How L&D Can Drive Real Behaviour Change

The real challenge for L&D is not delivering content. It is helping people change how they work.

Jon Harald Espolin joins me for a conversation that sits at the intersection of leadership, learning, and change. Before moving into consultancy, and later becoming SVP of Learning & Development at XXL Sport & Villmark, he spent a decade in the army, where he became fascinated by a simple question: what actually helps people grow?

That question stayed with him as he moved into corporate learning. In this episode, we look at why so much workplace learning still struggles to shift behaviour, especially when the realities of the job get in the way. Jon Harald reflects on what retail reveals about motivation, why most development efforts ask too little of practice, and what L&D can borrow from elite sport when the goal is lasting change.

Some curious takeaways:

• Stop telling people what to do and create the conditions for reflection instead
• In retail, learning only gets prioritised when managers are measured on it
• Leadership change needs practice in the real world, not inspiration in a meeting room

Episode highlights:

(00:00) Welcome to Harald’s Curious Corner

(01:50) How the army shaped his view of leadership

(04:59) Moving from presentation to real learning

(07:02) Better questions create better learning

(11:47) Moving in-house at XXL Sport & Villmark

(13:27) Rethinking training in a retail business

(14:55) Choosing an LMS in the real world

(18:00) When implementation gets difficult

(24:50) Managers decide what gets prioritised

(27:06) The deeper challenge of behaviour change

(28:50) Lessons leaders can take from top athletes

(31:33) Practice and feedback build culture

(36:05) Why so much training still fails

Connect with the guest:

Jon Harald Espolin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-harald-espolin-johnson-43aaa334/

Explore XXL Sport & Villmark: https://www.xxl.no/

Follow me on the following sites:

Harald Overaa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haraldovera/

Subscribe to Harald’s Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901795950403186688/