The Business of Learning

Dr. Amy Edmondson first introduced the idea of psychological safety while conducting research as a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard Business School. Now, businesses across industries strive to build psychological safety on their teams, which is proven to drive innovation and business outcomes as a result. In this episode of  "The Business of Learning," we spoke with Dr. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and author of “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth,” to learn more about psychological safety as it relates to learning and development. 

 Although the concept of adaptive learning isn’t new, it’s perhaps more relevant than ever. After all, we live in a world of automation, where everything from the TV shows we watch to the products we buy are personally recommended based on our unique needs and preferences. And the corporate training world is no different.  In this episode of The Business of Learning, sponsored by Realizeit, we spoke with Manoj Kulkarni, chief executive officer at Realizeit, to learn more about adaptive learning. 

Today’s workforce is dynamic, and there’s no one-size-fits-all training approach that will work for every organization and for every learner. Blended learning helps overcome the challenges of meeting the many different needs of many different learners, engaging a wide group of employees and giving them the training they need, when they need it. In this episode of "The Business of Learning," we spoke with Jamie Breshears, senior manager in Deloitte Consulting’s learning and leadership practice, and Lynn Leadley, a certified professional in training management and senior vice president at Pax8 University, to learn how blended learning can drive engagement and, as a result, business outcomes.

In the modern workplace, social learning is in full swing, with digital collaboration tools and social networks driving a culture of peer-to-peer learning. We spoke with Kacie Walters, head of global professional development at Northern Trust Corporation, Linda Cai, an experienced learning and talent executive and author of “Share: How Organizations Can Thrive in an Age of Networked Knowledge, Power and Relationships,” and Nicole Lembo, manager of academic programs at JetBlue Airways, to find out how learning leaders can enable social learning in the workplace. 

Effective leaders do more than manage performance: They inspire. They innovate. They listen, and they go out of their way to help their team members succeed. To learn more about modern leadership, we spoke with Laura Smith Dunaief, an experienced learning leader and an instructor for Training Industry’s continuing professional development programs, and Mark Herschberg, a chief technical officer, professor and author of “The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You.” 

2020 accelerated the adoption of virtual meeting and collaboration tools, as companies looked to keep their employees connected and engaged as they worked remotely during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s also become clear that remote work and learning are here to stay. We spoke with Matt Giegerich, chief executive officer of The Inception Company, and Shaun Urban, president of The Inception Company, for expert insights on engaging virtual learners in 2021 and beyond.  Listen to this new episode, sponsored by The Inception Company, to learn more on:  Virtual engagement lessons we learned in 2020.  How to combat virtual meeting fatigue in an increasingly digital workplace.  Tips for successful virtual meeting and training facilitation. 

Learning and development (L&D) leaders worldwide are finding new and innovative ways to immerse their learners in training that drives business results. To learn more about experiential learning, we spoke with Meghan Castillo principal learning experience designer at HubSpot, and Hasti Mehta, learning and development operations specialist at HubSpot. Listen now to learn more on: Creating immersive training experiences in a virtual environment. Leveraging experiential learning for increased learner engagement. The business benefits of experiential learning.

As we recorded this episode in January 2021, the future of work has perhaps never been more uncertain. The coronavirus pandemic has shifted both how many businesses operate and how many employees do their job. To learn more about what the future workforce will look like, and training’s role in developing it, we spoke with Keith Keating, senior director and global learning strategist at GP Strategies.  Listen to this new episode, sponsored by GP Strategies, to learn more on: How COVID-19 has impacted the future workforce. The skills the future workforce needs to thrive. Future training trends to look out for.

The measurement challenge is a common one in the training industry. While we know that L&D plays a key role in helping organizations reach their goals, learning leaders have long struggled to prove the business impact of training. To learn more and uncover the secrets behind effective training measurement and evaluation, we spoke with Asha Pandey, founder and chief learning strategist at EI Design. Listen to this episode, sponsored by EI Design, to learn more on: Common oversights learning leaders make when measuring the impact of training. How to identify which key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure. Popular measurement models and methods.

2020 was a whirlwind. L&D was hard at work helping organizations navigate the coronavirus’ impact on businesses across industries, whether by rolling out a new health and safety course or shifting in-person programs online. As we begin a new year, we spoke with Tiffany Poeppelman, director of LinkedIn’s business leadership program, and Amy Contreras, head of L&D at Uber Freight, to reflect on the learning trends we saw in 2020 and what to expect in 2021.    Listen now to learn more on:  The rise of remote learning.  2020 L&D trends that are here to stay.  The skills leaders need to develop successful teams in 2021.