DM ‘AUDIT’ to future-proof your 2026 learning & development roadmap • Leadership Development Strategist • TEDx Speaker • Designed Global Training for 35K+

Companies spend millions on leadership development. Most of it doesn't stick.

I help HR, L&D, and visionary CEOs find out why, before they spend another dollar.

Through Capability Audits, I uncover the real reasons training isn't translating into performance: misaligned systems, missing reinforcement, culture that blocks change. 

In 3-5 weeks, you get a clear diagnosis and a clear roadmap to fix it.

My work spans four pillars that turn insight into measurable growth:

🔍 Capability Audits – Data-informed assessments that reveal blind spots, skill gaps, and alignment gaps across teams.

🧠 Leadership Training & Workshops – Programs that blend emotional intelligence, adaptive strategy, and behavioral science.

🎤 Speaking & Panels – Talks that challenge leadership norms, ignite change, and make “soft skills” powerfully strategic.

At the core of my work:
👉 I help organizations strengthen the ‘people layer’ - so leadership, collaboration, and culture scale with innovation, not behind it.

Career highlights:
• TEDx Speaker
• Brand Partners: Synthesia, GoStudio.AI, iSpring Solutions, Tavus, We Are Learning, Powtoon & Notion.
• Named one of the Top 50 Global Influential Women to Follow in 2026
• Featured thought leader on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and The CW.
• Published bestselling author on emotional intelligence and adaptive leadership.
• Former Sales Enablement UX Researcher in big tech, designing learning experiences for 35K+ global professionals.
• Person of the Year 2026 Award 
• Multiple award-winning Thinkers 360: 
1. Top 10 Behavioral Science 
2. Top 50 Transformational Leaders
3. Top 100 Careers Thought Leaders

➡️ If you're building a people-first organization that needs to scale with clarity and heart — let's connect.
📩 DM “READY” or reach out at acasiano@growingyoureq.com

For podcast interviews, features, speaking, or collaborations:
📬 acasiano@growingyoureq.com

**Please send professional requests by email only. No DM pitches will be reviewed.

Alinnette Casiano

Life knocks you down.
That part's easy.

Getting back up, that’s the work.

Three years ago, I missed my biggest goal.

Months of effort.
Late nights.
All in.

Still missed.

I sat in my car, hands on the wheel, thinking,
“Was all that for nothing?”

It wasn’t.
It was the start of learning.

Failure didn’t finish me.
It taught me.

1. Rejection teaches
A “no” just means not yet.

2. Failure points.
It shows you what to fix.

3. Changing course isn’t weak.
It’s how you find what works.

4. The door that closes
is the one that pushes you toward the right one.

Your pace isn’t mine.
Your route isn’t mine.
When you look sideways, you slow down.

Forget big overhauls.
Do small things right.

Send one honest message.
Make one better call.
Try again tomorrow.

Everything that goes wrong tells you something.

A missed sale shows what didn’t land.
A bad launch shows what didn’t fit.
A lost client shows where you stopped listening.

Setbacks aren’t proof you can’t.
They’re proof you’re trying.

The work that got you here won’t get you there.
The people who started with you might not stay.
That’s part of it.

Growth sits in the spot you don’t want to look at.
And the map?
It’s written in every fall you’ve taken.

💭 What’s your “get back up” story?

🔁 Repost for someone who’s in the middle of their “getting back up” season.

Credit: I do not own the copyright claim to this video

There’s an underrated quality that changes the way people experience leadership.

👉 Humility

Not the kind that shrinks.
Not the kind that stays quiet.

The kind that steadies a room.

You see it when a leader doesn’t rush to prove they’re right.
When they pause long enough to listen.
When they admit, “I might be missing something.”

That moment does more than build trust.
It lowers defenses.
It creates space for better thinking.
It lets others bring their best forward.

Humility doesn’t weaken authority.
It strengthens it.

Because teams don’t follow perfection.
They follow leaders who are grounded enough to learn in real time.

I’ve watched confident leaders lose people by needing to be right.
And I’ve watched humble leaders earn commitment by staying curious.

The difference isn’t intelligence.
It’s self-awareness.

