The Learning & Development Podcast

It’s a strange and worrying time for us all at the moment and the role of L&D will need to adapt in response. But will it be enough to send people to the online content we had before? Well, if it wasn’t before, how can it be the case now? Many of the changes we were beginning to see in our profession are likely to be required more quickly (data-driven decisions, performance-focused and user-centric digital solutions) as we seek to make a meaningful difference, remotely. In this episode of the podcast, we’ve invited an experienced panel, Bob Mosher, Adam Harwood and Barbara Thompson, who will share their insights, alongside their challenges, hopes and fears. But, overall, we’ll be exploring the big opportunity for L&D to step up and achieve more. More than we might have hoped we could with the limitations thrust upon us. KEY TAKEAWAYS Businesses, having poured their energies in to developing new, remote ways of working, are now focussing on the processes and systems needed in order to be able to open their doors when the lockdown is over. Adaptive, responsive and iterative services within companies are helping remote workers the most. Many are rising to the challenge and are becoming highly productive. Content aggregation is something we will need to be open to, rather than curation. This will involve a whole new understanding of methodologies. Be there at the moment of need to influence the moment of apply, because that moment in order to ensure that people are fulfilling their requirements according to organisational expectations. Now is the time for e-learning, as well as other approaches, to find their proper place in L&D. It is up to us to regard the landscape and decide where they fit in this brave new world. Disruption allows us to innovate. The future of L&D must be people-based. We must start by listening, and subsequently addressing the needs of our teams, instead of pre-supposition and technology-based solutions. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ve never seen so much dialogue about L&D, what we can do, what we can achieve’ ‘From now on, we make sure we pull up a chair and join the conversation’ ’The new normal is being created right now’ ’Too often we have pivoted on content - and it was always context’ ‘Disruption makes things new again. What might not have been possible, suddenly is’ VALUABLE RESOURC ES The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523 Adam Harwood Twitter - https://twitter.com/adamharwood26 Bob Mosher Twitter - https://twitter.com/bmosh Barbara Thompson Twitter - https://twitter.com/CaribThompson ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

The Learning and Development Podcast Live It’s a strange and worrying time for us all at the moment and the role of L&D will need to adapt in response. But will it be enough to send people to the online content we had before? Well, if it wasn’t before, how can it be the case now? Many of the changes we were beginning to see in our profession are likely to be required more quickly (data-driven decisions, performance-focused and user-centric digital solutions) as we seek to make a meaningful difference, remotely. In this special upcoming episode of the podcast, we’ve invited an experienced panel, Bob Mosher, Adam Harwood and Barbara Thompson, who will share their insights, alongside their challenges, hopes and fears. But, overall, we’ll be exploring the big opportunity for L&D to step up and achieve more. More than we might have hoped we could with the limitations thrust upon us. Join us for this live podcast on Apr. 8, 2020 at 3:00 PM BST. Register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1871022850106365453 ABOUT THE HOSTDavid James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board.CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

It’s not a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ L&D fully jumps onboard with Data & Analytics. This is the view of Trish Uhl, who, in this episode, explores how data has already transformed organisations, industries and consumer expectations and why L&D can no longer wait until the hype has passed. L&D is late to the party but the good news is it’s not too late. KEY TAKEAWAYS What few people in L&D really understand about how data can help their business practice is: It’s not just about having numerate skills It’s about quality, not just quantity Data should be formative, not just used in retrospect We need to have the right perspective in order to understand the urgency moving forward. Data and analytics have existed in L&D for decades. The period we’re in now is not the “early adopter” phase, but the mainstream. In businesses and organisations today, we’re in the largest IT migration in the history of humankind. We’re moving from information processing to cognitive computing. Data is not just for archives anymore, but also for dynamic use that allows us to anticipate. In much the same way that households are now using a more data-centric environment to determine things like energy usage, businesses too, should be using data in a more immediate way to determine direction. People are put off by the fact that data is seen as a monolith of numeracy, when in fact the figures themselves are a small percentage of how data should be translated and used. The first thing we have to do is change our minds about being right. We need to be willing to be wrong. We have to be willing to test and experiment to see if we’re on the right track. The world is moving whether we’re on board or not. Through productivity tools, we can see the data flowing through our business, and see how effective our on-boarding strategies are. It starts with an assumption or a hypothesis. Ask the question, and instead of looking to previous, perhaps outdated methods of answering it, look to how we can find creative ways to seek out the solution. If we fail to adopt and create new ways of learning, then how can we hope to implement new ways of working? To avoid it, we need an adaptable learning eco-system. BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s being a “citizen-data” scientist’ ’There is no big reveal at the end’ ’The early adopter phase is over’ ‘It’s no longer about aspiration, it’s about expectation’ ‘We’re putting intelligence into our households’ ’80% is coming up with the right questions of value’ ‘What you’re describing here isn’t the future of L&D, but the present, and we need to grab hold of’ ’This digital disruption requires that people in enterprises adopt new ways of working' ABOUT THE GUEST Trish is a globally experienced strategist and consultant leveraging data science, artificial intelligence (AI), emerging technology, analytics and evidence-based actionable insights to deliver business value. Her work sees Trish keynote speaking at conferences, teaching workshops and working directly with client leadership teams across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. You can follow and connect with Trish via: Twitter: @trishuhl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishuhl/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

‘To solve real problems requires challenge, and a change in mindset and skillset’ Is L&D really prone to solving problems that are only really problems for L&D and neglecting the real problems that our organisations and employees need addressing? In this episode, the topic is explored and examples given of where L&D are guilty and what we all need to do instead. In this episode, David is in conversation with Rob Moors who has considerable experience in Learning and development and is passionate about connecting L&D professionals with real problems and equipping them with the understanding and skillset to make a difference. KEY TAKEAWAYS A non-problem is a symptom and in L&D it is still the symptoms that are dealt with. Why do L&D attempt to solve non-problems? L&D measure themselves through how many people apply to do their courses and don’t always align themselves to the vision and organisational goals of the company. How many training courses have been supplied rather than how many problems been solved. It’s about concentrating on what important not what’s urgent. To solve real problems requires challenge and a change in mindset and skillset that L&D may not have. It’s not just L&D professionals who need to change its also a requirement of the stakeholders to change to uncover the real problems. L&D need to be performance partners understanding what they are trying to achieve within and for the organisation. Switching from the language of training to the language of performance is critical if you want to uncover real problems. By understanding what’s really going on and what needs to go on, the blockers and what is actually being experienced by people working in the situation L&D can then influence and do something that actually works. The key actions are; Trust in the positive intention of others – reconnect everyone with the vision and goals of the organisation. Believe in people to help you find the answers – L&D professionals often only ask other L&D people Understand your team and you are your responsibility - you need to be your own case study to move forward and develop. BEST MOMENTS ‘L&D professionals are not intentionally getting up every day intending to be ineffective’ ‘There will be 3 or 4 critical things going on in an organisation at any time and its vital L&D prioritise those’ ‘Look to achieve the greatest value over the greatest number of people’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST Rob Moors Rob has been Learning & Development professional for over 20 years; with large organisations such as Sky, TalkTalk and the NHS, as well as a number of smaller tech security enterprises. Rob’s passion is that of bridging the gaps between training and learning; learning and performance; and performance and people. Rob is now Chief Learning Officer with Learn Do Get. CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with Rob via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbymoors/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/learn-do-get/ Website: https://www.learndoget.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

In this fascinating episode packed with thought-provoking content David is in conversation with Guy Wallace, Performance Analyst and Instructional Architect for Enterprise, Training and Development. With more than 40 years in the field of Learning & Development, Guy Wallace knows that focusing on performance and taking the time to analyse the performance context is essential for making meaningful change. The problem is, he’s been banging this drum for decades and the profession is still yet to fully switch on to this. In this episode, David and Guy explore the current state of L&D, what it’s going to take for the profession to refocus and Guy’s rich experience. KEY TAKEAWAYS Our clients come to us because they think that the training will solve their problems. They really want to improve the performance impact and they see training and learning as a means to that end. A lot of content is focused on topics. We don’t teach reflecting the performance orientation We don’t look at the current performance state or the variables and the barriers. In Learning and Development, we give the hard work to the learner expecting them to be able to transfer the learning into their context. When you have reviewed and created a gap analysis if you can’t resolve the gaps you need to teach the novice performers what the master performers already know. In a facilitated group process 8-12 subject matter experts along with supervisors, management work together to produce a performance output model and then review what’s missing, what are the barriers. You need to account for what people already know and then provide self-paced content training. Teams that aren’t afraid to ask the difficult questions are those that make the most difference. The more that is explored in discovery and analysis, the higher the chance of doing things that will make an impact. With technology Learning and Development can centralise job/performance aids making them easily accessible and evergreen. The question is do we understand the performance context? do we understand things as a system flow? Learning and development professionals initially learn in the classroom, learning from delivery onwards so it takes time for them to be able to have conversations around performance. A pivot is required from learning focus to performance focus BEST MOMENTS ‘Learning and Development will either disrupt or be disrupted’ ‘The research shows that all of us operate on non-conscious knowledge – we don’t even know what we know’ ‘We are opportunity-rich and legacy poor’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST Guy Wallace Bio Guy Wallace is a Performance Analyst and Instructional Architect and has been designing and developing Instruction/ Training/ Learning and Performance Support content for Enterprise Learning and business-critical target audiences since 1979. In 2010 he was the recipient of ISPI’s Highest Award, approved by two successive Boards of Directors, Honorary Life Member, for his contributions to the technology of Performance Improvement, and for his contributions to the Society. You can follow and connect with Guy via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/guywwallace LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guywwallace/ Website: https://eppic.biz/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Workflow Learning, Learning In The Flow of Work, or Learning at the Point Of Work? However we wish to call it, guidance and support at the moment they need it is a sure fire way of gaining engagement in L&D solutions and, more importantly, helping people do more of the right things in order to get results. In this episode, Conrad Gottfredson, a true pioneer in this field, shares his insights and experience of this methodology and approach. KEY TAKEAWAYS Workflow learning environments 1 Experience acceleration model The real environment for learning is the workflow and real learning happens when people apply what they have learnt in the workflow. The greatest skill an employee can have is adaptiveness, Its about the transition from formal learning and the reach into the workplace. 2 Flow of work People learn exclusively in the flow of work, this is where we build a digital culture This enables individuals to initiate their learning in the flow of work 3 Gear G – gather online to learn E – expand understanding A – apply what you have learnt R – report back and receive feedback When we build a workforce solution we draw on all 3 of the models. It is around creating an environment where it is seen as a complete solution. You are with them when they need guidance and support the most. The discipline of performance support This is about understanding that when you build an infrastructure that supports people I the flow of work that carries with it the ability to gather data about how they are doing This has opened up our ability to truly measure impact in every way possible If you provide people with what they need when they need it then engagement is the least of your problems. Having performance support infrastructure enables a move towards workflow learning and also supports more formal learning At the heart of the skill set is being able to map the moment of apply, as it occurs in the flow of work. We focus on the point of apply at the work flow level. Once you have a map and you know what it is you need people to do then you can orchestrate the tasks to fit. BEST MOMENTS ‘You are missing the tools that are needed to measure’ ‘Organisations waste a lot of time searching for the right tools and resources to do the job’ ‘Half of what is done formally could be pushed into workflow learning. ‘You have to know how to design a solution that encompasses all 5 moments of need’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST Conrad Gottfredson Conrad Gottfredson has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Learning & Development and holds a PhD in Instructional Psychology and Technology. His consulting work has helped governments, non-profits, and multi-national organisations wisely employ emerging technologies and methodologies to help people achieve personal and organisational goals. Conrad has pioneered methodologies (The 5 Moments of Need) for developing and delivering Workflow Learning to those who need it, when they need it, in the language and form they require. CONTACT DETAILS You can follow and connect with Conrad via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conrad-gottfredson-84149255/ Website: https://www.applysynergies.com/ The 5 Moments of Need (including White Paper): https://www.5momentsofneed.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

