[Podcast](/podcast)

# The New Buying Committee: Who's Really at the Table

Why is L&D trusted more but in control less? In this episode, Julia sits down with Al Dea, Founder of the Edge of Work, to unpack the findings of a new report on the modern learning buying committee. Al breaks down why IT, finance, and legal are now far more involved in learning tool decisions than they used to be, why rising confidence in L&D hasn't translated into more ownership, and where L&D leaders tend to lose momentum in the buying process.

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## About the Guest

Al Dea is a Speaker, Facilitator, Advisor and Podcast Host. He is the Founder of The Edge of Work, his advisory and leadership firm that helps organizations make sense of a constantly evolving workplace.  

Al works at the intersection of the future of work, organizational strategy, and leadership development. His thinking and insights have been published in outlets such as Forbes, Fast Company, and Business Insider. Al is the Host of The Edge of Work podcast, a podcast that explores the intersection of talent, leadership and the future of work,, and a LinkedIn Top Voice in the Future of Work and Leadership.  

Al previously worked at organizations, including Deloitte Consulting LLP and Salesforce, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on human capital strategies and digital transformation. Al received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Theology from Boston College and his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill.

[Connect on Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/)

**Julia:** Welcome to L&D in 20, your go-to resource for all things workplace learning, brought to you by Go1\. I'm your host, Julia Nieradka, Manager of Customer Success at Go1\. Today on the show, I'm very excited to be joined by Al, founder of the Edge of Work, an advisory and leadership firm that helps organizations make sense of today's constantly evolving workplace.

Al works at the intersection of the future of work, organizational strategy, and leadership development. Through his work as a speaker, advisor, and podcast host, he helps leaders and organizations navigate change, build stronger talent strategies, and prepare for what's next. His insights and perspectives have been featured in publications including Forbes, Fast Company, and Business Insider.

He's also the host of the Edge of Work podcast, where he explores the evolving relationship between talent, leadership, and the future of work, and has been recognized as a LinkedIn top voice in future of work and leadership. Previously, Al advised Fortune 500 organizations on human capital strategy and digital transformation at companies including Deloitte Digital and Salesforce, bringing both strategic expertise and real-world experience to the conversation he leads today.

Al, welcome to the show. 

**Al:** So great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. 

**Julia:** So in today's deep dive, we're exploring the new learning buying committee and how the process of purchasing learning solutions has fundamentally changed. We discuss who's now influencing learning decisions across the organization and what different stakeholders are really trying to achieve, and why L&D leaders often lose momentum when conversations shift beyond learning outcomes.

Al, you're one of the co-authors of the new report that's just been released called The New Buying Committee. One of the things that really stood out to me in the report is that it's not just a story about procurement becoming harder. It feels like a bigger story about how learning decisions have become enterprise decisions, and the research in the report surveyed 950 leaders across IT, finance, procurement, and legal and compliance, with the data showing that these groups are now much more involved in learning tool decisions than they ever were two or even three years ago.

So I'd love to start with the room itself Al, the report shows that a really significant shift, which is 88% of IT, 82% of finance, and 83% of legal leaders say they're now meaningfully more involved in learning tool decisions than they were in past years. So when a learning solution gets evaluated today, who is actually sitting around the table, and how different is that from the buying committee L&D may have been used to in the past?

**Al:** I tend to look at things through four lenses. The first is the organizational lens, right? In terms of what is the overall business strategy in terms of this solution and, and how it's trying to help the organization achieve its goals.

The second lens is the stakeholder lens, and in this lens does come many of those individuals that you mentioned, many of those roles and functions, whether that's procurement, that's finance, that's IT, et cetera.

The third lens is the HR lens, right? And depending on the nature of your organization and the size, this may be one and the same with you if you're a little bit smaller, but it might be a little bit more removed if you're at a larger organization where maybe you're in a center of excellence, or maybe you're in a centralized function of L&D, but that's separate from the broader HR organization.

And so that's the third lens. And then the final lens, of course, obviously, is learning itself. And I think a takeaway and a punchline through all of this is that not that these are new functions or roles, but the role in which they play and their involvement is probably greater. And this is becoming something that is not just, "Hey, this is a learning decision," but rather this is a cross-functional initiative, business initiative that involves a number of key players, which brings, of course, our expertise in learning because that's ultimately what the solution is about.