In practice, humility looks like this:
• Asking before asserting
• Listening without preparing a rebuttal
• Taking responsibility without self-flagellation
• Letting the work be bigger than your ego

In fast-moving, high-pressure environments, humility becomes a performance skill.

It keeps decisions clean.
It keeps relationships intact.
It keeps learning alive.

The leaders who last aren’t the loudest.
They’re the ones who know when to step back so the truth can step forward.

💭 Where have you seen humility change the outcome?

🔁  Share this with others to motivate them to lead quietly but powerfully.

Image Credit: Adam Grant

Upskilling is under pressure.

Roles are evolving faster than traditional training cycles can keep up.
By the time a program launches, the work has already shifted.

If you’re responsible for learning, enablement, or workforce readiness at scale, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Hosted by Synthesia:
AI for Upskilling: Building Workforce Capability with Video Agents
📅 Feb 19th | 5:00 pm CET · 4:00 pm UK · 11:00 am ET

This webinar goes beyond hype and asks the harder question:

Where do AI video agents actually outperform traditional training, and where don’t they?

You’ll hear from:

Kevin Alster  
Craig Watson 
Dominic Holmes 
Gareth Rees 

They’ll break down:

• How AI video agents enable continuous, adaptive skill-building
• Which outcomes they measurably improve: time-to-competence, consistency, adaptability
• How leading organizations decide what to invest in, and what to leave behind
• How to assess cost vs. value without betting on hype

I’ll be there listening closely, and I hope to see many of you there as well.

If you’re navigating AI adoption and wondering what actually moves the needle in workforce capability, you can’t miss this.

Because learning has to move at the speed of work.

Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q042SRNX0

SME–ID collaboration is harder than it should be.

Extracting knowledge, translating it, refining it, 
and still missing key context drains time and momentum.

That gap is exactly what Powtoon’s soon-to-launch AI collaboration tool is designed to close. 

One structured space to capture expert knowledge, 
guide inputs, ask clarifying questions, 
and turn internal expertise into learner-ready assets.

Without endless back-and-forth.

🎁 I’ve partnered up with Powtoon to give away 100 SME-ID Relationship Repair Kits 👇

Want to win a pair for you and your SME (or fellow L&D pro who really needs this)? 
Here’s how to enter the raffle:

Like this post and comment tagging your peer.
Register for an exclusive product unboxing event and apply for beta 👉 https://lnkd.in/gW_4i4qK

That's it! You’re in the raffle!

Want to double your chances? 
Repost this post.

The kit is playful. 
The tool is on another level.

And if you’ve ever navigated “just one more revision,” 
you already know why this matters.

The kit arrived just in time for #ValentinesDay, 
It is surprisingly accurate and a clever nod to something most teams don’t say out loud.

In partnership with Powtoon.

All roads lead to Alaska.

CREAX Ideas is not just another event.
It’s a bilingual stage for ideas that move people:
Across culture, language, leadership, and creativity.

🗓 July 8, 2026
📍 Glenn Massay Theater, Palmer, Alaska

This is where voices rise.
Where ideas are shared with intention,
and recorded for impact beyond the room.

🎟 Early Bird tickets are live, and they won’t last.
If you know you’re coming, secure your seat now and save.

Feeling generous?
Become a Supporter and help make this space accessible to students, emerging leaders, and community members.

This isn’t just a date to mark.
It’s a room you’ll want to be in.

I’ll drop the link to purchase below.

🔁 Repost to spread the word.
📌 Save this and revisit when you’re ready.

I don’t create training manuals. I build profit engines.

Most mid to large sized companies are leaking money every single day through broken workflows, clunky handoffs, underused tools, and systems that were patched together instead of designed to scale. CEOs know it, but they often cannot see where the bleeding starts.

That’s my genius. I walk into the mess, diagnose the leaks, and rebuild the system so the company runs leaner, smarter, and more profitably. I don’t patch problems. I re-architect how the business operates so inefficiency cannot creep back in.

I’ve done this in my own companies, scaling multiple ventures into multi-million dollar operations while keeping teams small and systems tight. Now, I bring that same clarity and precision to CEOs who want to protect their margins and free themselves to focus on growth.

If you are an established leader with a serious challenge and the budget to solve it, send me a direct message.

Robin Sargent, Ph.D. Instructional Designer-Online Learning

Instructional design is one of the most misunderstood careers online.