‘We are not always the best at learning in learning’ David is in conversation with James Poletyllo, Director of the Learning Effect, he has extensive experience in people development and champions the development of the profession and brings challenge to ineffective practice. Is Learning and Development sleepwalking into extinction? This is an uncomfortable question to be asking - let alone to be answering - but it’s an important one. One that James Poletyllo explored in a recent article. In this episode, we dive deeper into our experiences of L&D to seek examples of this and where our profession might need to more consciously evolve to stay relevant. There is a blurring of boundaries as we move into a more connected world and this is an opportunity for L&D to do things differently and in a more agile way, listen in and hear more. KEY TAKEAWAYS It seems to be different modes of delivery but the same old stuff. Sometimes you get excited by and driven by the newness of something regardless of whether it is the right solution. A good learning professional is really involved in the business and there to make sure the change that is being implemented will resonant with those on the front line who are trying to make it work and it’s not just one hit and will have real value to the business We are still viewed as not having a real impact on the business We need to get better at creating an architecture and infrastructure that allows a business to learn and share knowledge more quickly and to impart knowledge and information across the business more quickly. There is an opportunity to look at things and ask how we can identify learning opportunities in a more agile way? How can we get solutions out there more quickly? How can we drive personalisation How can we really make adaptive learning work As a L&D professional, we don’t have to know everything but we have to be facilitators of the organisation A myriad of skills are needed in L&D including engagement, data, curation of content, technology and being able to create experiences that add value. Get close to what’s important in the business and ask how are you going to create purpose for the learner. BEST MOMENTS ‘We should work on being solution-focused to solve problems at the speed business needs’ ‘Let’s step back and look at what we are trying to achieve’ ‘We can’t just rebrand we have to do things differently’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast Article ‘Ten reasons why learning and development is sleepwalking into extinction’ ABOUT THE GUEST James Poletyllo Bio James has almost 20 years of experience in People Development in sectors as diverse as Telecoms, Local Council, Healthcare, and Hospitality, with many of his roles at a senior level. Now, as a consultant, he champions the development of the profession, whilst challenging ineffective practice that seems to be holding us back. CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with James via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespoletyllo/ Website: https://www.thelearningeffect.co.uk/ Article ‘Ten reasons why learning and development is sleepwalking into extinction’: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/opinion/ten-reasons-why-learning-and-development-sleepwalking-extinction ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Important Information About The Learning & Development Podcast This is a very short episode announcing that new episodes of The Learning & Development podcast will be released fortnightly for a while with the next episode being with you on Tuesday 21st of January. ABOUT THE HOSTDavid James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

“The field of play has evolved for L&D and now includes supporting a dynamic learning performance ecosystem. If the field of play changes, it implies we must evolve and adopt new rules of engagement.” What Gary is referring to here is the the Point Of Work. In this episode, the point of topic is the Point Of Work, which is broader than workflow learning and an essential area of focus if we (L&D) are to make a real difference in our organisations. KEY TAKEAWAYS Workflow learning is learning in the workflow where the worker does not have to disengage with the work in order to resolve a moment of need. The concept of learning in the workflow is one where learning is accessible, but you have to disengage with the actual work to go and find it. Point Of Work is not necessarily a destination. It’s a discipline. The whole concept is a mind-shift, a strategic re-think of how we are going to approach a dynamic learning performance eco-system. “Changing the conversation” is one of the key objectives that a Point Of Work assessment is designed to facilitate. It has to start at the top. The question we should truly be asking is what is that operationally, people-wise, or systemically, might actually be the problem that is preventing your people from doing what they are here to actually do? If you go down through from a senior leadership position to an individual contributor, you have multiple points of work, and you have multiple perspectives that are influencing those points of work. The shift from learning to performance is one that comes up more and more these days. In a study, only 26% of respondents said that the ability to support performance was prevalent within their function. We need to pick the greatest pain-point that we’re dealing with and figure out how to resolve that. What that will then become is proof-of-concept. Conversations will arise from this, which will fundamentally shape development. BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s in the workflow. It’s in the application. There’s no downtime’ ‘Off-task time is required in order to engage in learning in the workflow’ ’No. I want it all’ ‘What is the problem that we are truly seeking to address here?’ ’There was a landmine there of a different kind!’ ‘It starts small and it scales’ ‘Human performance outfitters drives living and learning’ ABOUT THE GUEST Gary Wise is an established Workforce Productivity Strategist and Coach with over 35-years of cross-industry leadership experiences in corporate Learning & Development. During the first 20-years he amassed an impressive string of failures; not failures in team leadership or poorly designed Training solutions, but failures to recognise a blind spot – the myth that Training solutions drive and sustain workforce performance. During the next 15-years, he postured a reality that Training only promotes potential; measurable workforce performance does not manifest until knowledge workers reach a new ground zero – Point-of-Work You can follow and connect with Gary via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garywiseprofilemyca/ Website: https://livinginlearning.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Each week David has talked to guests about what lights them up in the world of people development across 31 episodes this year. As a way of wrapping this up for2019 in this episode, he shares a summary of his learning so far and looks ahead to next year. In 2020 truly understanding user-centricity, human-centred designed will be key and learning what this really is that will be important for every learning and development professional. By understanding what it is people are trying to do, the experiences they are having what’s required of the organisation then better experiences can be designed in order to improve performance and insight. If we can understand the experiences people have then we can design even greater experiences KEY TAKEAWAYS The shift from learning to performance is well underway and it was a key theme for many of the guests on the podcast. The emergence of data in learning and development that is far beyond the valuation data available previously is a good signifier of where we should be applying our attention. if we are going to address the primary concerns of our workforce and organisations it’s going to be around performance. We need to move forward and with the changes to the workplace and work, we need to change the way we work to bring greater impact. An agile mindset which is working with and for the client understanding what it is they are trying to achieve and iterating this over a period of time to affect performance, output, results and data can be a game-changer for learning and development. Resources, not courses are both a mindset and a practice and it continues to gain momentum within the learning and development arena. Learning in the flow of work is learning while you are working it’s not stopping work to learn You are building your knowledge and incite from where you work and is focused on what you are trying to achieve. People are already having experiences at work – these may be good, bad, effective, ineffective or largely indifferent and it’s about understanding what people are already experiencing in relation to what they are trying to do and designing Learning and Development experiences that move the needle in the right direction. BEST MOMENTS ‘What does acceptable performance look like and what performance needs to be addressed and what needs to be the focus to understand performance to a greater degree?’ ‘Everyone is now experimenting to see if they can move the needle in the right direction’ ‘It’s not an emerging trend it’s one that’s being embraced a lot more and will help us to affect performance’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

"L&D is fast becoming more than just a support function, one that is a strategic partner to the effective operation of any business”: this is a phrase Jeremy McLellan uses in his LInkedIn bio and a great description of the value he brings to his employers. In this episode, we talk about how Jeremy has evolved his own practice, how he has brought his organisations along with him and achieved real business results. KEY TAKEAWAYS The paradigm shift in technology and its everyday applications has driven change in the way we consume education. The result is that we have adapted our own behaviours to suit this, but business training and development hasn’t yet caught up. Expectations from our stakeholders, organisations and bosses, are that we run programs based on requests. Jeremy has begun to solve this by blogging, opening discussions and holding conversations. Communication is key. An effective tool was to role-play the candidate experience with staff members, everything from arriving at the office to the setting of each environment. It even went so far as to include calls and conversations. The feedback proved extraordinarily accurate when real candidates arrived. We do not tend to acknowledge the actual situations and challenges that people face in the context of their work, then a great deal of effort and credibility loses out. When development was certificate-based, people saw each session as little more than a step toward their goal, instead of a real and fruitful development experience. Once the certificate was earned, the experience and knowledge was sidelined. trust is vital between candidates and L&D. We all face resistance due to the expectations of candidate’s prior experiences. It’s best not to force something. We need to go where we’re wanted and needed, and look for the areas that are open to embracing change. BEST MOMENTS ‘Business L&D needs to bridge the gap’ ‘Googling our way through life’ ’There were so many rituals that I thought were bonkers and unreasonable’ ‘When you write something down it frames that thing in your own mind’ ’To try something different in an organisation requires currency’ ‘Resistance can be born out of miscommunication or lack of vision' ABOUT THE GUEST Jeremy McLellan is Head of Learning and Development Europe at Alvarez & Marsal and previously held the same title at Hudson. As a progressive L&D leader who focuses on performance and results, Jeremy challenges his teams to make the difference that makes a real difference, helping people to do what they’re trying to do better and helping his organisation to more effectively and efficiently achieve its aims. You can follow and connect with Jeremy via: LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jeremy-mclellan-evolving-learning-b6a12711 ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

In this fascinating episode, David is in conversation with Haydn Bratt founder of MINDSET and a personal leadership coach. He works to change the ways people lead so people can express their brilliance in the workplace. They discuss the changing face of leadership and the different drivers that impact on business today. The old models of leadership are no longer achieving the results businesses are striving for so what needs to be different and how can it be achieved? This thought-provoking discussion will benefit any Learning and Development professional listen in and learn. KEY TAKEAWAYS Future leadership is about how do we equip the people in our businesses to lead into and master tomorrow. The world is changing there is a lot of different drivers impacting business today. The old models of leadership are no longer working or achieving the results businesses are striving for. There are a group of people coming into the workplace with a completely different set of expectations. There is rapid growth in technology and this is driving different ways of working. Knowledge is no longer the currency it used to be and there is a change in the dynamic around how people are working together. There is an emergence of the need for leadership with an emotional connection. People want to feel a sense of belonging to the people around them and a connection to the leaders of the organisation. There is a genuine fundamental foundational need for an alternative way to lead organisations. As an L&D professional, you need to invest in yourself in the areas you are passionate about. Become more of a challenger and build your ability to look beneath. If you are passionate about learning and development first educate yourself about the trends and then start thinking about where your organisation is going. No organisation fails from a lack of hard work we fail through a lack of quality thinking BEST MOMENTS ‘One career in one organisation is gone for many’ ‘They want to feel more than just a number in the organisation’ ‘There are a set of behaviours that have always existed in great leaders over the years and we are now seeing a greater demand for these leadership skills’ ‘There is a fundamental shift in the power dynamic’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast Mindset Leadership website Haydn Bratt LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