**Julia:** So the report does a great job of showing that each stakeholder is protecting something different. IT is thinking about security and integration. Finance is thinking about adoption, measurable impact, total cost, and risk. Legal and compliance are thinking about regulatory exposure, data privacy, AI liability, and accountability.

So when each one of these groups enters the buying conversation, what are they really trying to solve for or protect? 

**Al:** Finance seems to be, I think, one where most people can sort of understand why they might care and, and want to be involved in this in terms of thinking about the total cost and certainly the ROI and certainly, you know, what's the impact or some of the other metrics that really matter.

And certainly IT is another one where you can certainly see why they would want to be involved in a decision around a learning technology solution. So some of these do speak for themself, but I think the bigger lesson here is something that I learned early in my career and something that one of my favorite leaders once said to me, which is this, and it is that most people can only see from their seat.

And if you want someone to see from yours, you've got to be able to see from theirs first. And why I share that here, people have their own reasons, and until you know what they are, and until you actually take the time to understand, they're just guesses. And so that is the invitation, which is to see from their seat and to go and ask them what matters to them.

What are the KPIs or OKRs or business objectives or whatever terminology that you use that really matter? I think what happens sometimes is that it's very easy for everyone to kind of get locked into the things that they are focused on. But again, what we just talked about is that a lot of these decisions now are cross-functional initiatives.

And so, yes the measures and metrics that you care about as a learning and development leader absolutely matter. But if you want to get the buy-in and support of those other people around you in finance and legal, IT, security, you're gonna have to make sure that they feel comfortable that their metrics are also being accounted for.

And the only way you can do that is if you actually understand what they are. And so I think that is the prescription and the invitation for this, is that if you don't know what matters to them, go and find out. And if you do know what matters to them, great. Double-check and ask them, because you may not know for sure.

I do think that one wrinkle and nuance that is probably new within the last twelve to eighteen months is the conversation around artificial intelligence and, in particular, AI and machine learning because of the implications for different departments of the results of that, namely in terms of managing risk and managing awareness of what's going on.

And so that is something that I think also is perhaps ratcheting up the level of involvement, in particular of some of these functions and roles in this process. And easy example would certainly be security, right? Absolutely. In terms of the new things that are having to be taken into account as a result of these new technologies and security wanting to make sure that they are accounting for them and protecting risk.

That is definitely a new wrinkle and something that has also, I think, ratcheted up the, the level of awareness, as well as the level of involvement by some of these other functions and roles. 

**Julia:** One of the most interesting tensions in the report is that confidence in L&D has increased, but ownership has not necessarily increased with it.

The report found that seventy-seven percent of IT leaders, sixty-four percent of finance leaders, and fifty-two percent of legal leaders say that their confidence in L&D's ability to evaluate and manage modern learning tools has gone up, but only nine percent of IT and seventeen percent of finance and twenty-five percent of legal thinks that L&D or HR should primarily own a AI-powered learning infrastructure decisions, Al.

Why do you think L&D is more trusted but not necessarily more in control? And where do L&D leaders lose momentum in that process? 

**Al:** I think one of the things, and I spoke about this a little bit before, which is that when these are cross-functional initiatives, even if it may seem as if you own this, and maybe you do because it has the word "learning" in it, there are other people who are involved who are also trying to take ownership and accountability for the work that they do.

And so I think that many of them probably recognize that they don't necessarily have the subject matter expertise or the knowledge of all the elements of the features and functionality of all the different elements of learning that are important, how the specific solution drives, you know, specific learning outcomes, all of that.

But they recognize and understand and have this general kind of calculus of managing their own risk profile of various attributes that really matter in terms of making sure that this is a good decision that they feel comfortable with signing off of. And so I think it is that understanding and respect of I know as someone in IT or someone in finance that I do not have the subject matter knowledge that my L&D counterpart has, and so I want them to be involved.

And I also have some skin in the game, and I want to take accountability for that. So to the second part of the question, in terms of what gets in the way or where do people maybe perhaps stall out or lose momentum in the process. There's a famous Chinese proverb that says something to the effect of, when's the best time to plant a tree?