Most people think the job is creating courses.

It isn’t.

Courses are just one tool.

The real job of an instructional designer is diagnosing performance problems inside organizations.

Before designing anything, good instructional designers ask different questions:

Where does work actually break down?

What are employees struggling to do?

Why isn’t the current process producing the right results?

Only after those answers become clear do you decide whether training is even the right solution.

Sometimes the answer is training.

Often it isn’t.

Sometimes the real issue is:

• unclear expectations
• poor systems
• broken workflows
• lack of feedback
• leadership gaps

Courses can’t fix most of those problems.

That’s why strong instructional designers think like analysts first and creators second.

They investigate before they design.

They diagnose before they build.

Because instructional design isn’t about making content.

It’s about improving performance.

And that’s a very different job.

Founder of IDOL Academy | The Career School for Instructional Designers

People think instructional designers spend their day building courses.

That’s only a small part of the job.

A typical day for an instructional designer usually looks more like this:

Analyze requests
 Is this actually a training problem?
Meet with subject matter experts
 What do employees really need to do on the job?
Design learning experiences
 How can people practice those skills?
Review courses
 Does the learning activity actually support performance?
Measure results
 Did the training improve performance?

Course building is part of the job.
But most of the work happens before and after the course exists.

Instructional design is less about producing content and more about solving performance problems.

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Most people treat Robert Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction like a checklist.
Step 1. Do this.
Step 2. Do that.
Add a quiz at the end and call it “instructional design.”

But that’s not what Gagné was actually trying to teach us.

The real insight behind the Nine Events is that learning doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when we intentionally support how people process information.

Gain attention.
Activate prior knowledge.
Provide guidance.
Allow practice.
Give feedback.

Each step exists because the brain needs a specific condition in order to learn effectively.

Inside organizations, this matters even more.

Employees aren’t sitting in a classroom waiting to be taught. They’re busy. Distracted. Under pressure to perform. If the learning experience doesn’t guide them through these moments deliberately, the training simply becomes another thing they click through.

That’s why strong instructional designers don’t just “build courses.”

They design the conditions that make learning possible.

This is one of the frameworks we spend time unpacking inside IDOL Academy—not as theory to memorize, but as a practical lens for designing learning that actually works in real organizations.

Because understanding why a model works is far more powerful than just knowing the steps.

If you work in instructional design, I’m curious:
Do you use Gagné’s Nine Events as a checklist… or as a thinking framework when designing learning?

Most instructional designers would benefit from reading George Orwell.

Not for politics.

For writing.

Orwell created six simple rules for writing clearly. One of them is especially relevant to instructional design:

“Never use a long word where a short one will do.”

This is where a lot of training goes wrong.

Courses are filled with phrases like:

“Leverage cross-functional collaboration to optimize operational outcomes.”

But employees don’t talk like that.
And they definitely don’t learn well from it.

Clear writing is clear thinking.

If a learner has to decode your sentence, they’re no longer focused on the skill you’re trying to teach. They’re trying to interpret the language.

Inside organizations, clarity matters because time matters.

Employees don’t need elegant prose.

They need to quickly understand what to do, why it matters, and how to do it correctly.

That’s why strong instructional designers are also strong editors.

They cut words.
They simplify explanations.
They remove anything that slows understanding.

We spend a surprising amount of time on this inside IDOL Academy—because instructional design isn’t just about models and theory.

It’s about communicating clearly enough that people can actually perform.

I’m curious:

What’s the most confusing piece of corporate training language you’ve seen lately?

Teaching experience does not automatically translate into instructional design.

Many teachers assume it will.

They build a portfolio.

Apply to jobs.

And still hear nothing back.

Why?

Because most teachers make the same transition mistakes when entering instructional design.

The issue isn’t teaching experience.

Teachers bring incredible strengths:

• explaining complex ideas
• structuring learning
• supporting learners

But instructional design in organizations works very differently than teaching in classrooms.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes we see.

Teachers bring enormous value to instructional design.

But the transition requires reframing how learning works in organizations.

That’s one of the biggest shifts we focus on inside IDOL Academy.

If you’re a teacher transitioning into instructional design:

Which of these surprised you most?

The Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make When Transitioning ID

Most people think instructional designers spend their time building courses.