More and more, forward-thinking organisations are exchanging traditional hierarchies for networks of empowered teams. These teams are more agile, connected by tech and may only be brought together for short amounts of time. In this podcast, we discuss the importance of measuring high performance in teams and what we need to do to develop them accordingly. KEY TAKEAWAYS There are now fusion teams that are brought together for a specific activity. You are not just part of a set team you are teaming with others. Our environments are highly complex so it’s important that our definitions of high performing teams continue to evolve. When a measure becomes a target, it is no longer a measure. A measure will always help the team to learn more and work out where look for it. In real situations, the dynamics are continually changing. We need to understand what we want to affect, the current state of play and what the priorities are for the people within the team. When you are in a complex environment you cannot ask the question ‘what’ or ‘how’ you can only ask - who can I speak to? Currently, you have to learn the tool first and then use it with the team. The team has to be able to self-service the data and deal with its environment and the individuals. To start you can identify the number of teams you have and what types of teams you have within your organisation then look at the environment. If you are at a point where you are moving teams you can look at a different way of evaluation, one that empowers people. Find out what you need your teams to be able to do and the environment they need to do it in. What environments need to be created so that teams can be effective. Start from a place of knowing not a place of assumption. What teams are currently using as tools are far too slow we have the technology, the people, the knowledge and the science its now about creating the tool that works in real-time helps us learn on the go providing the information that indicates progress is in the right direction. People are then in a position to make decisions and performance becomes a by-product because the team are energised If people are coming in happy and leaving happy it’s an indicator of positive team energy. BEST MOMENTS ‘The answer are everywhere else but in your own industry’ ‘It’s making the world your classroom’ ‘As a team lead, I wanted help to be able to practically support my teams’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST Imran Rehman Bio Imran Rehman is an organisation and performance specialist, with an expertise in measuring and developing high performance. Based in Vienna, Imran is a leadership coach as well as co-founder of Kokoro, an intuitive app to measure emotions in teams, in real-time. CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with Imran via: Twitter: @ImsRehman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imranrehman/ Website: https://bekokoro.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

What is Resilience and Why is it such a Hot Topic? Interview with Dr Carole Pemberton, Resilience Expert and Developer of Coaches There has been a generation who have seen themselves as helicopter parents, watching over their children, but in reality, they are lawn mower parents, mowing out of the way any obstacles but resilience is the learning that you take from the things that go wrong when obstacles are overcome. All the time spent having adventures and playing with others is important in building resilience and without this learning, it can be challenging for individuals to cope when things go wrong at any point in their lives. In this fascinating interview with Dr Carole Pemberton a resilience expert, we find out about the role of resilience in individuals and organisations and how L&D can support and develop resilience effectively. KEY TAKEAWAYS Resilience is a requirement when working in any organisation as the environment can be subject to constant change. There is no longer a fixed path through an organisation. There’s a whole climate that feels less certain and within that in order to work a level of agility is required, you’ve got to be able to flex and adapt. The situations in which we expect people to be resilient have changed dramatically The evidence shows that it is less about a particular approach to resilience and more about on-going support. If we think about resilience as an outcome that is a result of a variety of things - your confidence, optimism, ability to flex are all contributors to your level of resilience. It can be helpful to start by asking about the resilience you already have. Developing resilience is a commitment by the organisation, the team and the individual. There is something about sharing that helps people deal with problems and challenges. One of the most important things you can create is a supportive environment where people feel confident about sharing. Being able to talk with group or peers can leave the individual feeling more resilient and more resourced. For L&D building in ongoing support and including it as part of training programs alongside the recognition that it has to be an ongoing conversation can be effective in building resilience. BEST MOMENTS ‘Resilience can be applied at a team level – are they supportive of each other, does this team notice when something is going well and support each other’ ‘You can start with a conversation and gain a feeling about how things are going’ ‘Most of your resilience comes from the stuff you didn’t want to happen’ ‘Most of the time most of us are resilient’ ‘Sometimes people don’t start a conversation until its almost too late’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning and Development Podcast Resilience: A Practical Guide for Coaches Carole Pemberton website BEST MOMENTS ‘The L&D world needs to become much more confident working in these ways’ ‘For people in senior positions, it’s about letting go and trusting in something new’ ‘You need to be where people are and understand why they want to learn in the first place’ ‘There is a recognition now that everything is changing, and it is happening at a pace so beware of certainty’ ABOUT THE GUEST Dr Carole Pemberton has over 30 years’ experience in helping individuals to have more successful and satisfying working lives. She does this in her work as an executive coach and career coach working with clients across the globe and across sectors. Her doctorate in resilience coaching positions her as having a particular expertise which is supported by her advanced level qualifications in Executive Coaching and Career Coaching. Carole is an author whose publications offer coaches and managers practical tools for enhancing their effectiveness, based on research and experience. You can follow and connect with Carole via: Website: https://carolepemberton.co.uk/ Email: [email protected] ‘Resilience: A Practical Guide for Coaches’ Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Resilience-Guide-Coaches-Carole-Pemberton/dp/0335263747/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425577961&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=resilience+a+practical+guide+for+coaches ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

In an article of the same name, Mike Bedford commentated on a revolution that he’s seeing - and experiencing - in the Learning & Development profession, and encourages us all to get involved. In this episode, we discuss the revolution, which is a backlash against ineffective practice and maintaining the status quo. KEY TAKEAWAYS Revolution is about change. In terms of an L&D revolution we need to change, but we also need to unite behind a common purpose. At present the L&D industry feels too fragmented, but needs to come together or risk becoming obsolete. Employees often misperceive L&D as the training itself, rather than the functional improvement that results in effective targeting of training needs. Disruption in the sector means breaking the cycle of Order - Content - Delivery. The disruption needs to come from us instead of elsewhere. Telling an evidence-based story, and using effective evaluation is far more valuable to L&D and to their respective parent companies, than any kind of stat sheets or numbers. Mike has adopted a blended approach towards L&D for his organisation. Because many of the workforce are scattered, he rules nothing out. Some development is done remotely or through e-learning, while some is done in-house. They are currently looking at the first six months of 2020 for potential direction. Sometimes, when the training requested by the workforce does not seem a fit, it is Mike’s job to look at the deeper reasons that have led them to ask. The questions asked and the solutions are becoming more bespoke. We need to stop being so entrenched in our preferred methods of delivering our craft. We need to be more fluid and embrace the entire profession. Ask ourselves how equipped we are to hold the right conversations and develop the solutions that will move the needle. BEST MOMENTS ‘It feels to me like revolution is in the air’ ‘We’re in the business of improving performance outcomes’ ‘Disruption needs to come from us’ ‘LinkedIn knows more about you than your HR department does’ ‘People think I’m anti-training, but I’m not’ ‘We’re changing the world one conversation at a time’ ‘We have more things in common than we do differences' ABOUT THE GUEST At the time of recording, Mike was Head of Learning & Development and Wellbeing at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. He is a self-proclaimed L&D modernist and blogger. You can follow and connect with Mike via: Twitter: @BeddyMike LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebedford/ Read ‘The L&D Revolution’: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ld-revolution-mike-bedford ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Andy Lancaster is Head Of Learning at CIPD and author of the book ‘Driving Performance Through Learning’, in which he charts a course for L&D that challenges traditional expectations and shows the way towards the future. In this episode, we explore the drivers of this change and how L&D can - and should - adapt to meet the needs of the modern workforce. Please note, as a special offer to listeners, the link below to purchase Andy's book will give you 15% off the cover price. KEY TAKEAWAYS What can we practically do to support the transformation of organisational learning; to really support performance improvement? - this was the question that spurred Andy to write his book. Learning and development in any organisation, private or public, should always be driving that company’s performance and purpose. Performance itself is a contentious, and indeed sometimes controversial word or concept. Many believe that performance is open to interpretation, and therefore a difficult metric to measure. When preparing to write the book, there were several key themes that emerged for Andy surrounding the emerging organisational landscapes (we need to understand how organisations are changing), and foundational principles (transformational approaches to development). These manifested in three themes: Work - operational models are being disrupted everywhere. The way we approach development has to change. Workforce - There are a greater range of ages in the workforce than ever before. There is less hierarchy. Workplace - Single locations are becoming rarer these days. In Andy’s experience, he has found that change is generally embraced when it comes to development, but there will always be an element that resists due to the transition to the new way of working, and the ever-evolving working environments. We need to ask what foundations look like. We need to ask what learning approaches look like. We need to think about these questions in a new way, and use technology to aid in answering. Around 50% of all Learning & Development professionals are extremely concerned with the state of their own development. Smart devices are changing the way we live. They guide us throughout our day and act as personal assistants in every way possible. We need to better understand a way in which these highly personal devices can drive our own learning and development in a revolutionary way. We need people to have more self-direction in the workplace, with a greater sense of autonomy (essential), and learning needs to be interrelated with others in that space BEST MOMENTS ‘You have to have a very compelling reason to write a book’ ’Performance is not a contentious word’ ‘Unless you paint a compelling vision, change is a very difficult concept to go with’ ‘We’ve got to think about a bigger vision’ ‘People want to change. We have to be modern learners ourselves’ ‘It’s now about creating not fixed dishes, but buffet menus’ ’Self direction is what really motivates us’ ‘I dream of painting and then I paint my dream’ ’The best way to predict the future is to create it' ABOUT THE GUEST Andy Lancaster has more than 25 years’ experience in learning and organisational development in commercial, technological and not-for-profit organisations and has also worked as a consultant. As Head of Learning at CIPD, Andy is responsible for professional development and learning products, content and qualifications for L&D, coaching and mentoring and management and leadership. You can follow and connect with Andy via: Twitter: @AndyLancasterUK LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-lancaster-ab995418/ Link To Book With 15% Discount Off Cover Price when you enter the promotion code AHRDL15 at the checkout: www.koganpage.com/DPTL ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Performance Consulting is recognised as a key skill-set for the modern L&D professional who wants to make a difference in their organisation. In this episode, Nigel Harrison helps us to understand what Performance Consulting is and how it’s helping L&D to align to its organisation to achieve more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Performance Consulting is how you ask your client questions to uncover the apparent need. It doesn’t assume that learning and training are the best solutions. Deliberate beforehand if what L&D strategy is the way to go. Some use L&D for work compliance, some use it for personal development, and some use it to improve the business performance. You need consulting when something’s bound to be crucial to the business goals. Great L&D can help you in cost reduction and in work efficiency. There are great risks when we become lenient of people we take in our company. We want people who understand your business needs and can move with us forward. Application > Theory. Your priority is to ready them in what they’ll be facing in work. Give it a second thought if an academic or educational appraoach is the correct one for them. You should be able to introduce them to the work culture, increase their productivity, and be knowledgeable with your obectives. Why people have the hard time seeing that performance is greater than training courses? Some seniors are immovable in incorporating changes in the traditional apporach they’re used to—the mentality has to change. Some, though know of the recent developments in L&D, just don’t have the means to push through such changes. BEST MOMENTS “A lot of learning and development are misaligned with the business.” “Our job is to help people do things better.” “We are so fixed in our training bubble and we don’t have the time to see what’s really going on.” ABOUT THE GUEST Nigel Harrison is recognised as an authority in Performance Consulting and has worked globally with clients to develop the skills for sustained business impact. He’s a Chartered Business Psychologist, Author of “How to be a True Business Partner by Performance Consulting” and founder of Performance Consulting UK Ltd. You can find out more from Nigel via: Website: https://performconsult.co.uk/ The Performance Consulting Process: http://performconsult.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/new-web-site-7StepProcess.png ‘How To Be A True Business Partner’ Book: https://performconsult.co.uk/book-shop/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for over 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Changes in the Retail landscape have meant that companies have had to adapt or collapse if they don’t meet the changing expectations of consumers. But a business can’t change if it’s people aren’t ready. In this episode, these changes are explored and Mike shares how River Island’s approach to L&D has had to adapt too. KEY TAKEAWAYS Challenges Resale and in particular fashion is facing real challenges with competition and changes in the buying trends of consumers. As a business, we have to focus on serving our customers better. In retail ,recruiting and having the right people with the right expertise is vital and there are challenges in attracting and keeping the right people. Retail is still about how people feel - both the customer and the people within the business. Our employees may not our customers but we need to take the mindset methodologies and the approaches we apply with customers and use them for the people who provide the service to the end-user. Learning There are so many different ways we can support people in getting access to the information they need at the time they need it, feeling connected with the organisation and that they have meaningful work and are developing professionally. People do want to learn but they will only learn when they have the autonomy to do so and can link it to developing their competence and expertise. This then, in turn, drives the motivation to go out and find learning for themselves. If you can guide and support people towards confident and competent doing then you will have their attention. When you create a program for everything you create rules and barriers for people wanting to engage and then what we offer as learning and development becomes a blocker to actual performance. As L&D professionals we need to have a suite of tools and solutions that we can mix and match to suit the individual need and we need strong enough relationships with our colleagues to follow it through, understanding what the problem is and working collaboratively to solve it. We should be able to attribute hard business metrics to the things we are doing and we can only do this if we have credible relationships with our colleagues and are trusted to work with them. Data-driven learning There are lots of different ways of using data but it’s helped me to tell stories with credible points. We need more people telling stories about how data is helping them. Data is the foundation of digital from which the approaches and tech are built If you can talk with authenticity and not talk about the tech, but talk about the value then you start to change hearts and minds and gain traction. It’s about challenging yourself taking your opportunities learning from other people and don’t be afraid of taking a jump and being brave. BEST MOMENTS ‘The bedroom is the new changing room’ ‘I wanted to feel that buzz and excitement about contributing to real business change’ ‘The way and means in which learning and development serve an organisation would be better served in listening more’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST Mike Collins Mike Collins is Senior People Experience Specialist at River Island and podcast host on The Lancashire HotPod. Previously, working for RBS for 10 years winning numerous awards for the work he had been involved in. Mike has also worked for CIPD training provider DPG plc, specialising in social & collaborative working and developing L&D qualifications. GUEST CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with Mike via: Twitter: @Community_Mike LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/communitymike/ Instagram: layzmc Podcast: https://www.thelancashirehotpod.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Since it’s rise to prominence, e-Learning has promised so much and often failed to deliver. Is this the fault of the medium or the fault of L&D? This episode explores the evolution of technology-enabled learning and what it will take for L&D to truly capitalise on the potential of digital. KEY TAKEAWAYS L&D has had a strange relationship with technology. It has been very difficult to get the average person to engage with tech-based development, but although strides have been made, we are still not there yet. Technology is best at educating large numbers of people remotely, and at once. The problem is that many companies use tech to educate when they don’t want to. This generally results in an unpalatable product. If you don’t engage with your target audience early enough, and effectively enough, you’ll end up shaping your development in ways that may not be suitable. Remember you have two customers: the business and the learner. Each person has different requirements in terms of learning practices. Once we do understand the business and client needs, we need to make the learning experiences engaging, accessible and relevant. If you can solve real problems for people, you don’t just help them, you can disrupt entire industries. Disruption can be uncomfortable, but incredibly innovative. BEST MOMENTS ‘Learning is a very human experience’ ‘L&D has not kept up with the world, and is not delivering the experience people want’ ‘Given the choice, people can choose bizarre and unsuitable ways of learning’ ’The simplest things are often what people need’ ‘We know so much more now about what makes good learning' ABOUT THE GUEST Clive Shepherd is a workplace learning and development specialist, with a particular interest in the application of media and technology. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Clive has headed up a corporate training function, co-founded a leading multimedia development business and operated as an independent consultant. In recent years, Clive has devoted his attention to the new role of the learning architect, the design of next generation blended learning solutions and the design of digital learning content. You can follow and connect with Clive via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliveshepherd/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/CliveShepherd Blog: hhttp://www.cliveonlearning.com/ Website: https://skillsjourney.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

