Happy One-year Anniversary, L&D In Action! That's right: We've been delivering L&D insights from the greatest minds in learning for 365 days now--366 thanks to the leap year. In this special-edition episode, host Tyler takes the reins and delivers a brief reflection on the power of... reflection! It's a topic that many guests have covered, the impact of reflection on the learning process. Science supports it, and we've all seen it in action, even if we have to look as far back as our school years. So, use the time saved from listening to this concise episode to reflect on yourself and your own experiences. Thanks for listening and supporting the show!

Last episode we discussed the “feelings” of thousands of L&D pros, via Don Taylor’s Global Sentiment Survey. Nearly one out of every 4 respondents had AI top of mind, though the sentiments varied from speculation to confusion to excitement, and few addressed application. Enter: Ross Stevenson, an L&D veteran who has been filling an ever-growing gap by regularly educating the L&D world with practical insight on using generative AI and AI-enabled learning tools. In this episode, Ross shares his advice for getting started individually and organizationally with AI in learning.

It’s that time of year again: The results of The L&D Global Sentiment Survey are in! And this year, to no one’s surprise, Artificial Intelligence reigns supreme. In fact, AI “won” the primary question, “what will be hot in workplace L&D this year?” by an unprecedented margin, earning more than 21% of selections from the 3,200+ respondents. But of course, we want to dig deeper, so Donald Taylor joins us to discuss the free-text responses he received, how respondents are feeling about AI (and why), the change in significance of social learning, a hopeful focus on showing learning value, and much more.

Far too often, we classify our emotions as “soft” skills, effectively secondarizing them behind the skillsets we think of as critical to our work. Ironically, communication with others is perhaps one of the few “skills” almost all of us share across our professions, and practice every single day. This week, Dr. David Caruso joins the show to help us better understand how and why our bodies and brains experience emotions, as well as how we can best control and utilize them as managers, learning leaders, and human beings.

What is the most effective way to assess learning among employees? What is the most efficient way? What's the most affordable? What's... the best way? It's likely that the answers to each of these questions is unique, and could even be different from organization to organization. If you're anything like the rest of us with too much data and not enough time, you may be hoping that AI will eventually step in and support the learning evaluation process, addressing at least most of these concerns simultaneously. This week, we speak with CEO of Bongo, Josh Kamrath, whose service offers a unique perspective on the efficacy of AI-enhanced learner feedback.

Conversations at work are different from conversations everywhere else. Whether you’re speaking with your boss, an external partner, or an internal stakeholder, it’s likely your dialogue won’t resemble what you might experience with a friend or family member. All too often, a greater degree of detachment from the people in our professional lives means that we’re more likely to fall into bad communication habits. This week, mindset and mental wellness coach Kirsten Larsen helps us identify and work through the thought patterns and conversation traps that have negative impacts on relationships of all kinds.

Evidence continues to build that building diverse teams with high grades of psychological safety greatly increases the chance of organizational success. Many leaders understand the organizational, social, and ethical need to build such inclusive teams, but feel as if they lack the resources or knowledge to do so. Minette Norman, award-winning author and this week’s guest, describes how leaders can overcome the traditional expectations of emotionless, hard-nosed leadership, and build thriving, joyful, creative teams.

Artificial Intelligence has made a noticeable impact on the world of learning–especially since the launch of ChatGPT and the advent of generative AI. However, the degree to which AI-enabled tools are being implemented and delivering positive impact for organizational learning remains unclear. To help determine what kind of progress has been made in the world of L&D, Egle Vinauskaite, co-author of AI in L&D: The State of Play joins us on this week’s episode.

It’s no secret that Human Resources departments often receive the eye of skepticism from C-suite leadership. But what is it that results in HR taking on the stigmas of being a blocker to progress, or just a compulsory administrative arm for hiring and firing? According to Jessica Winder, there’s a lack of forthright communication between HR and leadership, and HR has a tendency to operate within existing bureaucratic expectations. Jessica shares her insights on the kinds of conversations and initiatives that get leadership on the same page as HR early and effectively.

The more an organization grows, the more complex its Learning and Development function must become. And in the modern business landscape, learning and development professionals have a duty to be increasingly ambitious about the impact their programs have on learners. As we observe greater competition, more scrupulous consumers, and an ever-growing pool of technology with which to optimize work, L&D can have a greater business impact than ever before. Join Litmos’s Chief People Officer, Kyile Stair this week for insight as to how to drive an organization through integrated, precise learning initiatives.

