In this excellent interview, Brigid sits down with Lavinia Mehedințu of Offbeat.
Lavinia is a co-founder and Learning Architect at Offbeat, with 12 years of experience designing learning experiences and career development programs. She specialises in applying adult learning principles to help L&D professionals connect, collaborate, and grow.
In this episode, Lavinia challenges the popular buzzword "learning culture" and offers a more tangible, systemic alternative. Lavinia provides a masterclass in systems thinking for L&D, including:
- Deconstructing "Learning Culture": Why the concept is often too nebulous to be useful and why the responsibility for creating it can't fall on L&D alone.
- The Four Conditions for Learning: Lavinia outlines the tangible elements that truly shape learning in an organisation: structure, procedures, information flow, and incentives.
- Introducing Learning Architecture: A more systemic approach that focuses on identifying and removing blockers to learning and adaptation across the entire organization.
- The Sensemaking Cycle: How to move from raw data to real impact through a cycle of sensing information, making sense of it collaboratively, experimenting with small changes, and scaling what works.
- The Role of AI: How AI can free up L&D to become true learning architects, improve information flow, and how organisations must now manage learning from both humans and machines.
Lavinia provides a clear, actionable framework for moving beyond buzzwords to build organisations that truly learn. If you are looking for a more practical and systemic way to foster learning, this is a must-listen-to episode.
Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out
assembleyou.com and follow us on
LinkedIn.
What is The Assembly?
The Assembly: Where L&D Minds Assemble
The future of workplace learning doesn’t live in theory — it lives in lived experience, fresh research, and honest conversations.
That’s what The Assembly delivers.
Hosted by Adam Lacey, Co-Founder of Assemble You and digital learning veteran, and Brigid McCormack, a newcomer to the world of L&D, this is your go-to space for rich, real talk on what’s driving L&D forward.
In each episode, you’ll find:
Richer insights that go beyond surface-level tips to unpack what really works in learning today
Expert perspectives from leaders shaping the L&D landscape
Access to new research on tech, methods, and innovations defining tomorrow’s learning culture
Practical strategies you can use right now to build essential skills like leadership, communication, and adaptability
Whether you’re designing programs, shaping strategy, or driving culture change — if learning is your thing, this is your podcast.
Formally known as L&D Challenges.