How do we know what we do works? Well, Kevin M Yates has made this his mission. In this episode we talk about how expectations of L&D have grown and how we need to adapt in order to demonstrate our impact. KEY TAKEAWAYS At a senior level in Learning & Development there seems to be a paranoia/anxiety that training isn’t getting results or equating to any kind of business performance, capability or change. There’s been a transition in the expectation of what L&D is. Decades ago, expectations were very different. Right now, the expectation is that people will use their performance in a way that helps the business win. In the past, this focus on performance in that context was not resonant. Happy sheets, attendance, completion and satisfaction, the main parameters chosen to measure the success of training, don’t actually measure whether or not anything has been learned. Organisational goals are where L&D should begin, before looking at the gaps in performance and capability that are limiting people’s capacity for achieving those. Learning solutions and experiences need to hit three criteria for full-blown impact analysis: Whether or not the learning solution is strategically and intentionally aligned to a business goal. Whether or not the solution or experience has high visibility within the business. Whether or not it’s expensive Being curious and creating relationships are keystones to successful implementation of L&D, and the measurement of its success. BEST MOMENTS ‘We are expected now to impact people’s performance in a very measurable way’ ‘I believe that those metrics and measures tell a story’ ‘You’re always defining those things before you go and investigate’ ‘Be curious’ ‘I consider myself a curator of knowledge and information' ABOUT THE GUEST Kevin’s expertise is answering the question, “Did training work?”, with facts, evidence, and data. His work is global and multi-industry. He's a sought after subject matter expert and international speaker. You can follow and connect with Kevin via: Twitter: @KevinMYates - www.twitter.com/kevinmyates LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmyates/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevmyates/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevmyates/ Website: https://kevinmyates.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Too often, L&D technology implementations promise so much and deliver so little. The word ‘transformation’ is used prior to launch but, due to lack of sustained engagement, driving traffic to justify the expenditure becomes the goal. In this episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, Lori and David talk about what it really takes to make large-scale, organisation-wide digital transformations successful. KEY TAKEAWAYS L&D transformations today mostly depend on learning experiences not on business KPIs. This is the reason tech implementations are very hard to do inside the companies. Lori adds that before choosing any tech platform, it’s best to base it on the exisiting problems. Lori forms strategies rooted on what’s really needed in the business. She does this after evaluation. Will it target the KPIs? Is it revenue-generating? Is it regulatory? She suggests using the software Workfront. There are many resources out there, but there will only be enough resources which create meaning and impact to the team. Learning should be about presenting content with nurturing, understanding, and connections. Use the data that already exists when designing better solutions. Observe ‘digital body language’ by analysing the online engagement of each individual so you can respond properly to their needs. Implementing the emerging technologies in the company does not remove the clasroom trainings. The existing learning strategy might be improved with some new implementations. Based on Lori’s observations, she sees a pattern in the companies management of L&D programs. One-third of them are on-board with L&D tech implementations and have high learnability scores, another one-third are on-board but they won’t get through, and the ones left are the traditionalists who won’t make it also. What are the main pitfalls that L&D fall into, in their best efforts to digitally transform? They don’t start with finding the solutions. They fall inlove with the platfomr before realising it’s gonna work. They aren’t talking to the learners. They don’t engage enough with the Chief Technology Officer. BEST MOMENTS “It’s funny we find L&D teams themselves don’t initiate the change. It usually coming from pressure—they might be not meeting their sales or there might be new regulatory requests—whatever it is, it’s the external pressure that’s on them they now have to respond to. And, we try to get them back in control.” “We’re speaking to them like true business partners.” “The pressure on them to continue to learn maybe lies in being relevant and redundant.” “Fix the root problem.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Workfront - https://www.workfront.com ABOUT THE GUEST Lori Niles-Hofmann is a senior learning strategist with over 20 years of L&D experience across many industries, including international banking, management consulting, and marketing. Having held L&D leadership roles at KPMG and Scotiabank, Lori’s specialisation is large-scale digital learning transformations. You can follow and connect with Lori via: Twitter: @LoriNiles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorinileshofmann/ Website: http://www.loriniles.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for over 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

“Data is the new black” according to Laura Overton. So how do we differentiate the fad from the facts? Laura has a unique perspective on L&D, which is as broad as it is deep. In this episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, we explore the applications of data and evidence-based practice in L&D, what these are and why we all need to pay attention. KEY TAKEAWAYS What’s different now? Unlike in the previous years where we have just started modernising some practices, the main focus lately has been on how companies can keep up with the rapidly-changing technologies present. A business must sought to study and analyse if a new technological solution might increase their business value. What do ‘evidence’ and ‘data’ mean in L&D? Data is just a plain input (a numerical figure, a fact, etc.), but proper handling of it will greatly improve efficiency. It’s easier to gather and analyse data when we have the evidence, which involves the opinions, the observations, and the hypotheses. Data analytics, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are just a few of the buzzwords we hear recently if we ask about emerging technologies. But remember to remain cautious and inquisitive of the systems you wish to adapt in your company. Being trendy does not equate to being the best. According to Rob Briner’s The Role of Scientific in Evidence-Based HR, we can base our evidences on four different sources: scientific research findings, organizational data, professional experience and judgment, and stakeholder’s values and concerns. These can help answer questions you have in the business. Dealing with organisational changes can be very difficult. But, the use of the available data can help ease the transitions happening without disrupting the work culture and work environment. Some stakeholders would immediately suggest some solutions without even knowing the entirety of a certain situation. As an HR practitioner, it’s your job to present the actual data and the possible solutions based on it and some evidences. What can L&D learn from marketing? Marketing is capable of gathering huge amounts of information, from the tidbits to the most critical ones. One of the known marketing experiments is A/B testing, which tests variations of a campaign so a company can know what’s best to use. The same experimentation can be adapted when choosing the best HR practices. For Laura, the secret ingredient in the engagement between data and evidence are the questions you have in the current situation that you’re willing to challenge. They’ll help you gain the information you need to arrive at the best HR practices. BEST MOMENTS “The market dictates strongly where the practitioners should be going rather than it being an equal relationship which increases the amibiguity, as well as anxiety in the profession.” “Data on its own is potentionally dangerous.” “It’s about the questions we ask.” “It’s not taking one set of data, but it’s looking at range of data.” “Data can really shift conversations.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Sentiment Analysis | https://monkeylearn.com/sentiment-analysis/ The Role of Scientific Findings in Evidence-Based HR | https://www.cebma.org/wp-content/uploads/Briner-Barends-The-Role-of-Scientific-Findings-in-Evidence-Based-HR.pdf Center for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa) - https://www.cebma.org How to Start Thinking Like a Data Scientist | Harvard Business Review | https://hbr.org/2013/11/how-to-start-thinking-like-a-data-scientist The Learning & Development Podcast: Agile L&D | Apple | Spotify | Omny ABOUT THE GUEST Laura Overton is an award winning learning analyst dedicated to uncovering and sharing effective practices in learning innovation that lead to business value. Her work is based on 30 years of practical experience and a commitment to supporting evidence based learning decisions and has shared her ideas as author of over 40 reports and hundreds of articles over that time. As the founder of Towards Maturity, she is also known for leading the first 15 years of a longitudinal study programme (2004 – February 2019) respected for uncovering and share learning strategies that lead to business success. You can follow and connect with Laura via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraoverton/ Twitter: @lauraoverton ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for over 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