What if, instead of accepting requests from leadership and acting on them to the best of our ability, L&D delivered solutions we devised on our own? Beyond that, what if we identified the root problem of the symptoms typically identified by leadership, and devised a bespoke learning fix? What if leadership had such strong trust in L&D, that they came to us begging for a creative, mission-critical solution, any time they had a problem that could be resolved by learning? This evolution is the mission of Dr. Keith Keating, author of The Trusted Learning Advisor, and guest of this week’s show.

The relationship between learning and work is experiencing a period of rapid evolution. Whereas we once trained as apprentices or students for a very specific skill set that could reliably carry us through a lifelong career, we now enhance our abilities on a daily basis with the help of technology. Soon enough, we’ll have to embrace an entirely new paradigm that posits work as learning and learning as work within a system that encourages us to define our own roles through constant discovery of knowledge.

Roberta Matuson’s prolific career started in one of the least comfortable ways imaginable–being thrown into executive leadership at the age of 24. Through a nearly 40-year career since being put “suddenly in charge,” Roberta has written 7 books, spanning the topics of leadership, attracting and keeping talent, and feedback and communication. She shares her insights on how the greatest leaders set themselves up for success, allowing the resources, people, and opportunities they need to flow naturally to them.

Early Q4 every year, tens of thousands of learning professionals descend on the Las Vegas strip to share insights with each other and explore what’s new in ed tech. This year, your host joined the getAbstract booth at the Mirage Hotel meeting with dozens of attendees, vendors, consultants, authors, and other L&D practitioners. To discuss some key learnings from the event, getAbstract’s Head of Sales, America, Danielle Goodrum joins the show this week.

Author of Career Self-Care Minda Zetlin joins us this week to explain how organizations and their employees can double down on genuine wellbeing for all by refocusing on what matters most and stepping back from toxic competitive tendencies. Minda’s approach centers the principles of hard work while forcing us to reconsider platitudes like work-life balance, pursuing one’s passion, and even the nature of hard work itself.

Still today, if you fill a room with 10 software developers, there’s a good chance that 9 of them will be men. In the technology industry–and in a handful of particular roles inside and outside of tech–women are vastly under-represented. Women of color even moreso. But by now, it’s also common knowledge that a more diverse workforce is more capable of innovation and creative problem-solving. So, how do we ensure that women not only move into lucrative, historically male-dominated roles, but also end up in leadership positions?

It controls our every move and it houses our every thought… but how many of us understand how the brain works? Truthfully, there’s more that we don’t understand about the brain than we do understand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t capitalize on what we have been able to glean through neuroscience and psychological studies over the years. To help us do just that on the perpetual journey to becoming better learners (and educators), Lauren Waldman, the Learning Pirate joins this week’s episode.

Talent intelligence platforms such as Loxo have been helping recruiters turn seemingly limitless data on candidates into simplified and expedited recruiting decisions. This week, we speak with Sam Kuehnle, VP of Marketing at Loxo, about the benefits of talent intelligence, and how to get the most out of such technology as its human collaborators.

According to this week’s guest Steven Miller, the answer is the virtuous cycle of automation AND augmentation. Steven is a co-author of Working With AI. He has spent 40 years researching and working with cutting-edge technology, beginning with robotics in the 1980s at Carnegie Mellon University. For the last two decades, he has been deeply involved in digital transformations via academic, government, and industry arenas, working with teams in IT, L&D, R&D, executive leadership, and others.

We very well may be living through a historic inflection point. The point at which artificial intelligence grows from an esoteric machination to a tool that revolutionizes how most of society does its work. But what industries and aspects of our day-to-day lives will AI impact most? And what should we watch for as that impact begins to be felt? This week, Thomas Bergen and Marc Zao-Sanders join the show to discuss AI’s impact on education, work, and our lives at large.

Thanks to ChatGPT and its competitors, we may very well be witnessing the first generation of humans who will grow up having ubiquitous access to advanced AI assistants. At the same time, there’s likely a plethora of technologies on the horizon we can’t even begin to fathom just yet. So, how can we be sure our kids are learning effectively for such an unpredictable future, where work will look radically different from what it is today? This week, Martin Holecko joins us to offer some his expert insight from decades working in technology, and organizing educational events for youth.

What if addressing the many global ills we face in business and society today–anxiety, complacency, insecurity, even inequality and injustice–required us to approach our work and daily lives with an entirely different frame of mind? What if our calling, our “essence” as components of a greater whole, was far more grand than the jobs we do, or the problems our organizations solve for others? This week, Carol Sanford demonstrates how questioning everything we know is the only way to do the work we were truly meant to do.

