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Hot off the press is Together’s annual Enterprise L&D 2026 Trends and Predictions report.
Together is the leading mentorship platform that leverages survey data to better understand how HR and L&D leaders approach learning. One fascinating finding in this report? Rapid change and innovation mean strategic and critical thinking skills are non-negotiable
For transparency, what you're reading here isn't a neutral recap. It's a strategic POV grounded in Together's finding that strategic and critical thinking skills are the #1 priority for Learning and Development leaders. With this in mind, we’re looking at 2026 L&D trends through the lens of one big, bold question: How do we scale strategic and critical thinking to maximize the value of every other initiative?
2026 biggest L&D idea? When you build better thinkers, you ship better decisions.
If 2025 felt like chaos, 2026 demands clarity. After a disruptive few years of AI adoption, return-to-office mandates, reorganizations, budget cuts, and shifting roles, employees are exhausted, leaders are stretched thin, and L&D teams face mounting pressure to do more with fewer resources.
But with these big challenges, Together notes that there’s also big opportunity. For the first time, L&D has the evidence to reshape organizational capability from the inside out.
The organizations that pull ahead won’t be the ones with the biggest learning catalog or the shiniest new tool—they’ll be the ones that upgrade decision quality across the workforce.
Together’s data says the quiet part, loudly: Strategic + critical thinking becomes the #1 skill for 2026. Here’s how to turn that insight into your operating system for optimizing learning, leadership, and AI.
At-a-glance: What Together’s latest learning and development report says about 2026 trends
The facts: the priorities, the predictions, and the problems-to-solve
Current learning and development trends point to a clear shift: L&D is moving from content delivery to capability building. Together’s 2026 data shows the priorities and the gaps:
- Top L&D priorities for 2026: Leadership development (27%), reskilling/upskilling (24%), modernizing learning tech and content (18%), performance enablement (15%).
- The top skill need (a clear winner): Strategic + critical thinking (56%)—ahead of digital fluency (44%) and leadership skills (42%).
- AI adoption (this category is uneven and noisy): 32% piloting, 23% partially integrated, 6% fully integrated. Meanwhile, only 22% of employees say their org has a clear AI plan.
- Mentorship (a largely untapped powerhouse): 77% say formal mentorship will be critical by 2026. Yet 43.6% of orgs use no social learning at all.
- The blockers (reality checks): Time and bandwidth (29%), leadership sponsorship (17%), budget and resources (13%).
- Confidence check (how we’re feeling with the shifting landscape): 44% of L&D leaders are "somewhat confident" in their strategies. Only 11% are extremely confident.
Strategic thinking is the L&D multiplier in 2026
56% of responders flagged strategic + critical thinking as the most critical skill for 2026. More than digital fluency (44%). More than leadership skills (42%). And more than adaptability or EQ.
This is a big deal because it’s a signal that strategic thinking is best thought of as infrastructure, not simply a standalone skill.
Why? Leadership development without it produces managers who execute well but can't navigate ambiguity.
- If you skip strategic thinking, then leadership could devolve into task traffic.
- If you skip it in reskilling, then you may be producing skills without judgment.
- If you skip it in AI, then you’re at risk to automate the wrong things.
When you build strategic thinking, everything else you invest in compounds.
Mentorship should be a primary delivery system
So how does strategic and critical thinking scale? Not through courses alone.
According to Together’s report, 77% say formal mentorship should be a must-do in 2026. Since strategic and critical thinking skills scale through conversation, context, and real-time feedback, they’re best developed socially. If you’re asking what mechanism efficiently builds and scales better thinking, mentorship is the answer.
Of course, there are blockers: time and bandwidth (29%), leadership sponsorship (17%), budget (13%). But mentorship doesn't require more time if it's embedded in the work. Mentorship can happen organically, in decision moments. But scheduled mentorship sessions provide opportunities for deeper exploration of complex topics and sustained relationship/trust building. When a senior leader walks a rising manager through why a choice was made, that's where strategic thinking transfers.
43% of organizations use no social learning at all. The organizations that crack peer-to-peer learning and embedded mentorship will scale thinking faster than those relying on formal programs alone.
Confidence follows clarity
Here’s where L&D leaders are right now: 44% are somewhat confident in their strategies. Only 11% are extremely confident.