According to Bob Mosher, Workflow Learning is "learning that occurs while I do my job" - not when I stop work to engage in learning content like when we attend a course, complete e-learning, log into a webinar or other ‘learning activity’. It’s performance-focused and is measured in terms of its ability to deliver results. This conversation unpacks this, along with the 5 Moments of Need framework, and is a fascinating exploration of L&D practice that makes real difference. KEY TAKEAWAYS The danger of “training” is that there’s so much baggage in terms of what that word means, and what it has meant in the past. The Five Moments Of Need are: New More Change Solve Apply Designing for the moment of apply is hugely different from the current approach of content-driven learning. It’s equal to the question of “are we learning to swim, or are we learning not to drown?” Happiness in learning does not always equate to a leap in performance. As trainers and developers, we need to remember that. We must make sure that we understand that failures in the classroom is a legacy problem. It has become overburdened, and is not good at the main purpose for which it has been designed. When you are done with your deliverables, and you look back on the effect that it has had on the workforce, if they have not enabled learners to perform effectively on their own in the workflow, it has failed, because transfer and sustain did not happen. Performance support needs to be re-evaluated by the industry as a whole. It is a discipline, it’s not a thing. If you want to shift to performance first, but you build training first, you will never have time to build performance assets. We need to orchestrate the asset appropriately, not just for the thing it solves, but the way in which it solves it. Workflow learning is consumed while doing the work, guiding learners along so that ultimately they perform while learning. By far, the most effective form of learning Bob has seen is trial and error. BEST MOMENTS ‘We’ve got to get out of the training business’ ‘I am a performance architect’ ’The sweet spot of learning and development is the moment of apply’ ‘What is the deep end like for a learner?’ ‘Carpentry is not a hammer. Surgery is not a scalpel' ABOUT THE GUEST Bob Mosher is a genuine Thought-Leader in L&D and Chief Learning Evangelist, at The 5 Moments of Need™, an organisation that specialises in helping learning professionals design, develop, and measure effective learning and performance support through the 5 Moments design methodology. Bob has been an active and influential leader in the learning and training industry for over 30 years and is renowned worldwide for his pioneering role in new approaches to learning. You can follow and connect with Bob via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/bmosh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmosher/ Website: https://www.5momentsofneed.com/ Performance Matters Podcast: https://performancematters.podbean.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Christopher Lind is Head of Global Digital Learning at GE Healthcare and a seasoned L&D executive. In this episode he talks about how speaking the language of business, rather than the language of L&D, has helped him influence his stakeholders, transform his function and do more with digital. KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the biggest differentiators in Christopher’s success is the ability to speak the language of business, as well as the language of L&D. In L&D there’s a tendency to be caught up in your own space; the way thinking is done, even down to the phrases used. But to business leaders, lots of what they hear doesn’t make sense. It’s fine to be passionate about L&D, but we need to communicate that passion, along with ideas and input, by using laguage that everyone understands, otherwise it seems like a closed community. We can either take what business leaders say and start talking about learning needs and solutions, or stay with their map and talk about the business. A better place to start is not to enquire about the state of the people, who are of course important, but to enquire about the state of the business itself. L&D people need to have a genuine curiosity about the business when you ask the questions, which will allow an authentic response. Remember also that you’re going to get knocked down. Get back in there and keep trying. There’s a misconception that Learning And Development should mimic the school scenario, but it’s up to us to bust that preconception. It should not take the form of “learn before work”. Technology is allowing entirely new ways of learning, including livestream tutoring and networking that can allow people to learn on the job with the help of a connected mentor. BEST MOMENTS ‘We talk about things that make sense to L&D practitioners, but to business leaders it’s just Greek’ ’The first conversation we have with stakeholders, there’s a fork in the road’ ’Speaking the language of business requires us to refocus the conversation’ ‘You’re gonna get knocked down, and that’s okay’ ’Technology is changing things at a pace that is out of this world’ ‘Instead of being a content department, we can be an experience department' ABOUT THE GUEST Christopher is a bold, digital-first learning and talent development leader that’s always been directly embedded in the businesses he serves. As a result, he’s spent his entire career reimagining the landscape of learning and talent development while going head-to-head with business operation leaders and being directly accountable for the outcomes. You can follow and connect with Christopher via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlind/ LINKS The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523 ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Gemma Critchley is Head of Technology & Innovation for Learning at Aviva and her mission is to make work feel more like real life by focusing on creating effortless, useful, beautiful experiences that solve real business problems. We discuss this in detail in relation to the actual work Gemma and her team do and the results they seek. KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the most important things in learning and development is to design things with and for people, really focussing on what they care about, what they’re struggling with, what their problems are, and design accordingly. Innovation can be a scary word. But by looking at what is taking place within organisations, and not keeping learning and development within a bubble, we can listen to the people who do the actual work, and develop in a positive way. The Five DI Methodology is about defining a problem before you start the work: Define, Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy, Iterate. There can be a mentality that when you create a learning project and put it out into the world, you’re done. But you should always look at the impact it’s having, measure it, and make it better. Technological innovations in L&D mean that instead of treating development as some kind of field trip, companies can treat it more as though it’s part of the workflow, meaning that it can be communicated and absorbed more efficiently. When people go through transitions within the context of an organisation, things become predictable, repeatable and then it’s all about the timeliness. If you can anticipate when people experience that then you can have that point on an automated workflow to surface the things that people require, and when. Gemma found something of a culture shock when she moved from marketing to L&D, in that marketing is very much data led. By tapping into the data being amassed about her customers, she was able to pinpoint the exact requirements and most effective methods of reaching them at all times. L&D’s data only seems to come after the fact, and so being able to pinpoint the development required is much more difficult. But the industry is getting there. Judge the success of any venture by measuring the difference in the business as a result of having implemented something new. BEST MOMENTS ‘We forget that there’s a human in Human Resources’ ‘Let’s not focus on what’s wrong, let’s focus on what could be better’ ‘Learning and development is about finding out what people are up against and then helping them’ ’That’s what learning is missing: that campaign mentality’ ‘We use data as the autopsy’ ‘You’ve got a North Star that you can work to. You need a guiding light' ABOUT THE GUEST Gemma Critchley has been leading teams to develop, manage and market digital products in learning, talent, social media and marketing for over 10 years. As Head of Technology & Innovation for Learning at Aviva, Gemma leads a team to deliver commercial outcomes through innovative approaches to learning, talent and organisational development, with a focus on the digital transformation. Using innovation, technology, storytelling and experience design her ultimate aim is to deliver real business results. You can follow and connect with Gemma via: Twitter: @GemStGem LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmacritchley/ LINKS The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523 How People Learn by Nick Shackleton-Jones https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-People-Learn-Designing-Performance/dp/0749484705/ref=sr_1_1?crid=4QWWKQ5GU5HT&keywords=how+people+learn&qid=1565856607&s=books&sprefix=how+people+learn%2Caps%2C132&sr=1-1 ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Agile is at risk of becoming a buzzword in L&D and misinterpreted, watered down or disregarded as just a fad. However, it’s working to help Sky move at pace, achieve more and achieve real results. In this episode, Tracey Waters, Director of People Experience at Sky, talks about her team’s adoption of Agile, what this actually means, and how it is experienced - from all sides. Discover today on The Learning & Development Podcast why we need to be disruptive with our L&D approaches (e.g. classroom learning), what technologies we can utilise inside our business, how you can influence more value to the team, how Agile can help you and your team’s perfomance, and many more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Why transition to Agile? It encourages better understanding of each team member, it’s built it on iterations, and it’s data-driven. It delivers capacity, flexibility, responsiveness and adaptability. Tracey believes that classroom learning has not been very effective and only brings little to no benefits. It does not improve how people work. Here are the 4 R’s that classroom learning causes: Relationships – People get a lot from meeting others in the same boat as them and learning from their experience. Recuperation – It gives them a chance to get away from tasks even just for a while. Recognition – They get motivated to complete the training because of the awarded certificate. Reward – People felt good about being nominated or accepted onto a programme. Focus instead on how every operation can be valuable to each individual. If they see that what they’re doing have beneficial outputs, it’s easier for them to get influenced and motivated to perform well. With this approach, they can still build relationships, learn new things, and improve themselves. Utilise technological innovations (i.e. Agile). There’s better understanding, and reaching out becomes easier when the data is always available when you need it. You also make every moment memorable for them and offer invaluable support when there is full awareness of the situation. Some might have doubts on incorporating Agile. The key thing to remember here is it helps distinguish what works and what doesn’t anymore in your business. And with these as the basis, we can choose what to improve and what to change. Visual management is very useful. You need two softwares: one is where the team can communicate (e.g. Slack, Microsoft Teams) and the other one is a visual planning board where the work flow can be tracked (e.g. Trello). Before looking into different approaches such as Agile, know your WHY. Take the time to go back to your planning board and evaluate your goals, visions, and objectives. If you think Agile is the vehicle that will get you to all of them, then it’s easier to get started from there. BEST MOMENTS “If we run L&D, we should be embracing a philosophy that is fundamentally built in learning and high-performing teams.” “When you also learn from psychology perspective and neuroscience perspective how people learn, it makes classroom learning more bonkers.” “If you start with a consumer-grade technology experience and build around that, then you can actually be flexible of what you offer to people.” “The whole emphasis is on we’ll get better at this together, we’ll make mistakes together, and we’ll make sure that we get better.” “If you aren’t getting resistance, then I’m not sure you’re disrupting the model.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Agile Software | Wikipedia The Learning & Development Podcast: How People Learn With Nick Shackleton-Jones | Apple | Spotify | Omny How People Learn: Designing Education and Training that Works to Improve Performance by Nick Shackleton-Jones Slack Microsoft Teams Trello ABOUT THE GUEST Tracey Waters is Director of People Experience at Sky UK and a pioneer in the application of Agile to Learning & Development. With over 15 years of experience in the profession, Tracey has overseen Sky’s transition from a traditional L&D operating model to fully embracing Agile to move at speed and solve real business problems. You can find out more about Tracey’s work and the Agile HR Community via: Agile In Learning Blog: https://medium.com/agile-in-learning Fosway Innovation Profile on Sky: http://www.fosway.com/innovation-profile-sky/ Agile HR Community: https://www.agilehrcommunity.com/new-events ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for over 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Here Technologies has a fascinating culture of autonomous learning that fits perfectly with their company culture. In this episode, Toby Newman talks about the shift that was made, what that looks like now, and his own journey from trainer to a totally modern Learning & Development professional. KEY TAKEAWAYS eLearning has changed radically over the years, putting far more control into the hands of users, and turning the experience into less of a teacher-pupil relationship. Access to online and remote access to professionals has changed the landscape. Online training is so popular because it fits in with people instead of trainers. But face-to-face training should never be discounted, as it has many of the benefits that remote training cannot. Autonomy is on the rise, with location technology at the core its DNA. From Smart Cities, to Navigation, location is an ever-expanding industry. Technological advances happen so frequently, and leaps in learning are so persistent, that Toby insists upon instilling and implementing a learning culture in the business, so that the company can always keep moving in the right direction. Learning is one thing, but discussing it in depth afterwards is just as powerful, and can help to embed the information in a different way. The main aim for Toby is to develop tools in order to build bridges between those with the expertise and those seeking the expertise, rather than building programs filled with content. It’s a far more “blended” approach. Toby’s autonomous approach to training allows those who wish to develop faster, the ability to do so. Often training takes place with large numbers of staff, many of which are not engaged, or do not wish to develop. By allowing those who wish to progress the opportunity to do so independently, the training becomes more targeted and effective. Go to expos - For Toby the biggest thing going to the Learning Technologies Expo, and simply walking around, talking to people, and listening, gives you an eye towards where the industry is heading. Take responsibility for your own development as a professional, keep your ear to the ground, but also filter. Understand your own organisation, too. It’s important to ask our customers for direction, but we must also understand where the industry is going and use our own instincts. BEST MOMENTS ‘I just went by what I felt was right’ ‘What I’d love to be able to do is some kind of “Matrix” thing; plug yourself in, download it, and away you go’ ‘We provide the solid foundation and a couple of walls, but they get to build the inner house’ ‘You put your energy into the people who want to be there’ ‘Provide people with the bridges and resources to be able to get what they want’ ABOUT THE GUEST Toby is L&D Manager at Here Technologies, an Open Location Platform company, based in the Netherlands, with a fascinating culture of learning. An experienced Learning & Development professional with 15 years in our profession, Toby has worked across different organisations and industries, including Telecommunications and Retail. LINKS The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523 Toby Newman on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/theneverendinglearner Toby’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUEYHTCDPcdwXMsQNkb1Qg?view_as=subscriber Toby’s TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hHrXGDqNzc&list=PLDoXrtJe8hy4EJ2PswlFy-zSTmv1LEddn ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/ . https://applysynergies.com/