Every organization is teeming with untapped synergy between people. Especially in larger companies, there’s a plethora of opportunities for collaborative learning among employees who don’t typically work with each other. Mentorships, skill exchanges, and peer-to-peer feedback opportunities could be identified and capitalized upon… if only we had the right tools in place to help. On this week’s episode, Helen Marshall describes how ed tech can help us create personalized social learning experiences.

Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean we lack control over the kinds of change we subject ourselves to, right? With a new era of technology squarely in front of us, and a global pandemic directly behind, it can feel like our organizations MUST embrace radical change if they expect to thrive. While this is generally true, Consultant Erin Shearer has some words of caution and recommendations for change management drawn from more than a decade helping companies undergo major evolutions.

Leaders lead. But that doesn’t mean leaders stop learning, and only focus on guiding their teams to great outcomes and results, does it? While the obvious answer is ‘no, plenty of leaders still find themselves losing that enthusiastic habit of learning they had earlier in their careers. Remaining coachable is one of the quintessential traits of all successful leaders. This week’s guest, Kevin Wilde, has 30+ years leading leaders at world-renowned organizations to prove it. And, he’ll share his insights on how we can develop and become more coachable leaders.

Work doesn’t happen in a social vacuum. In fact, it becomes more clear by the day that sustained changes to behavior, power structures, and policy are all necessary to pursue true equity in the workplace–much like in society at large. But how do we ensure any education or solutions we deliver actually have long-term impact? And how do we have the difficult conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion? This week, we’re joined by activist, consultant, influencer and HR leader Rachel Lauren, who offers insight from the frontlines of advocacy.

This week, we’re wrapping up our first 4 months of interviews with a selection of highlights. So far, we’ve featured Learning and Development legends, renowned futurists, global leadership consultants, visionary content creators, and bestselling authors. We look back at the hottest takes on the changing nature of L&D roles, the unprecedented pace of technological progress, and what leaders must do to adapt to an ever-evolving world of work.

When a business has so many moving parts, overwhelm can easily get in the way of effective leadership. So, it’s important to be proactive and systematic in leadership development efforts. Among the most important ingredients to improving as a boss is the presence of feedback loops that offer truthful insight on the impact you have on your reports. If you have this, according to this week’s guest, global keynote speaker and author Michelle Gibbings, you can take the steps necessary for long-term improvement as a leader.

It may be time to remove “culture fit” from our recruitment and hiring vocabulary. Sure, a team that gets along well and shares a set of values is likely to be happy and productive. But a lack of perspective–and even conflict–also means such a team will struggle to innovate and grow. So, how do we build teams that thrive by the virtue of cognitive diversity? This week, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and author Shane Snow is here to share insights from a fascinating career that includes building high-performing teams around 3 successful startups.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the volume of information we are exposed to these days. Not only the barrage of social media and news updates, but we’re also offered so many new tools and technologies at work that theoretically make our teams better, work easier, and lives happier. As leaders, how do we rise above the noise, and ensure that our impact is not just felt, but recognized? To help answer that question, we’re joined by Rebecca Houghton, founder of BoldHR and 25-year veteran of leadership development.

There’s a small but significant chance that someone you’ve onboarded at your company… will become its next CEO. Isn’t that the point of hiring, training and developing any employee? To get the maximum value of their skills while helping them become the best version of themselves? To help us craft learning programs that treat all new starters as future CEOs, we’re joined this week by Toby Newman. Toby brings insight from a 20-year L&D career, including his current role where he leads onboarding, wellbeing and learning tech at CH Robinson.

Who knew that swearing can be beneficial? Not just for individuals that swear, but for teams who swear among–and by–each other. Those who feel a sense of safety and trust around their colleagues tend to have greater success in their collaborations… and they’re more likely to swear because, well, they’re comfortable with each other. As a leader, how can you get your team feeling that level of cohesion and rapport (swearing optional)? Speaker, leadership team performance expert, and author Adrian Baillargeon is here to offer his insight from 20 years working with corporate and sports clients all over the world.

What will be hot in L&D in 2023? What challenges will learning leaders face this year? If you’re an L&D pro, you may have answered a survey asking these questions at some point in the last 10 years. They come from Donald Taylor’s indispensable L&D Global Sentiment Survey. This week, we discuss with Don his findings from 4,000 respondents, covering the challenge of tightened budgets, the adoption of burgeoning tech, demonstrating a learning ROI and much more.

