Kylie Sturday
Capability and Performance specialist"The most valuable work happens before anything gets built"
About
I started my career in customer service and as an immigration officer, assessing complex visa applications at the Department of Home Affairs.About a decade in, I was asked to deliver humanitarian visa training.That one request changed the shape of my career. Watching people go from unsure to confident in front of me, and seeing what that confidence changed for them afterwards, was the moment it clicked. I could have a bigger impact enabling other people to do their jobs well, rather than just doing my own.Since then, that's shown up in compliance training and, more recently, building crisis and emergency management capability from scratch in a high-pressure, regulated operational environment.Different contexts, same instinct.I'm curious about what's actually getting in the way of someone doing their job well, and shaping the fix around business impact.
How I can help you
I love being part of in-house learning teams. Going deep with the business, working out what performance actually needs and building solutions in partnership.
Performance consulting - Working out what is actually getting in the way before anything gets built. Often the answer is not a course.
End-to-end capability solutions - From the first stakeholder conversation through to how you will know it worked.
Resources that support performance, not just courses - The knowledge people need at the moment they need it, which is sometimes the whole fix.
Community building - Peer practice that keeps people developing long after a programme ends.
For event organisers
I write up events. Conference sessions, symposiums, panels and book clubs. Not a transcript of who said what, but a piece that pulls out what actually mattered and gives your speakers and your themes a longer life after the room empties.If you would like your next event covered, get in touch and see my write ups under 'events'.
Speaking
Australian Institute of Training and Development 2026 National Conference
"Less communities of practice. More communities of purpose."
Co-delivered with Darryn Gray, co-founder of Crackin' LnD Down Under. A talk on what it actually takes to build a community people show up for, not just join.
L&D Shakers Asia Pacific
"Ending 2024 on a high with reflective practice in L&D"
On why experience on its own doesn't lead to growth, and what it actually takes to build reflection into learning interventions. Covered examples from outside L&D and questions to carry into the new year.
Book Clubs
Running book clubs for the Crackin' LnD community turned into something of a niche. Four books in, each one built around a discussion guide tailored to L&D professionals, and a Miro board to hold the virtual conversation together.
Start at the End by Matt Wallaert
Learn Solve Thrive by Kath Hume
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
The L&D Leader by Laura Overton and Michelle Ockers
The L&D Leader book club was the first one run globally for that title, with both authors joining multiple sessions.Most book clubs I have facilitated a fireside chat with the author. Four authors so far, each willing to sit with the community and go deeper than a Q&A.
Events
Offbeat Sparks Sydney 2025
Co-organized and MC'd Offbeat Sparks Sydney 2025, a free evening event bringing L&D professionals together for a run of short, five-minute talks. Seven speakers on the night, each landing one clear idea in a tight window. Hosted at Mentimeter's Sydney office.
Beyond one-off events, hosting is a regular part of how I show up in the Crackin' LnD community with over 800 members that I've been co-leading for 2+ years. I host mixer events to connect members, speak at our AI Symposiums and yearly intention-setting workshops to open each year with some shared direction.
Industry Conference Recaps
Notes from the sessions I found most useful, written up so the ideas reach further than the room they happened in. Always with names and credit attached, so you know whose thinking you're actually reading.
PBC Thought Leadership Forum 2026
Podcast appearances
Perspectives in Parryville — with Mark Parry
A relaxed, corridor-chat style conversation. We talked about my path from university, into making complex visa decisions, and then transitioning into learning and development. From there we got into performance consulting, communities like Crackin' LnD (Down Under), AI and what's changing for L&D, and why curiosity, empathy and judgement matter more now, not less.
In L&D — with Gary Stringer
A conversation on why L&D is often last to invest in its own development, and what changed that for me. We got into building development into an already full calendar, using AI for accountability, and what community adds that solo learning can't.
articles & publications
Featured in Toolbox Toolbox's Unbox series on my 30-day resource series for people transitioning into L&D, and the mentoring I do through L&D Shakers.
Thought Leadership — Performance in L&D
Learning Out Loud — UTS Graduate Certificate in Organisational and Workplace Learning reflections
Designing Innovative Learning
On my first Grad Cert subject: innovation doesn't always mean starting from scratch. Sometimes it's what you strip back or reimagine in existing work.
Leading Innovative Practices
On my second subject: what empathy research inside Crackin' LnD taught me about assumptions, and naming bias instead of engineering it out.
Evaluating Learning and Innovation
On my third subject: why data only answers the question you ask of it, and what that means for evaluating your own team's work.
Contact
Sydney, AustraliaLinkedIn - Kylie Sturday