In the last 12 months, Adam has gone from Digital Learning Partner at ASOS, to L&D Manager for Revolut and, finally, Head of L&D at D&D London. And not because he’s flighty but because his skills are in high demand. In the episode, Adam talks about his rapid rise in L&D and what others can take from his focus and development. KEY TAKEAWAYS Resources before courses The sweet spot is where we can help people to get stuff done by creating things that speak to their challenges and questions. It all comes down to asking the questions. A business starts and ends with the people. It's working with and for the client in an agile sense focusing on the outcomes rather than the product. It’s all about taking them on a journey building resources that can actually help. Performance support is at the core of resources. Asking questions and unpacking the answers ensures you can really help and drive effective change across an organisation. If you want to be the change that you see and create the job you want then you need to understand the background and mandate of the organisation. Finding the right people You have to work hard to find people who are truly forward-thinking, reframing what you are looking for to attract the disrupters who will drive change. Its someone who is willing to find out what the real challenges are, and seek the real answers. It's having an appreciation that digital is woven into our lives at all points of time For any young aspiring learning and development person, there are great opportunities It's about being in real life and wanting to make a difference Understanding what is holding L&D back from having a greater impact Organisations have an expectation of what an L&D department is for within the company. We are stuck in the prison of what we have always been doing when there are real problems and challenges that need to be supported. When learning and development reappraises and understands that it can have a more important role then it will be able to focus on creating that role within a company. It's about what the problems really are and understanding how you can support individuals in solving them. BEST MOMENTS ‘Wanting to affect what is important to the business and increase the expectations of what the L&D function can do, it's bold and it's brave’ It's easy to run a schedule of programs because it's easy to measure ‘I looked at what they are trying to achieve as a company and how L&D could remove the friction’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Learning & Development Podcast ABOUT THE GUEST ADAM HARWOOD Adam Harwood is Head of L&D with D&D London, having recently been both L&D Manager at Revolut and Digital Learning Partner at ASOS. Adam is renowned for his views on digital and its potential to transform L&D and truly affect employee performance in service of organisational results. In addition, Adam is active in the L&D community. GUEST CONTACT METHOD You can follow and connect with Adam via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamharwood26 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamharwood1984/ Article Adam mentioned in the chat: https://peopleatwork.cipd.co.uk/2018/12/21/were-the-ones-who-bring-people-together/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

We did something different in this episode and took your questions. We posted on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for suggestions and were overwhelmed by the response - and by the quality of the questions. So we discussed everything from David’s experience - what he’s most proud of, and what he’s no so proud of (in terms of L&D projects); about the current state of L&D’; overcoming challenges to modernising; and the future of the profession… But much much more as well. David is joined by Adam Harwood again but in a switch of roles, as Adam asks the questions on behalf of listeners. KEY TAKEAWAYS What’s the most inspiring learning project you have seen? Disney Digital Lab’s transition of their publishing business to digital. They brought in experts to create awareness to the general. There were apprenticeships and the transition became successful. What’s the most disastrous project you’ve seen? It was a customer service training for a telecommunication company. It didn’t just cost money, but it also cost time. What’s the most frustrating thing you ever dealth with? The one with Disney Digital Lab. If there’s only one person who you will listen to for the rest of your life? Tracey Waters Is it time to rename L&D to L&P? When people are learning, they’re doing it because they want to achieve a certain goal. David is more drawn to the ‘performance & capability’ part of it. L&Dneeds a clearer vision Is there a big gap between the modern and tradtional approach in L&D teams? It’s big since they came from two different roots. Not everyone is talking about the same thing. Why are we having a hard time developing L&D professionals? It’s because we build everything from scratch. We all start with a vision. It’s easy but complex at the same time. What do you advise when you meet with the professionals? Work on real problems so people will engage. “If we work with data, understand, and show how to address these real problems, then we understand the language of the business.” Do you think the future leads to L&D moving into more operations or operations moving into more L&D? There will be advancement in HR management and analytics. We will align more with the operations if we create a new vision for L&D that focuses on the outcomes. What advice can ou give for those who are starting out on a project? Gather and analyse data. Make sure you’ve understand fully before starting out any tasks. David wished he had learned technology even before. BEST MOMENTS “if you don’t want to use it, then how do you expect users to use it?” “I value conversations that are grounded in the practical realities of organisational life much more than I like isolated learning solutions.” “We should be focusing on the goal rather than the means.” “We don’t produce learning; the learning part is an internal process.” “There is need for REAL Learning & Development as far as I’m concerned. It needs a vision—a vision that’s better than now.” ABOUT THE GUEST Adam Harwood is Head of L&D with D&D London, having recently been both L&D Manager at Revolut and Digital Learning Partner at ASOS. Adam is renowned for his views on digital and its potential to transform L&D and truly affect employee performance in service of organisational results. In addition, Adam is active in the L&D community. You can follow and connect with Adam via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamharwood26 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamharwood1984/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

'L&D Transformation' is a term that preoccupies L&D Leaders as much as it baffles us. So what does it mean? What does it really look like? And just as importantly, what is it not? Barbara Thompson has held titles in L&D Transformation and Innovation since 2007 and talks about why this is still an important topic today - and what we should all be doing about it. KEY TAKEAWAYS Transformation in L&D should mean examining the construct of the team, the operating model, governance, and looking at how technology can support all that you are doing. When you invest in technologies before you determine your direction, then you can find yourself looking for problems to solve with this technology, rather than solve the real problems. Transformation L&D means rethinking everything, from understanding what we should be working on, our use of data, the engagement with those we wish to influence, the types of solutions we employ, our whole perception of digital, and how we demonstrate our value. Successful companies, such as Amazon, Monzo and Spotify, have taken a radically new viewpoint on the customer experience. Amazon matches your 'wants' to the things it can offer. Spotify asks the question “Do you want to buy music, or do you just want to listen to it?” The shining examples of businesses doing it in the correct way are laser-focussed on solving problems, using data to ensure that there is first a problem to solve, followed by working with and for the client, putting the solution in the hands of the people who need it, making sure that the solution works before scaling it. Some of the pitfalls in transforming L&D can include, surprisingly, letting people know that you are transforming as it sets an expectations that is hard to attain. Also not working in a agile way and failure to focus on the user experience. One of the key enablers for transformation and innovation is the leadership team. What do they think about learning? What would they like from learning? What are the disruptive forces? By subscribing to the notion that agility is key in transformation, we should also accept the fact that some things might work, and some things might not. Pivoting and using agility to correct these paths and try something else is completely fine. One of the most important steps in transformation is to understand the way that education is perceived within the organisation, because this understanding will allow you to understand how better to pivot and add value. BEST MOMENTS ‘We look for innovative solutions instead of stuff that works sometimes’ ‘You change the name of what you’re doing, but you don’t change the practice’ ‘What worked yesterday is not going to work today’ ‘It’s relentless but successful’ ‘We need to test it and iterate’ ABOUT THE GUEST Barbara is an experienced Learning & Development practitioner who is renowned for her progressive views on the profession. Having worked for 9 years at BP, Barbara built her skills and reputation on developing forward-thinking, results-driven L&D solutions that were way ahead of where the profession was and, perhaps, where it largely still is today. Her roles at PA Consulting and GP Strategies see her applying her know-how in many more organisations who are looking to modernise and transform. You can follow and connect with Barbara via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaribThompson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarathompson1/ Blog: https://medium.com/@ba_thompson ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