That’s the visible part of the work.

But it’s usually not the most important part.

Experienced instructional designers spend far more time doing something else:

Diagnosing problems.

Before designing any learning solution, strong instructional designers ask questions like:

• What performance problem are we trying to solve?
• Is this actually a knowledge or skill gap?
• What’s preventing people from performing successfully?

Sometimes the answer isn’t training at all.

The problem might be:

• unclear processes
• broken tools
• unrealistic expectations
• missing incentives

If you build a course without diagnosing the real issue, you risk solving the wrong problem.

That’s why experienced instructional designers approach their work more like consultants than content creators.

The process usually looks like this:

Diagnose the performance problem

Identify the root cause

Determine whether learning is needed

Design the appropriate solution

Sometimes that solution is a course.

Often it’s something else entirely.

Because in instructional design, the goal isn’t to produce content.

It’s to improve performance.

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Most instructional design portfolios show tools.

Storyline projects.
Slide decks.
Course screenshots.

But hiring managers are looking for something very different.

They want to see how you think.

The most impressive portfolios show evidence of performance-focused design.

For example:

• Scenario-based training that lets learners practice real decisions
• Task analysis and course blueprints that show design thinking
• Performance support tools like job aids and checklists
• Data-driven training with clear success metrics

Because instructional design isn’t about building courses.

It’s about solving performance problems.

A strong portfolio doesn’t just show what you built.

It shows how you approached the problem.

Curious for hiring managers here:

What portfolio projects actually stand out to you?

Most instructional designers obsess over content.

Slides.
Graphics.
Interactions.
More information.

But content isn’t what drives behavior.

Attention does.

Psychologist William James said it plainly:

“What holds attention determines action.”

If your learning experience doesn’t capture and direct attention, nothing else you design matters.

Not the objectives.
Not the scenario.
Not the beautiful course you spent three weeks building.

Inside organizations, employees are surrounded by distractions—email, meetings, deadlines, Slack messages. Your course is competing with all of it.

That’s why strong instructional design starts with a different question:

What will capture and hold attention long enough for learning to happen?
This is exactly why models like Gagné’s Nine Events begin with gaining attention. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a recognition of how learning actually works.

Attention opens the door.

Everything else follows.

This is also one of the biggest mindset shifts we focus on inside IDOL Academy. Instructional designers aren’t just organizing information—they’re intentionally guiding attention so people can learn and perform.

And that changes how you design everything.

Curious to hear from other designers:

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to capture learner attention in corporate training?

Are you ready to show the world what great learning design looks like?

The iSpring Course Creation Contest is open for registration — and it’s your chance to put your skills to work on a real course project, get expert feedback, and shine in front of the global L&D community. 

This isn’t just another event. It’s a platform to:
 • Build a complete course from scratch
 • Expand your portfolio with something tangible
 • Learn practical design and authoring skills
 • Connect with peers and mentors

And yes, I’m honored to be one of the judges this year. If you’ve ever wondered where your work fits in the bigger L&D world, THIS is the moment to step forward.
👉 Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eCSjJftU

Open article: Prizes for contestants in both categories by ispringsolutions.com

Prizes for contestants in both categories

Most hiring managers don’t deeply review instructional design portfolios.

They scan them quickly.

Usually in under five minutes.

They’re trying to answer a few critical questions.

1. Is this person solving real problems?

Hiring managers want to see:

• a performance problem
• the context of the organization
• why training was needed

If the portfolio only shows a course or slide deck, they can’t see the thinking.

2. Do they understand workplace performance?

Good portfolios explain:

• the business challenge
• the learner audience
• the workplace constraints

Instructional design isn’t just course building.

It’s solving performance problems inside organizations.

3. Can they design practical solutions?

Hiring managers look for:

• scenarios
• decision-based learning
• real workplace tasks

Not just information slides.

4. Can they communicate their thinking?

A strong portfolio shows the design process, not just the final product.

Things like:

• problem analysis
• design decisions
• expected performance outcomes

Most portfolios focus on showing the artifact.

The strongest portfolios show how the designer thinks.

That’s what hiring managers are actually evaluating.

How Hiring Managers Evaluate Portfolios

One of the biggest challenges people face when entering instructional design is this question:
Where do I even start?