Answer is twenty years ago. Well, when's the second-best time? Today, right? And I think sometimes the challenge often is, is that when we think about this as another project or initiative, we will go to our stakeholders for support when it's time to run that project or initiative. The reality of it is that I think there's much more of an opportunity to be more strategic, proactive, and intentional about how you sequence and set these up with your stakeholders.

So when you actually are coming to them when you need their help, they are not surprised. They are expecting this, and that they are ready to engage in support in the process. And so momentum so often stalls when they get brought in at the last minute or when you're not proactive about it, because they've got their own stuff that they got to do each and every day too, right?

I think the second thing that often, you know, happens is when we have that trouble being able to talk in a language that other people can hear and understand. More colloquially, when we maybe perhaps spend most of the time outlining i-in our communications, any deliverables, any documents, all the things that matter from the lens of an L&D leader or an L&D professional, which again, do matter.

But if we are trying to engage and get the support and sign off and buy-in of other people, we've got to be able to speak in a language that they understand. And so when we're talking with IT, we're talking about it through the lens of the various things that our IT function cares about. When we're talking with finance, we're talking about in a language that they can understand in terms of costs, benefits, ROI, et cetera.

When we're talking in terms of working with our colleagues in security or privacy, et cetera, we're talking about regulatory risk, all those types of things. And then I think maybe the last piece of this is the mindset around, are you actually treating this as a checklist or a sign-off of getting their approval?

Or are you treating this as something that you're co-creating along with other people? I think there's an invitation there if you want to accelerate momentum of instead of just trying to treat this as, "Hey, I need to convince you to sign off on this," or, "I need to convince you that this is the right thing to do."

For those of you who are psychology nerds, there's a principle called the IKEA effect, which basically the studies have gone on to show that the more that someone is involved and contributing to the creation of something, the more invested in it they are in terms of wanting to see it succeed.

Very much how if any of you have ever built some IKEA furniture, no matter how darn hard it is to build, you sure as hell are committed to making sure that it actually gets built because you've put blood, sweat, and tears into it. And so I think that's the other piece is just that mindset of, "I need you to approve this."

And moving that to, uh, in order to get more momentum to how can we work on this together? How can you contribute to what we're doing? 

**Julia:** The report makes it clear that AI has changed the risk profile of learning tools. Over half of finance, IT, and legal respondents say that AI powered features inside learning tools now go through the same formal governance process as any other enterprise AI tools.

So when the conversation becomes more commercial, technical or risk focused, how can L&D stay credible? 

**Al:** I think there's an opportunity to try to do your best to learn the language that you need to speak in with each of the different stakeholders that you have. I don't think this means you need to be an expert in finance or security or IT, but you do have to be dangerous enough to be able to have a thoughtful conversation and also to help them understand the trade-offs that are needed in specific situations to help them make better decisions or to help you get to a decision that is gonna be most useful and most effective.

And so to the degree that you can do that, I think it's just gonna increase your chances of success. I also think that as someone who's been involved in these processes in former roles, both in terms of being a buyer, but also in terms of being on a cross-functional committee working with other stakeholders, whenever someone came to me and said, "Hey, I wanna better understand what your perspective is or, or what your needs are, or how you talk about things," I personally, I know I'm biased in this, but I always really had a lot of respect for the people who were willing to go out of the way to do that because it showed to me that they actually were really committed to wanting to get to the best possible outcome.

And so I think that is an invitation for anyone here who's maybe feeling a little uncomfortable about it. You're not expected to be an expert in finance and IT and security. No one person could, could ever be all those things. And so perhaps a little humility and modeling a little bit of curiosity and an openness to learning is actually, you know, something we all know well.

It could actually go a long way in this endeavor. And so as opposed, again, to treating this as a, I need to bulldoze you into getting to a yes, it really is treating this as that two-way dialogue where you're co-creating and collaborating together or across a group of people to get to the best possible outcome.

The last thing I would say, particularly as you think about this from a commercial or financial perspective, one of the best ways in which someone explained this to me was around really thinking about it like a portfolio. And so the analogy of course here is that for many of you who are L&D leaders, you have a number of different things in your learning portfolio of investments.