As L&D Manager for CastUK, Eva doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk of modern, progressive L&D, focusing on business performance outcomes and creating learning experiences that combine digital and face-to-face. Hear Eva’s stories about her progress and her principles of Learning & Development in practice. KEY TAKEAWAYS Did you have an idea of how you wanted your L & D function to run? I wanted to move away from classroom-based training and to establish what great looked like for the company. We explored what sort of skills we needed and what were the skills people already had. Every skill needs to be tackled differently and when you are addressing reality you are able to achieve real results. People are afraid of experimenting and trying something new because at some point failure is guaranteed but what you do with the lesson learned is what makes the difference. I was open to challenge and they were prepared to challenge, this combined has enabled us to change. What have you done to broaden and challenge the expectations of what L & D looks like? I wanted to initially to understand what the challenges were across the business for differing individuals. Learning has to be hard fun; people should be doing something different to what they do in the workplace Using role-play in the training room enables individuals to learn from their mistakes in a safe environment. We underestimate people’s need for autonomy, to be able to go through things at their own pace and develop true understanding. Can you explain how you have saved time in induction with digital solutions? The induction is not shorter, but the approach is different. Anything that is knowledge or content-based people access themselves digitally at their own pace. The digital solution is curated content- some of which is created internally capturing the knowledge within the company, it’s the ‘how to’ The face to face sessions are opportunities to summarise and check the understanding. You are have been exploring automation with digital resources, how is that developing? It is useful to be able to target various groups with different content and send it out when it is needed. The Looop solution allows me to be more timely, proactive and efficient with my time. If we don’t understand what people are trying to do when they are facing critical points of failure, unfamiliar situations or challenges then we can’t support them. Go out and do it, give it a try and see how it works for you, get into that experimenting mindset It’s about solving the real problems out there, being curious and using technology as your tool. BEST MOMENTS ‘The biggest challenge in L & D is capturing what works’ ‘The want and will to constantly review their own performance and understand it’ ‘You are making an assessment based on readiness through observation’ ‘If you are results-driven you are not precious about content, you view it as a tool to achieve the results’ ABOUT THE GUEST Eva Adam Eva Adam is L&D Manager at CastUK, a recruitment consultancy specialising in sourcing executive and management level roles. Whilst Eva is relatively new to L&D, having spent time before in operational and management roles, she is clear about the impact she wishes to make with her practice and leadership and has successfully sold this vision to her stakeholders. You can connect with Eva via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-adam-25947787/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Experience Design is a relatively new term in L&D and yet it has very quickly become an aspiration for forward-thinking functions around the world. Danny and David explore what Experience Design is, some great examples and how you can get started with it. Creating experience and using practical applications rather than shoving theoretical practice is highlighted in this episode of The Learning and Development Podcast. The big gap after the onboarding process of new employees will be filled if we see things differently. Support, knowledge, and training shouldn’t just be given during the first months. We have to learn how to make this a long-term commitment to the people in the company. KEY TAKEAWAYS Companies show their utmost support and value to new employees during the onboarding process. There’s 'excitement' and 'enticement'. They give them the full experience as they enter. But the problem is there’s a big gap that’s felt after individuals sign the contract. There’s no continuity of what they have established, which may help improve the individual’s experience and performance inside the company. Face-to-face interaction does not outright mean experience design. For example, learning inside a classroom won’t assure that you master your leadership skills. You need to actually experience it –learn the ropes and practice it with team exercises. Immersion is a good way to learn. When you experience it with your senses and feelings, it’s easier to be acquainted and remembered. Danny’s advice: Put yourself into their experiences so you can shape theirs. Don’t just look at L&D. Look at other industries and get inspiration. BEST MOMENTS “I don’t think learning experience is a thing. I think experience is a thing and learning is the byproduct of that experience.” “We know our memories our crap, but the emotions that we can attach to that are different.” “When we talk about the impact, we talk about the real reasons we do it. We don’t do it because it’s nice to have. We don’t give people a standardised what they shouldn’t do.” “Experiences don’t have to be grand.” “It’s all about leading so someone else follows.” ABOUT THE GUEST Danny is an Experience Design Architect and has been a leader in this field, at TalkTalk and GP Strategies amongst others, at the forefront of designing experiences that make a lasting difference. As well this, Danny is the voice - and brains - behind Mindchimp, a pioneering Learning & Development podcast series and thriving L&D community. You can follow and contact Danny via: Twitter: @TheDannySeals LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannyseals/ Website: https://mindchimp.co.uk/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

It’s largely known that generational differences are an important factor for organisations but a different thing to know what we should do to attract, develop and keep younger talent. In this episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, David interviews Rowena Bach to discuss on how to handle different generations in the workforce. Learn also about the different challenges that Rowena has seen throughout her career. This conversation explores some of the things L&D teams - and Early Careers specialists - should consider and doing to capitalise on the big opportunities that a good Early Careers strategy can present. They also covered the different trends that companies should watch out for so they can improve their recruitment process and take into mind their senior team members. Discover more about these when you tune in. KEY TAKEAWAYS There are two problems that Rowena is trying to solve for organisations: Macro-level, where your background dictates where you’re going Organisational, recruitment management It’s difficult to handle the team especially if it comprises the 5 generations in the workforce. Each lived a different life that has shaped their values and behaviours right now. Challenges: Establishing an inflow of talent Ageing skill of workforce (Organisational) Receiving up to 35,000 applications for 100 roles (Organisational) Low budget Organisational development and learning and development help the newly recruited people adjust in the workplace. The new generation base their decision-making process on activism, radicalism, and loyalty, while the baby boomers base it on hierarchy, legacy, and commitment. Key Trends to watch out for in L&D: Global skills gap Impacts of technology on workforce Access to information Though the interview might be the most vital part of the recruitment process, it does not envelope everything that we need to know from entry-level talent. BEST MOMENTS “Why do L&D professionals and HR professionals stay in this industry? It’s because we’re in the space that brings something in the business that they don’t have time for.” “Every single one of those is potentially a customer.” “Every new person that you bring will challenge your organisational dynamic.” “People have specific reasons why they work.” “It’s almost a fallcy that interviews get you what you need to know about the person.” “Dealing with equality is not just an ethical imperative; there’s so much evidence about how a balanced workforce fastly improves how successful organisations are.” ABOUT THE GUEST Rowena Bach is an Early Careers/Future Talent leader with 15 years’ experience of setting talent strategies (people and digital), consulting and leading change programmes, and teams, to deliver commercial value. Prior to this, Rowena was Head of Future Talent at BSkyB following her role as Learning & Development Manager for Disney Consumer Products. Her current role involves Rowena helping clients get to know the evolving Gen Z landscape, understanding and utilising the Apprenticeship Levy, attracting and retaining diverse candidates in the recruitment process, and ensuring that emerging talent pipelines match the needs of your business. You can follow and contact Rowena via: Twitter: @Rowena_Bach LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowenabach/ Website: http://insights.tmpw.co.uk/u/102f64x/rowena-bach Article mentioned in the podcast, ‘The Global Skills Gap in the 21st Century’: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/global-skills-gap-21st-century-rowena-bach/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Today on The Learning & Development Podcast, David talks to Nick Shackleton-Jones, the author of How People Learn and a genuine thought leader on Learning & Development, to talk more about how we can improve our learning and training strategies for our employees. It must be centred on how they could grow and develop themselves so we can expect high performance. Discover in this episode how we can use simulations to determine solutions, the pull and push method, producing content, and many more. Start changing your perspective on learning for the better when you tune in. KEY TAKEAWAYS How can a genuine thought leader be differentiated from a fake one? Genuine thought leaders don’t say what you want to hear; they say what you need to hear. Be ready to what they say even though some truths might be unpleasant. When producing content for learning, it’s important to know how it can help. Know the main concerns first, so you’ll know what can be the solutions to present. Do an analysis of what worked and what didn’t work for them in the past. How can Learning & Development align better to the business? “Solve their problems first, not translate them into your solutions.” Models that exist today only serve those who are at the top, not the people who really need the service. Find out who your audience is. The effective context model is supposed to underpin all learning phenomena for all in different contexts. The pull and push approach is useful since we only react to things we care. What to Consider When Redesigning L&D Strategies: Creating resources Experience design—responding to challenges and creating challenges The Learning & Development sector should be ready for disruptions that could boost the strategies and services. For example, technology is becoming more functional for everyone. BEST MOMENTS “I’d like to think that people entering the world of learning development believed that it was an antidote to the weirdness and bureaucracy.” “Our challenges drive our learning.” “The only way to get them to efficiently to just know it is to find out what they care about today.” “Let’s not come to people with PowerPoint presentations when we have some time to have valuable time together to talk about what they think, to share experiences, and to learn from each other.” “We are eliminating learning in the interest of making everything more usable.” ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Shackleton-Jones Nick is a genuine thought-leader in Learning & Development, responsible for coining the ‘courses to resources’ shift and the affective context model of learning. He began his professional life as a psychology lecturer and went on to lead learning functions at Siemens, BBC & BP. He’s now a consultant and author of ‘How People Learn’ (Kogan Page, May 2019) as well as winning several awards for people development strategy, innovation, and learning content, including the Learning & Performance Institute’s Award for Services to the Learning Industry, 2017. You can follow and contact Nick via: Twitter: @shackletonjones LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shackletonjones/ How People Learn: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-People-Learn-Designing-Performance/dp/0749484705 ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Work is evolving to meet the needs of globally focused organisations and in response to globally dispersed talent - and remote working has been a key factor in this shift. We know this, this is not news. But how we develop remote workers may be news. In this episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, we explore considerations for Learning & Development for supporting remote workers. David talks today to Perry Timms, an author, motivational speaker, a CEO, and a top HR influencer. Discover everything about remote working – its pros and cons, its place in HR management in the past, present, and in the future, and its inclusion in L&D strategies. Both business owners and remote workers can learn from the discussion so start tuning in. KEY TAKEAWAYS We can shape the future greater than we think we can. We can’t just sit and watch things to unfold. If there’s optimism, a drive to change, and willingness to act, we can improve the current state of the workplace. Remote working is not an impossible proposition to incorporate in organisations now because of technology. It has become easier to communicate with people and complete tasks. Changing our mindset and attitude about remote working can actually benefit our organisations. The physical proximity of the workers might be a difficult thing to consider in HR management, but developing remote workers doesn’t need training, you just need to discover what strategy works best for your company. It’s useful for organisations to highlight partnerships in their L&D strategies. Sharing their knowledge and learning journey to each other can actually make it easy to make remote working possible. Managing and overseeing the social platforms where you interact with your remote workers is important. L&D strategies should also empower them and let their voice be heard in coming up with solutions no matter where they are. As much as possible, invite healthy conversations and prevent these platforms from being polluted with bias, forced authority, etc. Efforts on maintaining the dynamics between the organisation and remote workers are more pronounced compared to those who are working onsite. As the leader, it’s your priority to make sure that the remote workers still feel belongingness. BEST MOMENTS “I like to think I’ve got a grounding in the reality of the world but also an incredibly dreamy perspective on how things could be.” “I feel their pain, I celebrate their gain, and I really wanna leave them in the sense that they’re better than they were before they started.” “If there’s one thing that we can start to recommend to remote workers is when you are hitting a wall, that’s the time to stop and think, ‘What can I learn?’” “If people want it passionately enough, they’ll find a way to make it work and shouldn’t find a way to hijack L&D.” ABOUT THE GUEST Perry Timms is listed in HR Magazine’s HR’s Most Influential List for 2017 and described by CIPD CEO Peter Cheese as “The HR Futurist”. Perry is the author of the book ‘HR Transformation’, he’s an international CPD accredited and TEDx speaker on HR, workplace learning, technology and the future of work, a consultant, facilitator and coach. Prior to all of this, Perry was Head of HR for Big Lottery Funding in the UK. You can follow and contact Perry via: Twitter: @PerryTimms LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrytimms/ Website: https://www.pthr.co.uk/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

‘You’re going to know your customers better than any system, Digital value is about human value, it’s about working with people to solve problems’ As a successful leader in Digital (at the BBC and at Ask.com), Myles has observed L&D’s embracing of new technologies but also its failure to transform itself. We discuss what digital transformation really means and what it will take for L&D professionals to make the most of the opportunities that digital now offers. KEY TAKEAWAYS Digital capability is largely remiss in L&D and is a blocker to positively changing the profession, is this what you see? The preoccupation with technology is a real problem for the industry. For too much of the time for too many people digital means technology implementation One of the most important aspects is the pace at which you have to move and having a clear focus on data and evidence. The digital world has shown the values and benefits of a prototype to demonstrate and gather real data and this is driven at pace You can’t make a transformational change from your current position; you have to have new information and data. The stuff that we use ourselves has completely changed the way we communicate, our entertainment and access to each other. The digital revolution has not been about systems it has been about having new experiences that add value to our lives in different ways The L&D profession is still stuck in the trap of finding new ways to do what its always done rather than finding new things to do. What is digital transformation for you? The challenge for L&D is that the learning pace is now set outside of the industry and we need to change how we work to meet the rising expectations we all, as consumers, have. It’s about what we can do with the technologies we can create and how we can apply them We need to constantly be aiming to give the best consumer experience we can. One of the challenges is for the industry to look beyond learning data and be smart about other sources of data, we need to be smart about all of the data landscape to help us understand what the problems are and how we will solve them. What's your position on digital and face to face? It’s not about one or the other it's about how you use the tools you have available to solve the problems. It can be people coming together, or a phone call, it's about an event that is helpful. The learning classroom is a human event that due to what it is surrounded by has increased in value and importance. VALUABLE RESOURCES Myles Runham LinkedIn Myles Runham website BEST MOMENTS ‘The L&D world needs to become much more confident working in these ways’ ‘For people in senior positions, it’s about letting go and trusting in something new’ ‘You need to be where people are and understand why they want to learn in the first place’ ‘There is a recognition now that everything is changing, and it is happening at a pace so beware of certainty’ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

