People developing people: Leaders living loudly with Tripadvisor’s Bree Sykes

Insights from Bree Sykes, Senior Organizational Development Business Partner at Tripadvisor

Electives Co-Founder Jason Lavender recently sat down with Bree Sykes, Senior Organizational Development Business Partner at Tripadvisor, to learn how she's been building L&D as a strategic partner to the business. The result? A human-centric approach that redefines productivity, builds trust through vulnerability and turns learning into connective tissue across the business.

Key topics covered:

• Why companies that struggle treat L&D like an island
• How to redefine productivity to include time for reflection
• What "Leaders Living Loudly" means for building trust
• Why L&D needs to stop waiting to be asked for training

Stop treating L&D like an island

One of the most powerful distinctions Bree makes is about how companies approach learning and development. Some companies treat L&D as an isolated function. Others use it as connective tissue throughout the business.

"Companies that struggle are the companies that treat learning and development like an island. And companies that do well use it as a connective tissue."

When L&D is baked into every conversation, every one-on-one, every project kickoff, every performance review—that's when it works. But too often, it gets forgotten.

"Development needs to be a daily habit. It's not just an annual event where you, you know, you do your goal setting once a year, and there you are. That's the end. We don't have to talk about it anymore."

Making development a habit—baking it into all of those conversations—is proven to increase engagement and productivity.

Redefine productivity to include time for reflection

When asked what would make building a learning culture easier, Bree doesn't hesitate:

"Building a learning culture at work would be easier if we redefined our productivity, to include time for reflection, for learning. If we give people that space to just breathe, to take a moment to think, to absorb all of the things that they've had happen over the course of a day or a week, then I strongly believe that the individual growth and the business growth will happen naturally."

The problem? People have good intentions. But they have jobs to do. Deadlines to meet. Work to complete. And learning can feel extracurricular.

But here's the outcome when you ignore learning and development: you become stale. And that's not helping the business either.

"People don't necessarily think of L&D as a part of their work, right? Their own personal learning and growth doesn't feel connected when truly it is. And it's to your detriment if you forget that."

“Leaders living loudly” builds trust

Bree believes trust is built in small moments. One of her most compelling frameworks? Something she calls "Leaders Living Loudly."

"I have termed it Leaders Living Loudly. For me, that’s about transparency, and creating a culture where I'm honest about my own learning curve as a leader. I'm open about it. I talk about it to my employees, so they feel comfortable talking to me about theirs."

What does this look like in practice? Leaders being honest about their own learning curves. Talking openly with employees about their development so employees feel comfortable doing the same.

It's about modeling vulnerability and setting healthy boundaries:

"I need to go pick up my son from school in the middle of the day. It's okay to have personal commitments that are gonna interrupt your workday. You know, I trust that you're gonna still get what needs to get done, done. I need to leave early so that I can meet my friends for dinner. You still have a life, and I want you to have a life because that makes you better at work."

The message? We all need to work hard, but we also need purposeful boundaries so performance can be maintained over the long term.

"I also think it's really important, you know, on my sort of theme of human-centric environment and workforce. I think it's important that we value our employees as much as we value their output."

It's resetting culture from being "always on" to being intentional. Because being intentional is what's really going to help us innovate and grow.

Modern learning means practicality, not more information

When asked what makes learning feel modern versus outdated, Bree is direct: we don't need more information! We don’t need lectures.

"We already have plenty of information available to us at our fingertips. We are drowning in information with AI, able to spit out basically anything you can ask for at any point in time."

What do we need instead?

"Time to just take the space to make sense of what we are seeing and what we're learning, and figuring out how we can actually use it, how it can be applied in real-world scenarios. Real examples."

Theory is fine. But what does it mean for me? How do I use it? How do I use it right away so I don't forget it? That takes time and space.

And in a world where AI is making everything faster, we almost need a speed limit:

"Everyone is on this train, ready to go as fast as possible, because they don't want to fall behind. And I think it's really important to take that time to stop and reflect on what you're learning, what you're getting out of AI, and also the time to say, like, hey, I don't know how to use that tool yet."

Modern learning is about practicality. Leaving feeling like you have a tool in your toolbox, not just information.

Combat isolation with human-centric learning programs

When Bree first started at Tripadvisor, she went on a roadshow talking to leaders about their needs. One of the biggest things leaders mentioned that they miss? The social component they had before everyone started working remotely.

They missed being in a room with like-minded people, in similar roles, learning together in cohorts. Not just getting content delivered, but engaging with each other and learning from each other.

What happened when we shifted to more remote work? Things became self-paced. Optional. Stuff you could figure out on your own without a trainer or a live connection with your peers.

So Bree's team started intentionally designing human-centric learning programs:

"We're able to get away from some of the generic webinars or some of the generic e-learning, and move more toward sessions where you're in a group coaching environment – a session where you feel like you're leaving with actionable items, or templates, or tools that you've learned how to work through with a group of people who are in similar situations to you."

It's about creating spaces where people can connect and co-create. Where they can vent about what's going on with someone dealing with the same thing.

"They're learning with each other, even though they might not be near each other. They still could be in a virtual conversation, but they're with each other, and I think that connection is something that we've already seen the results of."

People show up more when they know a colleague will be there, when there's a face they feel accountable to on the other side of the screen.

Because isolation kills innovation.

Stop waiting to be asked—be proactive

Bree's advice for L&D leaders in 2026? Stop being order-takers.

"I think it's going to be really important over the next year to stop waiting for a leader in the business to ask you for a training module. And instead, being more proactive as a partner to the business."

This means asking: What's your biggest friction point right now? What's slowing your team down at the moment? Then using those answers to brainstorm and solve for the friction instead of just delivering training over and over again.

"It is going to make L&D partners more indispensable. It'll help us be viewed as more strategic and not administrative, which I think is really important."

Show the business you care about their problems. Show them you're here to help. That puts L&D in a position to be thought about holistically—as part of the business, not just an island.

L&D that works means treating people like humans

Bree's approach centers on one core belief: we're all humans.

"I'm really passionate about remembering that we're all humans. And I think a common mistake in business, particularly with leadership development, is forgetting that you don't make friends on the street using command and control, and you won't engage your employees using that either."

We all have more going on than meets the eye. We need to treat people with respect, be curious, be coaches and supporters rather than commanders.

Whether it's redefining productivity to include reflection, living loudly as a leader to build trust, creating human-centric learning programs that combat isolation, or being proactive about solving business friction—Bree shows how L&D can drive meaningful impact when it stops being an island and starts being the connective tissue.