But confidence isn't the goal. Capability is. And capability comes from focus. The organizations that will own 2026 aren't trying to do everything—they're asking which interventions create the most leverage. If strategic and critical thinking skills are at the top priority, then every leadership program, every upskilling initiative, and every AI pilot should be designed to build it.
What comes next: We'll show you how to operationalize strategic thinking development across every priority in Together’s report—so your L&D investments compound.
Why strategic thinking capability connects every priority
Every major priority collapses to decision quality:
- Leadership development fails if leaders can’t frame problems, surface risks, and choose trade‑offs under pressure.
- Reskilling/upskilling is motion without meaning unless people apply new skills to better decisions.
- Modernization becomes tool sprawl if teams lack the judgment to prioritize, integrate, and deprecate.
- Performance enablement only works when thinking quality improves—otherwise it’s just faster status updates.
Strategic + critical thinking is the compounding skill. It upgrades every other capability. And it should be the backbone of your 2026 L&D strategy.
The framework to win in 2026: Think → connect → amplify → enable → measure
Data can tell you what to prioritize. But how do you build the framework?
Organizations recognize strategic thinking as a skill to develop, but most haven’t made it an explicit L&D priority. This gap could be your competitive advantage.
How do you bridge the gap? We’ve considered Together’s report and created a framework for a powerful capability-building engine where strategic and critical thinking is foundational to make every other investment you make work harder (and smarter).
Courses inform. Conversations transform.
1) THINK — Make strategic thinking the foundation
Strategic and critical thinking skills make every other tool and process useful.
Why start here: Without tuning these skills, leadership programs can create competent managers who miss the plot. For example, your reskilling efforts might build ability, but without context. And your shiny new AI workflows might optimize the wrong things. Strategic + critical thinking is the multiplier that compounds every other investment.
2) CONNECT — Scale thinking through social learning and mentorship
If learning only happens in a course, you’re teaching content. If it happens in community, you’re building capability.
Strategic thinking is inherently social—it forms where people observe reasoning, pressure‑test assumptions, and solve real problems together. The Together report shows strong intent to use mentorship (77%) but reveals a usage gap (43.6% report no social learning at all). Time and sponsorship are the usual suspects.
3) AMPLIFY — Use AI to accelerate good thinking, not replace it
AI won’t save a bad strategy or replace critical thinking
AI adoption is uneven; only 22% of employees have heard a clear plan. But it’s important to treat AI as an amplifier of strategic practice, not the main act. Teach people to think and let AI add the reps! Start with use cases that improve judgment:
- Tailored content recommendations (18%) → point to decision‑quality, not just clicks.
- Automated content creation (18%) → generate scenario‑based exercises that force trade‑offs.
- Adaptive learning paths (17%) → adjust for decision complexity, not just pace.
4) ENABLE — Move from performance management to performance enablement
Replace annual memory tests with weekly micro‑feedback. Coach decisions, not deliverables.
Enablement is forward-looking, continuous, and collaborative. It’s about the conditions for better decisions: context, support, feedback cadence, and friction removal. If engagement and retention are still stubborn, this is the shift that unlocks progress.
5) MEASURE — Make funding a no‑brainer with decision‑centric metrics
If you only measure completions, you’ll only improve completions. Measure thinking to improve results.
Capability signals (are people thinking better?):
- Scenario quality: options considered; assumptions surfaced
- Early risk surfacing: count, severity; time‑to‑flag vs. time‑to‑impact
- Decision throughput: time‑to‑decision; reversal and surprise rates
Social signals (are the conditions present?):
- Mentoring utilization: match rate; sessions/quarter; agenda completion
- Network density: cross‑functional ties; collaboration frequency
- Collaborative decision participation: number/diversity of contributors per decision
Outcome signals (did it matter?):
- Retention/engagement deltas (mentored vs. control cohorts)
- Enablement metrics (goal clarity, feedback cadence, blocker resolution time)
Beating the blockers to building strategic and critical thinking skills
The report highlights predictable barriers that are solvable when you design reality. And context matters: Stress and burnout are up. Social relationships buffer stress responses—not because they’re “feel‑good,” but because they improve thinking under pressure.
