Talent Development at the Speed of Business
with Blair Bekker of Chewy
As technology continues to reshape how organizations operate, learning and development leaders are being challenged to rethink traditional approaches to workforce capability building. In this episode of Learning Leader Spotlight, Blair Bekker shares perspectives on the evolving role of L&D, the growing importance of business alignment, and the skills organizations will need to thrive in an era defined by constant change.
Throughout the conversation, Blair emphasizes that learning is increasingly becoming a strategic business function rather than a support activity. Her insights offer practical guidance for learning leaders seeking to demonstrate impact, build organizational agility, and navigate the rapid emergence of AI-driven work.
Blair Bekker serves as Director of Global Talent Development at Chewy. In her role, she oversees talent development initiatives across the organization, including new employee onboarding, leadership development, and workforce capability building for corporate employees, customer service teams, and fulfillment center operations.
Blair entered the learning and development profession through an unconventional path. With an academic background in communications and film, she began her career in video production before discovering corporate learning through training video production. Her interest in both creativity and business performance eventually led her to pursue an MBA, giving her a foundation that combines learning expertise with a strong focus on measurable business outcomes.
Learning and Development Must Move at the Speed of Business
One of the most prominent themes throughout the discussion is the accelerating pace of change facing modern organizations. Blair reflects on how learning teams once operated in environments where projects could take months to research, design, and deploy. Traditional development processes emphasized thoroughness, extensive needs analysis, and delivering polished solutions on the first attempt.
Today’s environment is fundamentally different.
Technology enables faster creation, while competitive business pressures demand faster execution. As a result, L&D professionals can no longer rely on lengthy development cycles. Instead, they must embrace rapid iteration, continuous improvement, and a willingness to release solutions before they are perfect.
Blair describes a tension that many learning professionals experience. Deep expertise in instructional design often encourages precision and refinement, yet organizational realities increasingly reward speed, responsiveness, and adaptability. This requires a mindset shift from striving for perfection toward delivering value quickly and improving based on feedback.
The implication is significant: effectiveness is no longer defined solely by instructional quality. It is also defined by how quickly learning solutions can respond to emerging business needs.
Business Acumen Is Becoming a Core L&D Capability
Another recurring theme is the importance of understanding the business beyond the learning function itself.
Blair explains that her team invests in business acumen development because many learning professionals are trained extensively in learning science, instructional methodologies, and educational frameworks. While these foundations remain valuable, business leaders often approach problems from entirely different perspectives.
The challenge, therefore, is not merely designing effective learning experiences. It is understanding organizational priorities, speaking the language of business stakeholders, and framing solutions in ways that resonate with operational and financial objectives.
Throughout the conversation, Blair consistently refers to the business as L&D’s internal customer. This perspective shifts the role of learning leaders from content creators to strategic partners. Rather than focusing solely on learning outcomes, they must understand revenue drivers, operational challenges, customer experience goals, and competitive pressures.
According to Blair, career growth in L&D often occurs when professionals develop the ability to sit alongside business leaders, understand their challenges, and connect learning interventions directly to organizational performance.
Importantly, she does not argue that learning professionals should abandon learning science. Instead, she advocates balancing instructional expertise with business understanding. Learning principles remain the foundation, but they become more influential when paired with a deep understanding of organizational needs.
Learning Is Moving Into the Flow of Work
Looking ahead, Blair predicts significant changes in how people access and experience learning.
Traditional models often require employees to leave their work environment, enter a learning platform, complete training, and then return to work. Increasingly, however, employees expect learning experiences that mirror how they access information in daily life.
Blair points to the growing expectation that knowledge should be available instantly through multiple formats. Employees may want AI-generated guidance, video demonstrations, visual references, or quick answers depending on the situation. Rather than navigating formal learning systems, they expect support embedded directly within their workflow.
This shift represents more than technological evolution. It changes how organizations think about learning altogether.
Learning is becoming less event-based and more continuous. Instead of separating work from learning, organizations increasingly integrate capability development directly into day-to-day activities. This creates opportunities for more personalized and accessible learning experiences while reducing friction for employees.
The concept of learning in the flow of work aligns with a broader trend toward self-directed learning, where employees access the resources they need when they need them rather than waiting for formal programs.
AI Is Elevating the Strategic Importance of Learning
The discussion highlights how artificial intelligence is creating unique opportunities for learning organizations.
Blair notes that AI differs from many previous technological shifts because nearly everyone is learning simultaneously. Whether employees are early in their careers or seasoned professionals with decades of experience, the rapid evolution of AI requires continuous adaptation.
This creates a rare environment in which traditional expertise advantages are temporarily compressed. Individuals who have actively explored emerging technologies for only a few years may possess valuable expertise because the technologies themselves are relatively new.
