People Developing People: Don't get quiet, get curious

Insights from Beth Green, Senior Director of Talent Development at DraftKings

Electives Co-Founder and CEO Jason Lavender sat down with Beth Green, Senior Director of Talent Development at DraftKings. Beth spent the first part of her career in marketing and product roles, and the second part helping scaling companies build their learning culture and talent experience. That combination shows up in everything she says. Beth talks about learning the way a marketer talks about a brand: what makes it unique, how you bring it to life, and what makes people want to act.

This People Developing People conversation covers how the L&D role has changed, what separates companies that develop people well from those that don't, and how to lead through a period of change most people find scary. Beth finds it exciting.

Key topics covered:

• Why L&D has moved from nice-to-have to business driver
• How to talk about the business needs when budgets tighten
• Why learning fills the gap as the career ladder erodes
• Why a beginner's mindset is the best predictor of companies that develop people well
• Why curiosity is teachable, once the conditions are right
• What to do when change feels paralyzing
• Why the skills that matter most are human, and where to design connection in

Learning is no longer an isolated, one-off program

The biggest shift Beth has seen isn't what L&D teams do. Developing leaders and preparing people for their next role is still the job. What changed is how learning gets articulated and lived day to day.

Learning used to be something you left your desk to do. Now it's part of a team's rhythm. It happens through experimentation and trial and error, and leaders are expected to talk about it and build the conditions for it on their teams.

Beth describes the modern learning model in three parts:

• It's iterative and in the flow of work.
• It's data-driven, with expertise enabled by tools.
• It's harnessed by the judgment of leaders who know how to create the right culture and drive real behavior change.

Underneath all three sits the strategic question: how do you connect what the company is good at, and what its people are good at, to where the strategy needs to go?

When budgets tighten, talk in business terms

We asked Beth what L&D leaders should do when revenue misses and at some companies, the first instinct is to cut people investment. Her answer was pragmatic.

Business is about trade-offs, so frame it as one: there's only so much you can cut in the short term before you damage long-term value. From there, she offered a four-part playbook:

1. Frame it in business terms. Short-term versus long-term investment, in the language the business already uses.
2. Paint the opportunity cost. Be specific about what won't happen if people aren't ready on a given topic.
3. Remind them that learning is table stakes. If you don't develop talent internally, they'll go somewhere that will.
4. Show you can do it efficiently. Don't defend 100% of the program. Name the 30% that matters most and the business payoff of doing it well.

Beth’s summary: don't wait for a seat at the table. Put yourself at the table as a business leader.

The career ladder is changing, and learning fills the gap

Beth sees a paradigm shift in what work offers early-career employees. AI will change jobs, and the traditional ladder has been eroding for years. If you can't count on a promotion every two years, you need other ways to see growth and advancement.

That gives learning a new value proposition, and a new narrative for the people who lead it.

The companies that win have a beginner's mindset

The single biggest predictor of companies that develop people well, in Beth's view, is a beginner's mindset at every level. No assumption of knowing everything. No stupid questions. Curiosity, experimentation and open discussion from the CEO to the front line.

Her image for it is a group of kindergartners on a mat, asking every question without worrying how they look.

The companies that struggle tend to share four traits:

• Learning is a back-office cost line. Administrative, not investment.
• Learning is a reward for the chosen few. Beth believes high quality learning should be democratized and open to everyone.
• Learning is separate from the business. It's a training you go off to, and leaders don't help design it.
• Learning is a checkbox. Compliance instead of an "aha" moment that changes behaviors

That last one is often discounted. Beth's marketing expertise comes into play here: good learning, like good marketing, lights something up that makes you want to act differently. Whether it takes seven days or one minute, that light-bulb moment is what drives behavior change.

Curiosity is teachable, but conditions come first

Can a large organization cultivate a beginner's mindset, or does it have to exist from day one? Beth's belief is that anything is teachable. The question is the time horizon.

Two things need to be true. First, psychological safety, the foundation for any kind of experimentation. Second, you have to break people's rhythms and assumptions so they can start fresh.

At Vistaprint, before she joined DraftKings, Beth'steam used the Six Thinking Hats method, where each hat is a role. The habitual naysayer isn't allowed that hat and has to wear a different one. It breaks thinking without breaking routines.

And it's a slow-and-steady skill to build over time. Shorter, more regular learning beats the once-a-year gatherings.

Change means you get to renegotiate the rules

Beth is energized by what scares many people: the amount of growth and change humans will need to take on in the next five years. Years ago, after the 2008 financial crisis, a leader told her the great thing about change is that you get to renegotiate all the rules.

Her advice to learning professionals: revisit the conversations you thought you couldn't have. The world is changing, and the prize is getting bigger.

She also holds onto what doesn't change. The principles of a good learning experience, a clear objective and an aha moment, are constant. Meanwhile, new tools can take away the work we hate, magnify our expertise, and focus us on the work where humans matter most.

If change feels paralyzing, don't get quiet. Get curious.

For anyone feeling overwhelmed, Beth offered five practices:

1. Lean into the discomfort and name it. Is it that you don't have the answer? That you don't know how to participate? Don't get quiet. Get curious.
2. Focus on what isn't changing. Usually the problems we're solving are the same problems.
3. Get clear on what you're good at, so you know how to contribute.
4. Get active. Hold yourself accountable to learn something new every day. Pick a tool.
5. Build a bench of people to talk to when you're stuck. Not just your boss or friends. Mentors.

And one question she often uses herself: Will I care about this in five years?

The skills that matter most are human, human, human

Asked where people need to develop in the next two to three years, Beth didn't hesitate: human skills. Human skills. And Human skills:

• Adaptability and navigating change.
• Decision-making with imperfect information, because you'll never have enough and you'll need to make a lot of calls.
• Collaboration and empathy, plus working in new ways.
• For leaders, storytelling that brings people along

She's also intrigued by performance psychology. Today, motivation at work leans on a narrow set of levers, like title. As roles change, leaders will need new ways to motivate their teams.

Alongside the human skills, she sees a rising bucket of technical skills, where every leader needs to be "a little bit dangerous" without being overly technical.

Design human connection where it matters most

With loneliness rising and more work routed through AI instead of colleagues, connection matters more than ever: for context, perspective, belonging, and the confidence to take risks and learn.

Beth's approach is deliberate. Not every learning moment needs a human touch. Absorbing basic knowledge might not. But a leader hitting a major milestone, preparing for a new challenge, or recovering from a significant failure? Those are moments to design human connection into.

Build the foundation before you build the program

Beth's view is that there's never been a better time to be in learning.

If you like helping people, driving business outcomes, or being part of a company's success, this is the moment.

The work ahead is immense, and it starts the same way every time: with a beginner's mindset.

Ask the question. Run the experiment. Don't get quiet. Get curious.