What content should L&D leaders be consuming? I asked this question to 14 different learning leaders on my Learning and Development Stories podcast. It has been interesting to hear their different recommendations. I wanted to consolidate their responses in one place for others in the learning space. So here goes:
Dan Pontefract, Founder of the Pontefract Group, formerly Chief Learning Officer at TELUS
Dan recommends The New Philosopher Magazine because it is an incredible resource for philosophy and thinkers.
Patrick Veenhoff, Head of Learning & Development at Swisscom
It is also important to look outside traditional L&D resources. Patrick has found inspiration from user experience design, user experience research, psychology, business and entrepreneurship. He recommends Refind, an online tool that curates and sends you articles based on your interests.
Melissa Taylor, Global Learning and Development Director for the public relations firm Porter Novelli
Melissa recommends Blinkist, an app that lets you read key lessons from non-fiction books in 15 minutes or fewer.
“I dream of one day having an office with wall-to-wall books, but I will never have time to read them all,” she said. “Blinkist has a lot of business and professional books and each chapter is summarized to just the key points. I love it.”
Toby Newman, Leadership and Development Lead at Here Technologies
Helpful resources for Toby include the likes of the Chief Learning Officer website and Training Network Magazine.
Malika Viltz-Emerson, Senior Director of Global Learning, Strategy & Program Management with Microsoft
Clark Quinn’s Revolutionize Learning and Development and Dan Lyons’ Disrupted are books that Malika recommends for L&D leaders. She also regularly absorbs the content of CLO Magazine, eLearning Guild, ATD and the Learning and Development Stories Podcast (thanks Malika!).
David Leaser, Senior Executive of Strategic Growth Initiatives for IBM’s Training and Skills Program
“I’d say the number one thing I do to stay up on the industry is read Google alerts that come in every day,” he said. He also believes strongly in going to industry conferences like ATD and DevLearn.
Dr. Britt Andreatta, CEO and President of 7th Mind Inc.
Britt highlighted the work of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) for the good job it has done in staying at the forefront of the industry. She also encourages people to learn about brain science (Britt has authored several books on this subject).
Abhijit Bhaduri, Founder of Abhijit Bhaduri & Associates and former Chief Learning Officer at Wipro
In terms of content, Abhijit notes that “it is really about whatever works best for you and how you best learn, whether it is podcasts, Instagram and so forth. Social media offers so many options. There are always experts available on tap.”
Dana Hariton McQuade, Director Of Development at PRISM4USA (Prism Brain Mapping for North America)
Dana recommends that others in the L&D space refer to content from Josh Bersin and David Rock. She particularly resonated with Rock’s article on why learning needs to be effortful in order to be effective.
Dave Atack, VP – Career Management Principal at Right Management
Dave’s go-to resources are Wired Magazine (because it provides a broader context around technology) and Harvard Business Review (because one can see L&D issues from different perspectives).
Jane Hoskisson, Director of Learning & Development at the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
For ongoing learning, Hoskisson recommends resources from Brené Brown and content on Tech Crunch. She also draws upon mentors in the learning space who provide inspirational thoughts.
Adilson Borges, Carrefour L&D Leader
Adilson spoke highly of Carol Dweck’s book Mindset. The book focuses on having a growth mindset.
Wes Parker, Senior Independent Consultant
To stay abreast about the latest in learning and development, Wes signs up to receive daily emails from the likes of Society for Human Resource Management, Internal Society for Performance Improvement, ATD and the eLearning Guild.
Brandon Carson, Director of Learning at Delta Airlines
Brandon noted Edward Tufte’s website and the book Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman as great sources for content.
So there you have it. What resources do you recommend? Share your responses at this LinkedIn post.