As organizations seek to build AI capabilities across entire workforces, learning teams increasingly become central to enterprise transformation efforts. Rather than supporting isolated training initiatives, they are helping employees develop new skills, change behaviors, and adopt new ways of working.
Blair believes this moment presents an important opportunity for the profession. Historically, learning functions have sometimes been viewed as compliance driven or operationally focused. Today, however, organizations increasingly recognize workforce upskilling as a strategic business advantage.
As a result, learning leaders have greater opportunities to influence organizational success, provided they can connect learning investments to meaningful business outcomes.
Agility Is the Defining Workforce Skill
When discussing the most difficult capability to hire for and develop, Blair identifies agility as the primary challenge.
Technology continues to evolve rapidly, but the deeper challenge involves how technology changes expectations for work itself. Employees must learn continuously, adapt quickly, experiment with new approaches, and remain comfortable operating amid uncertainty.
Blair describes agility as more than flexibility. It includes the ability to test ideas, learn rapidly from experience, adjust course when needed, and maintain forward momentum despite ambiguity.
This capability directly connects to earlier themes in the conversation around perfectionism. Individuals accustomed to certainty and highly structured processes may struggle in environments characterized by experimentation and ongoing iteration.
At the same time, Blair acknowledges that not every area of business can tolerate mistakes. Effective agility requires understanding where experimentation is appropriate and where precision remains essential. Distinguishing between those contexts is itself an increasingly important skill. Ultimately, she sees learning agility, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace continuous change as foundational capabilities for future workforce success.
Is Your L&D Team Built for Scale?
Practical Takeaways for L&D and Business Leaders
Align Learning Initiatives With Business Priorities
Learning programs gain credibility when they address challenges that matter to organizational leaders. Understanding business objectives, operational priorities, and performance metrics enables stronger partnerships and more impactful solutions.
Balance Excellence With Speed
Perfection is not always the optimal strategy in fast-moving environments. Leaders may benefit from creating processes that support rapid development, testing, and refinement rather than delaying implementation until every detail is finalized.
Invest in Measurement Early
Blair’s experience with controlled testing illustrates the importance of measuring impact. By establishing clear metrics and partnering with analytics teams, learning leaders can demonstrate how capability development contributes to business outcomes.
Create a Culture of Shared Learning
Visible participation from leaders can help normalize experimentation and learning. When leaders actively engage in upskilling efforts alongside their teams, they create psychological safety and encourage broader adoption of new skills.
Build Technology and Ecosystem Readiness
Organizations may need to think beyond individual tools and focus on creating connected learning ecosystems. The greatest value often comes not from isolated technologies but from how effectively they work together to support learners in their daily work.
Resources or Tools Mentioned
Closing Reflection
Blair Bekker presents a vision of learning and development that is deeply connected to business performance, workforce transformation, and organizational agility. Her perspective emphasizes that the future of L&D depends not only on expertise in learning design but also on the ability to understand business challenges, measure impact, and adapt quickly as technology evolves.
As AI continues to reshape work, organizations that successfully combine learning excellence with business alignment may be best positioned to develop adaptable workforces capable of thriving in constant change.
Listen to the episode here.
Ready to Work with Us?
Does your L&D team have more projects than people? At TrainingPros, we match organizations with experienced consultants who lead with strategy, so you can connect learning decisions to real business goals. We support teams across compliance, customer service, leadership and supervisory development, product knowledge, and sales, as well as information technology, software, and learning platforms. Whether you’re rethinking onboarding, scaling a program, or upgrading the tools behind it, we help you move from reactive delivery to results-driven capability building.
TrainingPros has been named a Top 20 Staffing Company internationally by Training Industry, and recognized as a Champion of Learning by the Association for Talent Development (ATD)—an international honor that reflects our dedication to excellence in corporate learning. These accolades underscore TrainingPros’ unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality, tailored training solutions.
If your projects need instructional design consultants, eLearning developers, or other learning & development consultants for your custom content projects, reach out to one of our industry-expert relationship managers today.
Does your L&D team have more projects than people? At TrainingPros, we match organizations with experienced consultants who lead with strategy, so you can connect learning decisions to real business goals. We support teams across compliance, customer service, leadership and supervisory development, product knowledge, and sales, as well as information technology, software, and learning platforms. Whether you’re rethinking onboarding, scaling a program, or upgrading the tools behind it, we help you move from reactive delivery to results-driven capability building.
TrainingPros has been named a Top 20 Staffing Company internationally by Training Industry, and recognized as a Champion of Learning by the Association for Talent Development (ATD)—an international honor that reflects our dedication to excellence in corporate learning. These accolades underscore TrainingPros’ unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality, tailored training solutions.
If your projects need instructional design consultants, eLearning developers, or other learning & development consultants for your custom content projects, reach out to one of our industry-expert relationship managers today.
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