Carla Rudder

Most learning and development (L&D) organizations are structured in one of three ways: a centralized model, where one team serves the entire organization; a decentralized model, where individual business units or regions manage their own learning functions; or a federated model, which blends centralized governance with decentralized content development and delivery. Each approach has advantages depending on an organization’s size, complexity and business needs.

Learning and development (L&D) professionals often assume the decision to outsource training initiatives comes down to budget: Can we afford outside help, or should we handle it internally? But according to experienced learning services providers, the real question is usually more complicated than that.

Scope creep happens to the best of us. Shifting priorities, new stakeholders, unexpected disruptions — it’s almost inevitable that something will come along to knock your well-intentioned project off course. Problems with scope creep arise when vendors aren’t prepared for how those changes will be handled.