This is a brand new podcast for L&D professionals by L&D professionals. We’ll be discussing and debating the topics and priorities affecting the profession today. This is a brief introduction to the show from the host David James. ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

‘Do stuff that works, affect the business, speak a language the business recognises because you are working on their priorities and show them how your work has made a difference in order to build the credibility to gain more currency to do more of the right stuff’ In this episode, David is in conversation with Simon Gibson. As seasoned L&D leaders, David and Simon discuss what L&D Transformation looks like today and the areas we need to change to achieve it. An insightful and practical conversation grounded in reality, listen in to find out more. KEY TAKEAWAYS How would you sum up what’s changing? The outside world is coming into the business environment. If you are in a business environment and learning is a course or a 5-page document then you are disconnected from the way people have instant access to everything outside of work. Expectations from clients are changing and what they need now is changing. I’m passionate about knowing what’s going on and how people are doing it. Organisations have a massive responsibility to support individuals chosen learning journeys. How has your view of how L&D needs to change been shaped by your senior level and access to your CEO? I’m a curious and inquisitive person who wants to ask challenging questions and I don’t want to pitch that at a level below where I’m going to get the answer. I want to be talking to the forums who understand what the impact will be. Being part of these senior forums provides the opportunity to understand the whole picture. Being presented with those true business challenges in a dynamic environment and understanding them can be key to finding the solutions. Credibility to talk is key in any forum in your organisation. It's about the impact you can have to shape and transform the organisation. If you are not helping shape and transform, you are only helping it to stand still and you are in danger of becoming obsolete very quickly. Do L&D get digital transformation? The context is everything in an organisation. Digital transformation is multi-faceted. For L&D one aspect is the disruptive technologies that are affecting businesses today and the other is some of the delivery mechanisms used. Peoples ability to learn and consume is now very free and there is a huge opportunity to look at the real needs within an organisation How do you prepare people to make the next steps? How do you prepare people for transformation? There are similar challenges that exist across every organisation BEST MOMENTS ‘What are we looking to change?’ ‘The gritty reality of in-house politics’ ‘There’s a balance between gut feeling and what the data and information is telling you’ ‘It’s smashed into work at such a pace’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Simon Gibson LinkedIn Simon Gibson Twitter ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

Nigel Paine is a hard man to pin down to a profile, his LinkedIn page describes him as Learning Now TV presenter and podcast host but there is lots more, He teaches on a doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania, works for the University of Chicago as part of their business school at the London campus and writes books about the world as he sees it. In this episode David and Nigel are discussing his latest book, Workplace Learning: How To Build A Culture Of Continuous Employee Development, David and Nigel explore its themes in the context of the real-life challenges faced by L&D professionals today. KEY TAKEAWAYS What were you hoping to achieve with this book? I usually write my books in a rage and the rage behind this book was the term’ learning culture’ being bandied about by people who did not know what they were talking about and had no understanding of the history behind the term. I have tracked the journey and looked at what is happening today to help others understand what a learning culture is and provide them with the tools and ideas to build a better learning culture in their own businesses. Who decides they want to embark on creating a learning culture? The key is not to be able to say that everyone is learning but to be able to say we are making better decisions, move faster, have more ideas and are more innovative, cooperating and working together. The dream is clear but how you get to the dream is not clear that’s where the role of L&D is vital, their ability to frame it and offer solutions is critical to the journey. Usually, L&D teams don’t have the remit, currency or skills to change the culture, and yet so many say they need to how do we get past this initial hurdle? You got to understand the frustrations and what inhibits people from doing their best. In understanding this you can begin changing the organisational process through people and eventually more of a learning culture emerges. You’ve got to say we will scrap everything and build again based on need. If we know what people really do need help with then we can guide and support them effectively As a profession are we ready to acknowledge that ‘the course’ is not doing the job we are in organisations to do? It’s a recognition that people learn in different ways and recognising that huge amounts of learning takes place in the workplace. Its moving learning and work closer together, that’s when learning becomes exciting, ingrained and integrated into the business.You’ve got to have a vision about the organisation you want to build and then work out what will make the biggest difference. How do we bridge the skills gap in L&D? Sometimes it is important to be able to buy in the specialist skills you require for a specific piece of work or project. Every learning professional should be on their own learning journey to make sure they don’t get left behind by trying new stuff we broaden our horizons. A learning culture is one where people take information from outside and share it quickly turning it into action. BEST MOMENTS ‘If you don’t lose the mentality that everything has to be a course you can't change and move forward’ ‘The vast majority of learning is solved by individuals or teams without any reference to L&D, they just get on and do it’ ‘It’s not about nice learning it's about hard-edged business benefits’ ‘If you haven’t got sharing you haven’t got a learning culture’ ABOUT THE GUEST Nigel Paine Nigel is a prominent figure in the global L&D community and has been involved in corporate learning for over twenty years, including time leading the BBC’s Learning and Development operation. He left the BBC in September 2006 to start his own company that is focused on building great workplaces by promoting creativity, innovation, values based-leadership and learning and the link between them. He speaks regularly at conferences around the world and teaches on a doctoral programme at the University of Pennsylvania and for Chicago Booth Business School. In this podcast, Nigel talks about his latest book (Workplace Learning: how to build a culture of continuous employee development) and how it practically applies to organisations. You can follow Nigel via: CONTACT METHODTwitter: @ebase LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelpaine/ Website: https://www.nigelpaine.com/ Podcast: http://fromscratchpodcast.com/ Learning Now TV: https://learningnow.tv/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: h

‘Our understanding of the human learning process at work has fundamentally changed’ David is in conversation with Sukh Pabial, a talent development partner at Reed Business Information. It’s generally accepted that Learning & Development is changing, and that the skill set required is broadening. In this episode, David and Sukh discuss what these broader skills are and how L&D should evolve to adopt these. KEY TAKEAWAYS What role do you see yourself as having on social media? I’ve ended up creating a certain type of persona which at times is provocative and challenging, at times a stream of consciousness. I’ve never planned my twitter or blogging in detail and learnt along the way. I use my podcast to focus on positive psychology and emotional intelligence, areas I have a particular interest in. What’s the idea behind ‘Modern Learning Leader’? The skills required for L&D professionals are becoming more fragmented and are not always comparable or related disciplines. This can result in individuals focusing on deep learning for each particular specialism in a linear way to further their own development and be able to fulfil the role of a modern learning leader. The program provides a springboard for professionals in the acquisition of new knowledge and the development of further skills. It enables L&D professionals to gain an overview and sense of the differing specialisms required for the modern learning leader. Has the role of L&D changed or are the mechanisms for delivery different? It is both and more. When you start to look at what people do on a day to day basis to further their own learning you realise it is radically different from the learning products we provide. Our understanding of the human learning process at work has also fundamentally changed resulting in mechanisms needing to change. Providing learning is easier than affecting performance, why rock the boat? We have to start to question what we are doing and how we are impacting? YouTube came along and was the learning platform we never knew we needed. We are putting ourselves at risk of leaders seeing the role as redundant if we do not move forward and change. Are we reaching a tipping point in L&D? There is a community of voices that help to remind us this is a movement. When you look at conference content it has not changed. It is still looking towards long form programs and there is not anything that is genuinely different. There is a world of knowledge out there and if you know how to access it and you understand how to use it to develop what you know and what you do, it’s a good thing to be a part of. BEST MOMENTS ‘It can be challenging to know which stuff out there to pay attention to and which stuff to disregard’ ‘We are getting our hands dirty quicker than we ever did because we can access someone who has already done it’ ‘People understand what you have said because it’s the English language, but they don’t understand what it means for their profession’ ‘We don’t dig deep enough it the questions that make a difference’ VALUABLE RESOURCES L&D Connect group on Twitter ABOUT THE GUEST Sukh Pabial Sukhvinder (Sukh) Pabial, is a learning development and organisational development professional who started his career in this field in 2003. He has worked across a range of sectors and industries. Armed with an education in Occupational Psychology, he develops leading-edge creative and positive solutions and does so ensuring everything he works on is centred with strong academic research and knowledge. CONTACT METHOD Twitter @sukhpabialLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukhvinder-pabial-01113b1b/ Podcast: http://threegood.podbean.com/ ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/

It appears that women are under-represented at a senior level in L&D. What’s going on to address this and what do we all need to be doing? David and Kate explore these points - and more - within this important conversation. KEY TAKEAWAYS How would you describe Fosways role in L&D and your role within the company? We are an independent analyst and our role within the industry is to look at trends and the progression across technology and talent. Our role is to help corporate organisations make better decisions, We also liaise closely with vendors to ensure we have a pragmatic picture. My role involves working across the teams and all content comes through me providing me with an overview of all that is going on. What is the current conversation around women in learning? The statistics are not great for women progressing into senior management. I have been involved in the conversation across social media platforms and the engagement was far and above what I was expecting, it has captured people’s imaginations and is continuing to grow as people join the debate. Research based on the worldwide learning and skills group and used job titles as an indicator; in support roles the split was 33% men to 67% women, in practitioner roles 53% men to 47% women, mid-level 49% men to 51% women, senior roles 69% men to 31% women this makes clear there is a barrier and this is a conversation we need to have. Its opened people’s eyes to an issue that we didn’t know was there previously. What are you hoping to achieve from this conversation? It’s about changing the statistics, ultimately women should be in those senior roles if they want to be and how as an industry can we support that through mentors etc. Mentoring is a great place to start and we are now looking at the practical steps we can implement to move forward. It isn’t just about women it’s about the steps anyone needs to take to move forward. How does this conversation relate to the modernisation that is required in L&D? The important thing for this debate is that it doesn’t lose sight of the link to our profession. We are and should be open-minded to the possibilities, we can challenge our own thinking and desire for flexibility and learning. Faced with this challenge, the statistics, and this ongoing conversation about women in learning that we should hold ourselves accountable for our own development in this area and continue the conversation. BEST MOMENTS ‘That’s real life and to understand that is empowering; we can share stories about ourselves’ ‘It should be about lifting everyone up L&D is a great industry to be in because it’s such a positive place to be’ ‘There were more people named David on the panel than women’ ‘It’s about how the vision is executed within the company’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Fosway Group website Kate Graham Twitter #womeninlearning twitter Kate Graham LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST David James David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. As well as being the Chief Learning Strategist at Looop, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D as well as an active member of the CIPD L&D Advisory Board. CONTACT METHOD Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidinlearning?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/ Website: https://www.looop.co/