And so how are you evaluating this and how are you being strategic about this and presenting this in a way where you've shown other people that you not only understand The benefits and the costs of this investment or project in and of itself, but you've got a point of view and a narrative around how this fits into everything else that you're trying to do.

I think that can go a long way in showing people that you are being strategic and you are being thoughtful about the investments that you're making. 

**Julia:** And that leads perfectly into the process itself, Al, because if the old playbook was find the tool, build the case, seek approval, the report seems to suggest that the better playbook is almost the opposite.

Engage early, understand the stakeholder lens, and build the case together. So what does a smart, workable buying process look like now? 

**Al:** When I think of a smart, workable buying process, what I really think about is, am I building a continuous set of relationships with these stakeholders where they are aware of where I'm t- at today and where ultimately I'm headed?

Because when they are more aware of that and there is less ambiguity and there is more clarity, I think it will help them have a more confidence when you do step up to the plate and say, "Hey, I'm ready to formally go through this, this next evaluation of this vendor or this tool," et cetera, things like that.

The last thing I would add to this is having a good process is part of a process, and what I mean by that is obviously the outcome matters, but, like, really making sure that, like, you're showing that you are being thoughtful, that you are being rigorous, that you are doing the things that you mentioned because it shows that body of work and the intention and thoughtfulness that you put into it.

But also, a lot of those are the kinds of deliverables, or at least the types of analyses that many of those teams are regularly doing anyway. And so when you can show them that you are doing them, too, I think they're gonna be able to again, this goes back to being able to speak their language, right?

You know, when you show up with a business case or an ROI or a, "Hey, here's what we think the payback is gonna be, the total cost of ownership," things like that, those are things that your finance partners can understand, right? 

**Julia:** Absolutely. And I have one final question for you, Al, and that is, if an L&D leader wants to be seen as a stronger strategic business partner, what is one relationship they should invest in this quarter?

**Al:** If I could only pick one, I would actually pick IT and your technology team or department. So much is happening and changing in the technology landscape that it's good to understand what is on their mind and what they are focused on so that you can work more effectively with them because in many cases, particularly if your learning solution that you're looking at has a tech component, you're going to need to work with them anyway.

**Julia:** Al, this has been such a practical and timely conversation. We always finish the show with three quick-fire questions. So first one is, what is on your feed and where is your go-to spot for practical HR advice? 

**Al:** I'm going to give a shout-out to Ashley Herd. She wrote a book called The Manager Method, and she gives a lot of great practical guidance on how to be an effective manager or leader.

So highly recommend you check her out. 

**Julia:** Amazing. I will definitely check that out. Our second question is, who's at your table? So at this time of rapid change, who do you think is a key stakeholder L&D and HR leaders should partner with across the business, and why? 

**Al:** A foolproof one would just be finance. 

**Julia:** Our last question is, what's the feeling?

So finish this sentence for us, Al: At its best, learning at work should feel... 

**Al:** Empowering. 

**Julia:** Love that, Al. Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciated how practical this conversation was, and what I'm taking away is that learning buying processes have changed, and that does not have to be a bad thing for L&D.

It's actually an opportunity for L&D leaders to become more strategic, more influential, and more connected to the wider business. So the key is to stop thinking of stakeholders as barriers to approval and start thinking of them as partners in the business case. 

**Al:** 100%. Thanks so much, Julia.

**Julia:** Thanks for tuning into the show. I'm your host, Julia Nieradka, and that wraps up another episode of L&D in 20\. To continue the conversation, send me a message on LinkedIn through the link in the show notes. Your comments help to inform future episodes, and who knows, maybe we'll even answer some of your questions on the show.

We'll catch you on the next episode, and until then, keep learning. 

**Producer:** This show is brought to you by Go1, the trusted learning foundation for a future-ready workforce. Go1 helps organizations build capable, compliant teams through the world's most comprehensive learning ecosystem, making learning easier to manage, measure, and scale with confidence.

To learn more, visit go1.com or click the link in the show notes. And to stay up to date on future episodes of L&D in 20, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

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