Elevating Learning & Development: From Order-Taker to Impact Maker: Building a Strategic L&D Function

Event Description

In today's dynamic business landscape, strategic thinking is a crucial skill for leaders and teams to thrive. Join Mary Rapaport, Chief Xceleration Officer and Strategy Coach at Xcelerate, in this thought-provoking and interactive presentation. Mary will help you rethink how to position your L&D talents and equip you with practical, actionable strategies to rebuild your L&D team’s strategic skills and mindset.

Explore the evolution of corporate L&D and understand how economic, social, and other factors have shaped it into a vital yet often undervalued resource for business success. Mary will guide you through the essence of a strategic mindset, exploring its significance and why it is particularly critical for L&D teams to develop this ability. 

Mary will provide the tools and insights to help you create powerful development plans that foster strategic thinking within your L&D team. Gain insights and ideas to help your teams build, think, and operate more strategically, increasing your team's influence and directly impacting your company’s ability to achieve its goals.

Speaker Bio:

Mary Rapaport is on a mission to democratize strategic thinking. She believes it's not just for the elite few, but for everyone in an organization. When everyone channels a strategic mindset, the business culture thrives, teams become more creative, and employees lean in and engage more. Cultivating this mindset helps leaders create a better (and more fun) place to work, fostering a stronger culture of creativity and innovation.

As a strategic thinking architect, Mary empowers leaders and teams across all functions and levels to think, act, and lead more strategically. As the founder of Xcelerate, she builds learning strategy, designing and delivering immersive learning experiences that ignite "aha moments" and drive tangible business results.

Mary's signature program, the Strategic Playground Workshop, is a unique blend of immersion, play, and practical application. Participants engage in reflection, peer learning, and scenario learning to awaken and channel their strategic mindset, helping them solve complex challenges and have a greater impact.

As a trusted strategic thinking coach, Mary partners with individuals and teams at leading brands to develop customized learning and development strategies. She works closely with clients to identify blind spots, refine critical thinking skills, and translate strategic insights into actionable plans for tangible ROI.

Mary's passion extends beyond individual development. She champions inclusive growth through the Minority Business Growth Alliance, a non-profit providing invaluable coaching and support to BIPOC entrepreneurs. She holds an MBA, a BA in International Business and French, and is a certified leadership and sales trainer. Mary has extensive experience in marketing, transformation, and strategic initiatives. She also serves as the current president of the Twin Cities chapter of the Association of Talent Development.

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This monthly webinar series is offered by the ATD Mid-Atlantic Chapters – Regional Programs Consortium which is comprised of the following eleven ATD chapters: 

1. Appalachia

2. Buffalo Niagara

3. Central PA

4. Greater Philadelphia

5. Long Island

6. Maryland

7. Metro DC

8. Mid NJ

9. New York City

10. Northern NJ

11. Pittsburgh

Cooperatively, these chapters bring together the very best speakers from around all our networks to provide world-class presenters and content!  We look forward to sharing these webinars with you for the rest of 2025! 

Online Event Recording Policy:

By activating your webcam while attending this online event, you consent to be recorded. Your entry and webcam activation constitutes your consent to such recording for any purpose in connection with the event. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not activate your web camera during the event.

ATD Buffalo Niagara Chapter has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. This program qualifies for a maximum of 1 point.