From People Initiatives to Business Impact: How Leaders Build High-Performance Cultures | L&D Disrupt | Episode 115

What happens when you stop treating people initiatives as standalone HR programmes and start connecting them directly to business performance?In this episode of L&D Disrupt, Pauline Taylor is joined by Luke Fisher, CEO of Sova and Co-founder of Mō, to explore what it really takes to build high-performance environments where people, culture and business outcomes are connected.Luke shares lessons from scaling Mō across 50 countries, including why recognition is much more than a nice-to-have, how managers shape the employee experience, and why the organisations getting recognition right are putting the power in managers’ hands rather than relying on top-down awards programmes.The conversation also explores the future of talent assessment, from AI changing the role of the CV to using skills, potential and personality data to make better hiring and development decisions. Luke shares why this data shouldn’t stop once someone is hired, and how it could inform onboarding, personalised development, internal mobility and succession planning.Finally, Luke shares his advice for HR and L&D professionals looking to build credibility with the C-suite: start with the business context, not the people initiative.In this episode, we explore:Why recognition can influence engagement, retention, productivity and performanceThe critical role managers play in shaping employee experience and cultureWhy top-down recognition programmes often miss the majority of the organisationHow to build recognition into everyday team habits, rituals and routinesWhy personalised learning and development will become increasingly importantHow AI is changing hiring and making traditional CVs less reliableUsing talent data across the entire employee lifecycle, not just recruitmentHow HR and L&D can connect their work to revenue, cost and productivityWhat it really takes to earn credibility and a seat at the tableBecause when people initiatives are connected to the outcomes the business actually cares about, they stop being seen as an HR project and start becoming a business lever.