Over a single weekend in 2004, Lisa Toenniges launched Innovative Learning Group from her basement with five employees and six major clients — a modest start that would grow into a nationally recognized, performance-first learning company. Her husband cleared out kids’ toys and built a handful of desks, and the team got to work.
More than two decades later, Toenniges still celebrates those early days, occasionally hosting “back-to-the-basement” gatherings as a nod to its humble beginnings.
“It’s a pretty good basement story,” Toenniges said with a chuckle. “The company we worked for was closing, so we could either start a new company or update our resumes. All we had to do was not goof up those first six projects. It was a good way to start a business.”
After a move to Royal Oak and a decade there, ILG is now headquartered in Troy, Michigan, and serves hundreds of clients. A certified women-owned business, ILG has earned numerous accolades along the way, including Best of MichBusiness Small Business, Best of MichBusiness Transformative Leader and recognition from Corp! Magazine as a Most Valuable Professional.
But Toenniges’ path to the field wasn’t linear. When asked how she got into the industry and what has kept her there, she points to her early career in education.
“Nobody grows up saying, ‘I want to be in corporate training’ (laughs),” she said. “Early in my career as a schoolteacher, a band director actually, I realized I was most energized by helping people learn and perform. When I was ready for a new challenge, I made the jump to corporate America. I felt a little bit like a fish out of water until I settled into the business world and found my way to the training department.”
Toenniges, who has a master’s degree in instructional technology from Wayne State, has nearly 40 years of experience in the training and performance improvement industry and has consulted with Fortune 1000 companies on learning and performance strategies. Her entrepreneurial spirit and hands-on leadership style continue to fuel ILG’s consistent profitable growth.
Corp! sat down with Toenniges and talked about her career, her business, and a variety of other topics.
Corp! Magazine: Talk a little bit about your business.
Lisa Toenniges: Every day we help people acquire new knowledge and skills so they can work smarter, move their careers forward, and better provide for themselves and their families. Knowing we can have this kind of impact on the quality of people’s lives is a huge motivator, and it’s one of the great rewards of running ILG.
Corp!: What does the work entail? What do you do for clients?
Toenniges: Basically, we create custom training for mid- and large-size companies. Think about the compliance training, leadership training, or product training you’ve taken at work. We create these training materials…things like leader guides, slide decks, participant materials, e-learning and even virtual reality experiences. We take pride in building learning that’s smart, engaging and impactful.
What really sets us apart is how we focus on people being able to do their jobs better. We make sure the learning mirrors the real-world work. For instance, if someone has the job to assemble a widget, in training we teach them to assemble a widget, we practice assembling a widget, and we test them on assembling a widget. We don’t just give them a manual to read.
Corp!: How do new technologies fit into all of this?
Toenniges: Virtual reality and AI are some of the technologies impacting our work. With virtual reality, we can put learners in a headset and immerse them in a realistic job environment where they can practice tasks, make decisions, and even make mistakes in a safe space before they ever do it on the job. It’s a powerful way to build confidence and competence without real-world risk.
AI is having a huge impact on the industry, and we’re fully embracing it. It helps us work faster and be more efficient, while also changing how employees learn. People are increasingly using AI as a learning tool in real time: asking questions, testing ideas, getting explanations, and building knowledge on the job. That’s a meaningful shift in how talent development is happening inside organizations.
That said, AI doesn’t replace expertise. In our world, AI can do parts and pieces, but you still need an experienced instructional designer to give it the right prompts and make sure the output is accurate and useful. AI is great at writing, but it’s not always great at structuring the learning.
Corp!: What do you enjoy most about the work?
Toenniges: I never want learning something new to be frustrating. We’ve all had experiences where you think, “Wait, how do I do this?” Learning is hard work, but we don’t need to make it any harder than it already is. So, we focus on setting people up for success, identifying their critical job tasks, and helping them build the knowledge and skills they need to do their jobs well.
Corp!: What’s the big challenge for you and your business these days?
Toenniges: The biggest challenge is simply making forward progress — from building the sales pipeline, to navigating the contracting process, to starting the work, and ultimately to developing the training.
There’s always a lot of excitement when we start a project and enthusiasm around partnering. There are also many competing priorities for our clients, so we stay very focused on driving the project forward.
Corp!: When the economy is uncertain, do companies pull back on training?
Toenniges: Occasionally, yes. When there’s uncertainty, corporations pause and reassess. Sometimes teams try to handle new training needs internally to save costs. Other times, they realize they need a more thoughtful approach, perhaps more expertise than they have internally, and that’s when they bring in outside support. It may dip for a bit, but it usually bounces back.
Corp!: How do you motivate others?
Toenniges: As a leader, you have to create a vision of where you want the company to go and translate that vision in a way where people understand what they need to do at an individual level. You can’t only share a high-level conceptual vision and expect people to figure it out.
Once you’ve established this relatable vision, you need to set expectations, provide the right tools, align rewards with desired performance, make sure people have the skills to do their jobs, and get the right people in the right roles where they can be successful.
Corp!: What is your ongoing goal? What goal(s) do you still strive to achieve?
Toenniges: My ongoing goal is to provide a great workplace for people who want to work or need to work, to come to every day. There’s plenty of chaos in the world, and I believe it’s best if people can work in a place that limits these distractions. Part of our vision reads, “Attract talented people who want to work with us, do good work, and enjoy what they do.” So, this is the goal every day.
Corp!: What is the best advice you can offer to others?
Toenniges: I’d say, from an organizational standpoint, the biggest thing is to build a culture that really expects and supports performance and results. Once you have that, you start to see things differently.
For example, it’s not enough to just have a “training” department. That function has to be broader than that. Not every problem is solved by sending someone to a course or launching an e-learning.
Sometimes the best advice is to step back, look at performance more holistically, and ask what’s actually behind the issue. A lot of the time, it’s not a skills gap at all. It’s something in the environment like unclear expectations, the wrong tools or misaligned rewards and recognition. If you don’t look at those factors, training alone isn’t going to move the needle.
