Facilitated leadership in practice: From learning delivery to strategic influence

You’re a learning professional, and you’re often expected to drive organisational impact without having formal authority. Yet you still influence strategy, culture, and performance through how you design learning, facilitate conversations, and embed development into the flow of work.

In this session, you’ll explore what facilitated leadership looks like in practice, and how you can strengthen your influence across the organisation. The focus is on leading through relationships, evidence, and learning systems, rather than hierarchy.

During the session, you will explore:

• What facilitated leadership means when you’re leading without positional power

• How you build influence through facilitation, insight, and credibility, rather than control

• Ways you can align learning activity with organisational priorities and decision-making

• How learning ecosystems such as Totara can support your influence through data, visibility, and flexible learning pathways

• Practical approaches to help you move from “delivery” to trusted partner and advisor

The session combines reflection, practical examples, and systems thinking. It will help you think differently about your role, your impact, and how technology can support learning-led change at scale.

You will leave with clear ideas you can apply immediately to strengthen your influence, use learning platforms more strategically, and lead with confidence as a learning professional.