Five plays to operationalize strategic + critical thinking (your 2026 L&D playbook)
When you combine the latest learning and development trends with a strategy plan, you don’t get another slide deck. Instead, you get a 2026 L&D operating system, one that’s built on the report’s clearest signal: strategic + critical thinking is the #1 skill organizations need to scale.
Here’s how to make it real.
1) Formalize mentoring as your strategy incubator
Mentorship isn’t something that’s nice‑to‑have. It’s the delivery system for judgment, and the report backs it: 77% of L&D pros say formal mentorship will be critical by 2026, yet 43.6% of orgs use no social learning at all.
You can win when you turn mentoring into a strategic engine:
- Make “how I thought through this” the artifact.
- Capture decision narratives, not attendance.
- Track match rates, participation, and decision stories.
- Compare retention + engagement across mentored vs. non‑mentored cohorts to show ROI (the data will make your case).
This is how you scale better decision‑making without buying a new system.
2) Turn managers into decision coaches
Your managers are your force multipliers. The report confirms a widening leadership skills gap—despite leadership development being an important priority for L&D pros.
So stop asking whether a manager “finished the module.” Rather, start asking “How did you choose?” Equip managers to coach:
- Pattern recognition
- Scenario analysis
- Assumption‑challenging
- Consequence mapping
- Pre‑mortems + red‑team reviews
Nobody needs performance policing. But this is performance enablement in action.
3) Shift performance management to performance enablement
Classic performance management is backward‑looking. The report confirms the shift toward performance enablement—continuous, collaborative, forward‑moving.
Instrument the system around thinking quality:
- Decision throughput (time to decision)
- Reversal rate (how often decisions unwind)
- Surprise rate (downstream surprises avoided)
- Weekly micro‑feedback, not annual memory tests
This supports two major L&D trends: modernizing learning systems and boosting engagement/retention (still a top priority).
4) Build AI literacy before you scale AI
AI is everywhere, but readiness isn't. Only 22% of employees say their org has communicated a clear AI plan, and 31% of companies haven’t integrated AI at all.
Before you scale AI in learning and development:
- Train L&D on AI fundamentals, ethics, evaluation, security, and approvals.
- Select two use cases that amplify (not replace) strategic thinking—like scenario generation or adaptive paths.
- Audit your infrastructure so you don’t create another silo or tool graveyard.
AI is the amplifier. Strategic thinking is the instrument.
5) Remove friction from social learning
The report names time + bandwidth as the top blocker to social learning. Automation is the antidote.
Make social learning operational, not aspirational:
- Auto‑match mentors/peers
- Provide agenda templates
- Systemize session logging + follow‑ups
- Brand mentoring as career‑critical, not “extra credit”
- Publish a monthly “decision wins” digest to spotlight shared learning
This aligns with current learning and development trends: People‑centric learning is rising in value, especially as AI becomes more embedded.
Make 2026 the year you bet on thinking
If the past few years were about chasing tools, trends, and reactive fixes, 2026 draws a harder line: Organizations win by improving decision quality at scale. Together's report couldn’t be more clear. Strategic + critical thinking is the #1 skill organizations need (56%), mentorship is the most under‑leveraged accelerant (77% say it’s critical), and AI only performs as well as the judgment behind it.
The companies that pull ahead won’t be the ones with the biggest catalog or the flashiest AI rollout. They will be the ones that:
- Treat thinking as infrastructure.
- Mentor more, measure better, automate the friction (but not the humanity!)
- Build the conditions where leaders coach decisions, not decks.
Start with the data to shift your L&D strategy from activity machine to capability engine. Then run the plays!
FAQs and answers
What are the most important learning and development trends for 2026?
Leadership development (27%), reskilling/upskilling (24%), modernizing learning tech/content (18%), performance enablement (15%).
Which skills matter most?
Strategic + critical thinking (56%), digital fluency (44%), leadership skills (42%).
What’s the state of AI in L&D?
32% piloting/testing, 23% partially integrated, 6% fully integrated, 31% not yet integrated; only 22% of employees hear a clear plan.
Does mentorship really move the needle?
Mentorship intent is high (77%); social learning remains underused (43.6% report no social learning). Instrument retention/engagement locally to prove ROI.
