.png)
In this episode of The Science of Excellence, I sat down with Kim Eldred, Director of Talent Development & Management from RSM, where she leads L&D for the consulting practice.
Two and a half years ago, she inherited a delivery center. She’s been turning it into an advisory function ever since, against resistance from both the business and her own team. We talked about why AI has made this shift unavoidable, how she restructured her team to operate like a consulting firm, and what separates the people who made the transition from those who left.
These 5 insights stood out from our conversation:
- Reposition Before AI Repositions You
- Structure Your Team Like a Consulting Firm
- Expect the Transition to Take a While
- Keep Delivering While You Change the Model
- Treat Vulnerability As a Core Skill
1. Reposition Before AI Repositions You
In Kim’s Words: “AI is going to democratize knowledge in a way that has never happened before and it’s moving so quickly. We can’t keep up. There’s just no way for any team to be staffed enough to be able to do the things in this new environment. I just don’t think we have a choice at this point. We’re those consultants. We need to be able to be better than the machine that is going to be able to deliver information.”
L&D has talked about becoming a strategic partner for decades. Delivering content felt tangible as they asked, we built and delivered. There was always something to show.
RSM’s consultants face the same AI threat and their answer is to deepen relationships, connect dots, and understand the client in ways the machine cannot. Kim ran the same play inside L&D. Stop being the team that delivers what’s asked and become the team that sees what’s actually needed.
2. Structure Your Team Like a Consulting Firm
In Kim’s Words: “We had learning professionals assigned to each service line. What that resulted in was a real customer service model. They asked, we delivered. The first thing I did was reshape the way we were working and shuffled the deck. That discomfort is actually what got us to the point where we could be true business advisors.”
When Kim joined RSM, each L&D person owned a single service line. They knew the stakeholder and how to deliver to them and advisory thinking never had a chance to develop.
She restructured to a relationship lead model where people held multiple service lines and rotated across work streams led by different managers. Someone might be on the AI work stream this year under a leader who isn’t their manager, then move to something else the next. That rotation is how consulting firms build generalist judgment.
3. Expect the Transition to Take a While
In Kim’s Words: “I don’t want to say this transformation is done. We’ve really gotten in pockets where we found success. My team will tell you there was about a year where we were all just wanting to do something different at times. You don’t get a lot of the business excited about the fact that you’re going in with a different approach. They’re used to you just delivering for them.”
Kim describes the first nine months as getting comfortable in new skins, and the year after that as a grind. A constant pressure to revert, leadership pushing back and team members wanting out.
What carried the team through was weekly coaching where people surfaced what was hard and shared what was working. When the risk consulting program got lifted and shifted across multiple business units without building anything new, people felt the difference between delivering and advising. Those moments give you enough runway to keep going.
4. Keep Delivering While You Change the Model
In Kim’s Words: “If we stopped doing everything that L&D had done in the past and just shifted this model, they would’ve rejected us and they would’ve built shadow teams. We had to do both at the same time. Sometimes I joke that it felt like we’re holding a boulder while we’re trying to do the work over here.”
The business didn’t ask for the transformation. Pull back delivery without earned trust and everything falls apart.
Keep building what’s asked for, but show up differently in the relationship. Ask questions, figure out what behavior actually needs to change and propose something better. Proof is what earns the position.
5. Treat Vulnerability As a Core Skill
In Kim’s Words: “Vulnerability is so important in this work. Your ability to not have to have all of the information in the moment and being okay with that is really hard. Because in learning, we gather all the knowledge, we put it together in a package and deliver it. But being a business advisor, you’re asking good questions, you’re listening, you’re really curious, and then you’re coming back with some thought”
Traditional L&D is built around having the answer. An advisor arrives with good questions and the willingness to learn and adapt.
Perfectionists struggled most with the transition, while comfort with ambiguity separated the people who stayed from those who left the team. Shipping a 0.5 version and iterating will outperform the one waiting to get it right.
Until next time,
Vince
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)