It’s no secret that not everyone is constantly motivated at work. It’s even less of a secret then, that many people are unenthusiastic about learning on the job. Often, the educational programs we create aren’t helping these problems. But by peering deeper into the psychology of our learners, we can invite them to craft their own story around their development. To explain the power of gamification to boost learner motivation, consultant, speaker and author Karl Kapp joins us on the show this week.

Organizations have a responsibility to their people to create a sustainable future, both in terms of the world we live in, and the careers they create. To discuss how leaders can craft such a future through learning, we speak with Teri Hart on this week’s episode. As an author, work futurist, and Head of Talent Development at Zurich NA, Teri has spent many years building educational programs meant to future-proof employees and inspire them to charge ahead into a challenging future.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we speak with coach, speaker and author of Quick Confidence, Selena Rezvani. As a consultant to the Fortune 500, Selena trains some of the brightest minds in business on self-advocacy and inclusive leadership behaviors. Today, we address growing mental health issues among workers, as reported by The Conference Board. Selena promotes a warmth-first approach to leadership that empowers individuals to advocate for themselves and forothers.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Founder and CEO of Anchored Training, Vanessa Alzate. Vanessa is an instructional designer with a decade of experience in the L&D space, and has made it her mission to bridge the gap between the old-school and what’s new and next in learning solutions. Top of mind for her is how social media has turned into one of the most prolific platforms for education, and the many ways learning and development practitioners can learn from new educators and content creators.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we speak with Jon Westover. Jon is a Professor and Department Chair at Utah Valley University’s Woodbury School of Business, as well as the host of the top 0.1%-ranked podcast Human Capital Innovations. He addresses the challenges that managers and business leaders feel during a time where characteristic chaos means that employees struggle to feel the psychological safety necessary within a thriving creative and agile business.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Christopher Lind, VP and Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed. As a career investigator of the intersection among technology, people and business, he ultimately asks one question, which he and host Tyler interrogate at length: What’s the healthy center for adopting and utilizing new technology in the workplace? When it comes to artificial intelligence, Christopher identifies an uncertain path ahead, though he agrees there is potential to enhance interactions between leaders and their teams by making them more profound, personalized and meaningful.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by leadership development expert Bill Treasurer. Bill describes his consultancy, Giant Leap Consulting, as a courage-building company dedicated to maximizing performance emphasizing self-awareness among leaders. From two decades of coaching and consulting, Bill shares his insight as to how companies can foster better relationships among their employees, centered around embracing one’s authentic social and human self.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Irial O’Farrell, Founder of Evolution Consulting and author of several books on the topic of Management. Irial helps organizations empower their people, at all levels, to be greater problem-solvers. Companies tend to choose and grow their leadership based on problem-solving prowess. Irial explains that a constant focus on resolving the bad doesn’t always result in long-term good, as leaders need to have the freedom to focus on innovation and growth. Her 8-step problem-solving framework is as foolproof as the scientific method, and will help any leader teach their people to become self-sufficient solution finders.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Dr. Nigel Paine, speaker, consultant, author, and Presenter of Learning Now TV. Nigel has had an illustrious career in learning and development, including a stint at the BBC leading the digital transformation as Head of People Development. Nigel believes that L&D professionals stand at a pivotal cultural moment that demands a new focus on mobilizing the entire organization to address problems collaboratively as teams, employees and individuals with unique skills.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Michelle Weise, author and founder of Rise and Design. Michelle describes how learning leaders will need to adapt their systems to equip workers for unpredictable technology and multifarious careers.

This week, L&D in Action features Michael Lee Stallard, Co-Founder and President of Connection Culture Group. A finance executive turned coach and consultant, Michael has observed that many high-achieving organizations are forfeiting strong connections between people in favor of operational excellence. It’s his goal to bring empathy and humanity back to the workplace.

In this episode of L&D in Action, Host Tyler Lay is joined by Ravin Jesuthasan, Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer. He is also a consultant, speaker, and author who has done extensive research on the future of work in the digital economy and artificial intelligence! Together, they discuss how AI and automation is going to change the way we run businesses, and why leaders need to reinvent themselves and their organizations.

In this episode of L&D in Action, we’re joined by Simon Brown, Chief Learning Officer at Novartis, to discuss how he and his L&D team have cultivated a thriving learning culture for an organization of 105,000 global employees.