Most programs hide the good material behind a paywall. You cannot see the process. You cannot test the tools. You cannot experience what learning design actually looks like.

We do the opposite.

At IDOL, we intentionally created a library of free resources, tools, and training so people can experience the work before they ever enroll.
Recently a student told us something that perfectly captures why we do this.
She said the free resources were so helpful and valuable that enrolling in IDOL Academy became an easy decision.

Not because we pushed her.

Because the process made sense.

Good instructional design should reduce uncertainty. It should show you the path forward. It should make the next step obvious.
That is exactly what our free resources are designed to do.

https://lnkd.in/gHUUEiey

Most teachers think they need another degree to enter instructional design.
They don’t.

What they actually need is translation.

Translation of skills they already use every day.

Here’s what that transition can look like.

Rashida King spent years doing what great teachers do:

Analyzing where learners struggled.
Designing better ways to help them succeed.
Adapting instruction based on what worked.

In other words…

She was already thinking like a learning designer.

But like many educators, she didn’t yet know how those skills translated into the corporate world.

And that’s where most transitions stall.

Not because teachers can’t design learning.

Because they don’t know how to enter the field.

Many assume they need:

• another degree
• years of additional schooling
• more theoretical knowledge

But instructional design isn’t learned primarily through theory.

It’s learned through practice.

Rashida joined IDOL Academy in February 2020 and focused on the things that actually matter for instructional design careers:

• building a professional portfolio
• completing real learning design projects
• learning industry tools
• designing around real performance problems

Instead of studying endlessly, she practiced the craft.

Design.
Feedback.
Revision.

Again and again.

Then the real shift happened.

She stopped thinking like:

“a teacher trying to break into instructional design.”

And started thinking like:

“a professional instructional designer who solves performance problems.”

That mindset shift is often the turning point.

Nine months later, Rashida landed a corporate instructional design role at Reyes Beer Division.

The move came with a $30,000 salary increase — about a 60% raise.

Here’s the part many people miss:

Teachers already spend their careers doing the core work of instructional design.

They:

• diagnose learning problems
• design learning experiences
• adapt instruction based on results
• help people build real skills

The transition isn’t about starting over.

It’s about translating your learning design skills into a new professional context.

When people ask how to break into instructional design, they usually expect a list of tools.

Storyline.
Captivate.
Camtasia.
Rise.

But tools are the easiest part of the profession.

The real challenge is learning how organizations think about performance.

Instructional designers sit at an unusual intersection.

Education.
Business strategy.
Human behavior.

Education helps you understand how people learn.

Business strategy tells you why the training exists in the first place.

Human behavior explains why employees often don’t do what the training tells them to do.

Most beginners only focus on the first one.

But the most valuable instructional designers understand all three.

Because the real job isn’t building courses.

It’s helping organizations change behavior in ways that improve results.

That’s why instructional design is often misunderstood as a “tools job.”

But it’s actually a thinking job.

The more you understand the intersection of learning, business, and behavior, the more valuable you become.

Most training fails at behavior change.

Not because people don’t understand the content.

Because they never decide when they’ll use it.

This is where implementation intentions become powerful.

Instead of “I’ll try this technique.”

Learners create a trigger plan.

“If X situation happens, I will do Y.”

Now the behavior has a cue.

And cues drive action far more than information.

Great training doesn’t just teach ideas.

It designs the moment the behavior will happen.

That’s when learning starts changing performance.

(Quick example in the video below.)

This is also why information alone rarely changes behavior.

Do you use implementation intentions in your training?

Have you felt stuck in your next step toward mastery in instructional design?
 Here’s a question for you: what happens when you take theory and turn it into a project people can experience?
 That’s exactly what the iSpring Course Creation Contest helps you do. 

This contest gives you:
 ✔ Free access to iSpring authoring tools
 ✔ Structured support and learning resources
 ✔ A deadline that actually propels productivity
 ✔ Feedback from seasoned professionals (yes, including yours truly)

You’ll walk away with more than a certificate — you’ll have a polished course you can show future clients or employers.

👉 Get registered:

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Robin Sargent, Ph.D. Instructional Designer-Online Learning

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Robin Sargent, Ph.D. Instructional Designer-Online Learning

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