Finding Your Magic
Using the skills you already have to design smarter learning
Hi friends!
My whole life people have told me that I’m too sensitive. That I’m too dramatic. A drama queen. Too emotional. It wasn’t until the past few years that I realized that same sensitivity is a super power that has provided me wild gut feelings that have changed the course of my life for the better or kept me out of harm’s way.
That sensitivity is what makes me able to see patterns and listen carefully for things. I’m able to tell when something is wrong with my car because it doesn’t “feel” normal or something sounds slightly off. I’m able to tell when my plants or pets need something — food, water, attention.
But it’s also the strength that helps me to be able to observe whether a stakeholder is responding positively to an idea or if I need to quickly pivot my persuasion strategy before I lose them completely! It helps me to realize that even though this employee is saying everything is fine, their body language is telling me this is a pain point.
I used to think my sensitivity was something to fix.
Now I see it’s what tunes me in. Do you have something like that?
The older I get, the more I really think that’s what finding your magic really means — noticing what’s always been there.
Gut Check
I recently provided insight to iSpring’s The ROI Shift report, and I was surprised to see that the number one challenge L&D teams faced when trying to measure the impact of learning on the business was “isolating impact from other variables.”
I’ve never once had to isolate my impact from other variables, and no leader has ever asked me to. In most workplaces, it’s simply not how things work. When every department is meant to contribute to the goals, it makes more sense to look at how learning fits into that bigger picture.
What I do instead is triangulate the data. It sounds a LOT more complicated than it is. Triangulating the data just means that I pull in data from a few different sources (and I aim for a mix of qualitative and quantitative).
For example, if I’m trying to launch a leadership program, I might pull in not only survey data from the participants after the program but also the performance review data and employee annual survey results from before and after. Bringing in those multiple data sources will not only better inform me if my learning project worked as intended, but it will allow me to tell a compelling story to leadership about the impact I had.
Even if I wasn’t the only thing to contribute to improved leadership, describing how this well-regarded program saw both improved performance and employee sentiment would prove its value to any leader.
To learn more about how to find all the awesome data your company is already collecting, check out the presentation I gave at #IDTX 2025 earlier this year: Metrics for Mortals.
One Useful Thing
Because it’s our first time over on Substack, I just have to highlight my good friend and ID Update co-host, Tom McDowall, who has committed to writing a ton of L&D articles every week.
All of the articles are insightful, but sticking with this month’s theme, I personally find that one of the best ways to find your magic is by facing hardship and learning something on the other side. I love how this article “The Sweet Spot of Struggle” talks about practical ways we can create moments of struggle to overcome for our learners to help them get better.
Tom writes:
When we make learning artificially easy, we create false confidence that crumbles under workplace pressure. When we add pointless complexity, we waste people’s time and cognitive resources.
I hope you’ll check out Tom’s musings and subscribe if you haven’t already — they’re a must-read for anyone serious about our work!
Better Together
Last month, the Useful L&D Community turned 1! In that time, we’ve seen:
over 1,000 members join our core (free) tier
dozens of weekly water cooler chats to help members connect
8 amazing All-Access events with speakers from all over the globe
over 500 discussions posted
When I originally created this space, I hoped to help people find a place where they could ask questions and elevate discussions, and I have been so grateful to everyone who showed up to be part of that. Seeing this space grow has been proof that magical things happen when smart, curious people come together and listen!
Work + Life Balance
Speaking of finding, I’ve been a fan of Yoga with Adriene for years now, and her tagline “Find what feels good” lives in my head rent free. I love her style because it’s not about doing every pose perfectly but about noticing what works for you or adjusting until you find what does.
It’s a great way to think about your career too. It’s not about mastering every skill under the L&D sun, it’s about finding the things you like to do and doing them well (and then outsourcing the rest to AI 😜). Sometimes though, that requires a little experimentation, which can be uncomfortable.
What if someone sees me? What if someone finds out? My friend, look around. No one is paying attention to you. Everyone is quite worried about themselves. You don’t have to do anything big — just try one small experiment. Find one thing that feels good today, and go with it.
What’s Next
Next time, I’m going to share some Tricks & Treats with you all! Hopefully, they’ll keep your inbox sweet!
- Heidi ☀️🪴