Earlier this month, I watched in awe as the Artemis II crew thundered away from the launchpad, with the SLS rocket accelerating their Orion spacecraft to more than 17,000 mph to reach orbit on the way to flying around the moon.
Nine days later, I watched with bated breath as the capsule hurtled toward Earth, hitting the upper atmosphere at Mach 32, requiring a heat shield to withstand temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
We all know training matters, but, my goodness, training REALLY matters in space travel.
As former NASA Space Operations Chief Engineer Heather McDonald noted in her keynote at our Training 2026 Conference & Expo in Florida, “Space is unforgiving. Astronauts make it look easy, but it’s not. There are extreme temperatures. There is radiation. There is no sound in space. We put humans into that environment—and we put them on top of explosives to get them there!”
McDonald explained that NASA training not only covers astronaut training but Mission Control, Engineering, Safety, and Program training. The training is elite (train how you fly), integrated (train as a team), and ongoing (train continually to deepen experience, learn lessons, and seek opportunities).
Learning and Development (L&D) professionals can learn a lot from the Artemis II mission, according to Moonshot strategist and author Clare Treston, including figuring out their “Moonshot.” In the wake of the Artemis II mission, ask your team two questions: “Where are we going?” (the Moonshot) and “Why are we going there?” (the purpose). In “What’s Your Moonshot? What Your Team Can Learn from Artemis II,” Treston details how the principles that align a team to reach the moon can align your team to reach your most ambitious goal. “A true Moonshot should create a ‘holy crap’ moment,” she writes. “That palpable shift in the room when people realize the audacity of what you’re proposing. It’s 80 percent impossible, 20 percent possible. You should feel a mix of excitement and fear. If everyone nods comfortably, you’re not thinking big enough.”
AI in Coaching and Mentoring
One L&D Moonshot might be the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into coaching and mentoring.
Angela Cox, master executive coach and founder of Paseda360 Coach Training Academy, believes AI can help managers hold consistent conversations, analyze development data, and prompt reflection between sessions. But, she notes in “Why I Say, Yes,’ to AI in Coaching,” “the human coaches within those systems must then raise their capability. They need to understand nervous system responses, identity formation, relational dynamics, and power. The value of a human coach must lie in depth, discernment, and integration.”
Timely, real-world insights make personalized coaching and mentoring more feasible, especially in hybrid environments, notes Sam Naficy, CEO of Prodoscore, an AI-powered, employee-centric data intelligence platform, in “Coaching Without the Hallway.” “Data and AI-supported insights can provide managers with early signals that used to come from daily in-person observation. When managers can see how individuals work, they can coach more effectively on skill development, collaboration habits, and growth opportunities.”
When grounded in learning science and mentoring research, AI has the potential to amplify what humans do best: share experience, build trust, and help one another make sense of complexity, believes Farnaz Ronaghi, Ph.D., co-founder and CTO of NovoEd. “Generative AI, in particular, enables just-in-time support embedded directly into the mentoring experience Rather than attending a workshop months in advance, mentors and mentees can receive prompts, reflection questions, and structure precisely when challenges arise,” she writes in “AI and the Future of Workplace Mentoring and Learning.” “AI also can help organizations address the often-unspoken reality that not all mentoring pairs are destined to work.”
Adds Lisa Z. Fain, CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence, “When mentoring is treated as a standalone solution, lacking resources, guidance, and connection to leadership competencies, it becomes what we call ‘pair and pray’—people are paired, and the organization hopes the relationship will produce results on its own.” In “Why Mentoring Programs Fail—and How to Design a Learning Ecosystem that Fully Develops Talent,” Fain explains that mentoring produces the strongest results when it is part of a broader learning ecosystem—an intentionally designed environment that supports growth through multiple relationships, experiences, and structures.
For tips on how to start an office mentoring program, check out “Scaling Wisdom Through Mentorship” by Angela Landers, program director of the University System of Georgia’s Leadership and Institutional Development unit. Best practices include identifying office leaders (including those who are leading without the “leader” title), creating the program parameters and a loose curriculum, and developing a check-in process.
Learning strategy leader Jennie Fennelle notes that formal mentoring programs are helpful, “but most growth still happens in hallway moments—except now the ‘hallway’ might be a chat thread or a quick call.” In “The Subtle Power of Informal Mentorship,” she encourages mentees “to build your constellation with intention: a few people for craft, a few for perspective, and a few who challenge your assumptions.”
Who Are You Mentoring?
If you are mentoring someone—a direct report or colleague/peer, at your organization or another—I invite you to consider nominating them for this year’s Emerging Training Leaders Awards. (And if you are being mentored, please send a link to this article to your mentor and ask them to nominate YOU!)
This program aims to recognize training professionals who have been in the training/learning and development industry between two and 10 years and who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, business savvy, and training instincts. No self-nominations, please; nominations must come from managers, co-workers, peers/colleagues—each company can nominate up to 2 candidates. There is no fee to nominate someone.
The 25 winners will be featured in the March 2027 print issue of Training magazine, and an awards ceremony will be held during the Training 2027 Conference & Expo February 22-24, 2027, in Orlando, FL. The winners earning the 5 highest scores will receive a free registration to the Training 2027 Conference.
Please visit https://etl.trainingmag.com and take a few minutes to tell us about the amazing Emerging Training Leaders you know.
Are You a Training MVP?
Coaching and mentoring play a starring role in our Training MVP Awards application. This recognition program recognizes overall excellence in employer-sponsored training and development and honors those companies that are the Most Valuable Players (MVPs) in the Training/L&D industry.
The winners of the 2027 Training MVP Awards will be honored at a black-tie Gala February 22, 2027, in Orlando and highlighted in the March 2027 issue of Training magazine. Leverage your organization’s best-in-class training to boost brand recognition and employee recruitment, retention, and engagement, plus showcase to your senior leaders how critical training is to your organization’s success.
ALL applicants will receive a comprehensive feedback report and benchmark stats to help identify training gaps. The application deadline is September 1, 2026. Please e-mail me with any questions at: lorri@trainingmag.com
To download the application, scoring guidelines, and document detailing the changes to this year’s application, please visit: https://MVPawards.trainingmag.com/
