How is Our Work taking on a Different Shape in this Dynamic Landscape?

Over the last few years, I've quietly rebuilt the way I offer and design my professional learning services. Some of you have noticed, and more than a few friends in facilitation work have reached out as they reimagine their own purposes and place in education.

The savviest among us have been reality-testing plans for quite some time now, as tectonic shifts began happening underneath the surface of all of the accomplishments and high-fives that so many tend to share in spaces like this one.

And I appreciate a good celebration myself, but few are talking about those more painful shifts openly. 

It's a tiny bit terrifying, that's why. And? It's made everyone far more competitive than they are collaborative anymore. Posturing and performative posting are wearing everyone out around here (as consumers and producers of such content), and it makes sense that all of this is happening.

Some people also have an awful lot to lose.

I don't, and so I'm willing to extend myself in a way that might make some uncomfortable.

I also have some experience. I founded a thriving consultancy in 2008 and have grown it steadily since, not by striving for fame or fortune, but by acting with integrity. That included staying small by choice, marketing in uncommon ways, and building authentic relationships with people. This is a privilege.

So, here's what I'm willing to say aloud now:

The coaching and consulting goldrush is over, the age of the guru has passed, trust is as low as it should be, budgets are tighter, emotions are high, cultures are volatile, attention is shorter, nobody wants to read our books, and AI can do a whole bunch of things better than most of us can.

We don't have to like any of this for it to be true.

The full-day workshop, which has been a heavy lift for far too long, asks even more of today's participants. And although I still facilitate them when the conditions are right, I find stacking micro-learning experiences that invite choice and enable agility absolutely essential in my work. Even in those contexts.

When I partner with systems now, I automatically offer a menu of multimodal offerings, and we co-design the experience with the people we serve. We adjust in process, too. Learning arcs are a bit longer now. Transfer is higher. And we have the tools to do better. We need to.

If we want to be of use, we have to co-design professional learning experiences in ways that enable coherence and protect agency.

I'm noticing quite a bit that's rejuvenated my own energy for this work--even now. Design is purposefully playful, and the work is more interesting. It's sticking better, too. Relationships go deeper because stacked PD is airy: it holds space for what matters. We have more time to come to know one another.

If this resonates, I would love to know what you are designing right now. How is this work taking on a different shape in this dynamic landscape? How could it, if you're just beginning to think differently here?

Angela Stockman began her career in the classroom, and her heart has never left. Since 2008, she's dedicated herself to pedagogical documentation in schools and universities within and beyond the United States, working at the intersection of purposeful play, collaborative inquiry, multimodal expression, and culturally sustaining practice. This piece was originally published May 4, 2026 and is reposted here with her permission. You can learn more about Angela here.

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