scores, retention, upsell rates, Google reviews. As Stephanie put it: “Let me help you meet those metrics. If you need a 4.5 on Google reviews, how can we help you get there?”

Be Willing to Fail Fast

Looking ahead, both speakers emphasized the urgency of experimentation over perfection. Ditch the giant, slow, expensive learning rollouts. “Large programs fail very slowly—and they’re very expensive,” Stephanie said. “Experiments fail fast and they’re cheap.” Instead of trying to design the perfect solution upfront, pilot something small. Test it. Measure what changes. Refine it. Scale what works. Lefteris described this as moving from building learning programs to architecting performance systems—continuous, adaptive, tied directly to business signals.

The Expectations for L&D Are Higher Than Ever Before

The bottom line? “Learning can no longer sit on the sidelines of the business,” Stephanie says. It must sit at the table—speaking business first, learning second.

Whether you’re just starting to build your business case or already trying to prove ROI at scale, the tools and mindset to get there are available right now. The question is whether your L&D team is ready to step off the sidelines and into the room where decisions get made.