Designing Learning That Matters: Moving Beyond Content to Connection

As I was going over a slide deck for an upcoming adult learning presentation with my Lead by Learning coach, they asked, “Why did you ask the participants that question? What do you want them to be thinking about?” and I had no answer.

I had no idea why I wrote it besides “it was probably time for some engagement.” Feeling stuck in that moment didn’t feel good. But little did I know, it was a catalyst for helping me change how I approached the crafting of unique adult learning experiences.

Early on in my career, I developed an interest in leading professional development. I personally knew how easy it was to feel tired and experience burnout within our profession of speech-language pathology, so I desired to find innovative ways to support colleagues to feel equipped, confident, and empowered. However, I found myself stuck within my own limitations of feeling the need to be the “expert” with “perfect” content and being hyper-focused on negative feedback, causing me to discount positive input, while stunting my growth to lead the learning and to best support my adult learners. 

How could I possibly inspire others to keep moving forward towards making a positive difference in the lives of others when I carried so much self-doubt?

In my current role, as a leader at SPG Therapy & Education, I support various types of adults (school-based educators & speech-language pathologists, legally assigned supervisees, fellow supervisors, and colleagues) in both mentoring and professional development capacities. In the summer of 2024, I was asked to develop a series of “mentoring modules,” specifically focused on job skill training for various roles in our department, where supervisors could join live or view asynchronously. Fortunately for me, I also began working with my Lead by Learning coach around the same time to support my leadership of adult learning, so we collaborated regularly on this ongoing project! Knowing the target group was individuals with busy schedules, I wanted to make sure participating in these modules felt like a valuable use of the participants’ time. So I thoughtfully approached each module, aiming to create perfect guidance on each slide, along with occasional engagement checks to ensure it still felt “interactive.”  When I was challenged by my Lead by Learning coach to question my own content choices, the discomfort gave me an opportunity to pause and reflect:

• What did I actually want participants to know? 
• How did I want them to feel when they walked away? 
• What if the way I lead could have the impact I was looking for? 

I grounded myself in those three words that started my whole professional development journey – equipped, confident, and empowered.

At the conclusion of the roll-out of these modules, my exit survey data showed that supervisors walked away with increased knowledge around the main messages and themes, and they were eager for “more engagement & discussion” and “newer knowledge/research regarding supervision in our field.”

Somewhat stuck in my old patterns, I wanted to fixate on where I “missed the mark.” Thankfully, my Lead by Learning coach challenged me to view the data at face value; where did we accomplish our goals, and how could I use the input to move forward?

Later in the spring of 2025, I worked with my coach to come up with a series of structured questions to ask each clinical supervisor through one-on-one guided conversations. A large theme expressed by the group was that these modules were valuable for new supervisors, but they still longed for ongoing and interactive opportunities for hands-on learning. This time, I was motivated to find a way to meet different needs and levels of experience while incorporating more collaborative learning!

Throughout the 25-26  school year, I started to take a new design approach to our monthly clinical supervisor collaboration meetings. We shifted focus from technical problem-solving and logistics to collaborative discussion about adaptive challenges. During my continued work with my Lead by Learning coach, we explored ways to help push me outside of my comfort zone, like slimming down the content, providing opportunities for the group to have time alone for reflection, or building in space for collaborative discussion within smaller breakout rooms, to give greater equity to more voices. At the end of each meeting, we sent brief “pulse surveys” which included scaling questions, multiple choice, and opportunities to provide open-ended feedback. Responder’s invaluable input fueled the plans and content for the next collaboration meetings and increased my adaptive expertise as a leader and facilitator. By May 2026, we saw: 

• An increase in: 1) how well-equipped supervisors felt to perform their jobs, 2) their sense of feeling included, valued, and heard, 3) overall understanding of who to go to when needing what type of support, 4) participants’ perspective of the meetings being a “valuable use of” their time 
• 7 out of 8 of these particular responders indicated they still needed continued learning and practice in an area I thought we had fully covered
• Qualitatively:
  • One supervisor shared that the meetings were truly useful, helping them to pause, reflect, and better support employees. 
  • A newer clinical supervisor shared that the original mentoring modules were a helpful starting point to develop their own questions, while the ongoing collaborative meetings provided a space to connect with others and learn together, where they felt welcomed as part of the team.

To date, my biggest transformations from this experience have been:

• I am not the expert or the one to know what’s most important to participants. Now, I rely on the group to inform me.
• I no longer need to come into adult learning spaces with the perfect plan and all of the answers. Now, I realize I’m merely facilitating a learning experience for another adult & their own learning.
• More content is not often better. Now I know that intentionally creating room for purposeful pauses, self-reflection, and meaningful collaboration is much more powerful than those 10 extra slides could ever be.

Ultimately, I’m finding the focus shifting to THEM (the learners) rather than me, the leader.

So, what’s next on the horizon? I’d love to begin sharing the facilitator role for these conversations. Getting to watch others build a community and feel more equipped, empowered, and confident from their own collaborative sharing has been one of the favorite parts of my job. I’m looking forward to watching fellow clinicians show up as dynamic leaders in their respective spaces to positively impact teams, students, families, and the communities in which they serve and live.

Janna Gray is a speech-language pathologist (SLP) by trade and currently serves as a Director of School Services with SPG Therapy and Education. Janna has been working in the education field as an SLP for over 17 years and previously was also a music teacher and tutor. In her role at SPG, Janna supports the Southern CA SLP team, provides professional development, and helps lead SPG’s internal mentoring programs for fellow clinicians and supervisors. 

In Janna’s free time, she loves playing music, being outside, spending time with her two huskies, and pursuing new adventures with family, friends, and loved ones.

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