If your L&D team keeps landing the last seat at the table, the way in is to get close to the commercial reality of the business.

Brigid McCormack sits down with Lori Anne Powell, leadership development consultant and co-founder of LVL London, to unpack how L&D earns influence the way any function does: with credibility, trust and results the business can see.

Lori began her career at Harrods and went on to lead learning and development across Europe, the Middle East and Africa as Director of L&D at Tiffany & Co., supporting multi-territory teams at scale. She brings a commercial, human-centred lens to how learning drives performance in premium service environments.

She breaks down how to build a commercial mindset in L&D, how to influence stakeholders when you do not hold budget or authority, and what luxury retail's high-stakes shop floor teaches every learning leader.

What you'll learn:

1. Why the most impactful learning creates a pull rather than a push, and how to build that appetite
2. How to influence without authority by diagnosing before you prescribe, and making the stakeholder part of the solution
3. What it means to be the commercial thinking partner, and how to reverse engineer learning from sales, retention and development
4. Why the shop floor is where strategy meets reality, and how to close the friction between it and head office
5. The skills for life that retail builds better than anywhere: presence, reading a room and recovering from rejection

🔗 Connect with Lori Anne Powell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-powell/

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