Careers pursuits evolve over time. Take for example when you were entering college. There is a good chance that your aspirations as a young adult changed by the time you were a few years into a career. Probably, as we progress through mid to the end of our careers, interests and goals shift as well. Consultant and podcaster Andy Storch can vouch for this, both through his own career as well as …
Episode #16 – Learning through Content Creation: An Interview with Mitch Joel
A brilliant report from McKinsey notes we need to foster intentional learning by feeding our curiosity. The report states that “inspiration is strongly correlated with an intrinsic desire to learn. Curiosity sparks inspiration. You learn more and more frequently because you are curious. Second, curiosity marks the beginning of a virtuous cycle that feeds your ability as a self-directed …
Episode #15: An Interview with Naguib Attia on How IBM Helps Universities Prepare Students for the Workforce
It was January 2014 and Naguib Attia, Chief Technology Officer at IBM, was facing a difficult task related to a project in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). There was a lack of talent in the region to deliver on a particular project’s objectives.To address this challenge, he considered the following question: how can I take an individual and after just six months, prepare that person …
White Paper – Facilitate Knowledge Sharing with Smart Communications
Digital disruption is placing a premium on learning like never before. Organizational learning can no longer be viewed solely as one-off, ad hoc trainings. Technological advances and disruptions in the marketplace call for a culture in which employees organically share their knowledge and take part in their own daily self-learning.Several learning leaders I interviewed on my Learning and …
Celebrating Mistakes as Learning Opportunities
Over the course of the past two years, I asked 14 learning leaders the following question on my Learning and Development Stories podcast:TELL US THE STORY OF A MISTAKE YOU MADE. HOW DID YOU LEARN FROM THIS?After interviewing 14 learning leaders on the podcast, I went through their responses to this question. In summary, the lessons from mistakes broadly center around three key …
Content Recommendations from L&D Leaders
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 …
Episode #14: Toby Newman on Mobilizing Subject Matter Experts to Share Their Knowledge
Instead of just encouraging employees to consume learning content, have you ever considered mobilizing them to actually create videos and share their knowledge with others in the organization? On episode 14 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast, Toby Newman made a compelling case on why you might want to consider doing this. Stories Toby is a Leadership and Development Lead at …
Episode #13: Dan Pontefract on Launching a Corporate MBA Program
What is the return on investment for a company to invest significant amounts of money send their up and coming talents to different business schools to earn an MBA degree?Dan Pontefract, currently the founder and CEO of the Pontefract Group, was investigating this question back in 2011 in his role as Chief Learning Officer at TELUS, Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company. …
Episode #12: The Power of Mobilizing Employees to Create Training Content – an Interview with Patrick Veenhoff of Swisscom
How do we get more colleagues to engage with L&D resources? This is a common concern facing L&D leaders. Swisscom, the major telecommunications provider in Switzerland, has been able to address such a question by encouraging employees to create training content. Patrick Veenhoff, Head of Learning & Development at Swisscom, shared his experiences with this innovative initiative on …
Episode #11: David Leaser of IBM on how Digital Badges Can Bring Multiple Benefits to an Organization
There's a massive change in the way people are developing skills. David Leaser, Senior Executive of Strategic Growth Initiatives for IBM’s Training and Skills program, shared the story of IBM’s response to these shifts through the IBM Digital Badge Program on episode 11 of the Learning and Development Stories Podcast.StoriesDavid highlighted the development process of Digital Badge …
Episode #10: Melissa Taylor of Porter Novelli on How Marketing Communications and L&D Can Partner Together
“The recruitment of talent is more competitive than ever. Employer branding and being able to understand and connect with prospective employees requires a marketing and communications mindset as well as all of the knowledge and expertise that the talent and development side of the house brings.”This is the among the perspectives shared by Melissa Taylor, Global Learning and Development …
Episode #9: Britt Andreatta on using a Brain-Based Approach in Management Training
A brain-based approach in management training can lead to real behavioral change. Dr. Britt Andreatta, an internationally recognized thought leader in leadership and learning, has seen this happen first-hand and shared these experiences on episode 9 of the Learning and Development Stories Podcast.As CEO and President of 7th Mind Inc, Britt highlighted the story of an executive who went through …
Episode #8: How a CLO Helped Change a Learning Culture through Smart Communications
How do you get employees excited about learning? This was a question that Abhijit Bhaduri was grappling with back in 2009 when he was the Chief Learning Officer at Wipro, the information technology services company headquartered in Bengaluru, India.This was quite a challenge, particularly given the size of Wipro (160,000 employees at the time across 54 countries). It was important for Abhijit …
Episode #7: Dana Hariton McQuade on the Lessons of Launching a New Leadership Development Initiative
“People loved it.”These were the words Dana Hariton McQuade used to summarize her organization’s reaction to launching a new global leadership development framework for different leader levels (new, emerging and accelerated).She delved into the details of launching this new initiative on episode seven of the Learning and Development Stories Podcast. It necessitated bringing together three …
Episode #6: Dave Atack on Leveraging Influencers to Effectively Communicate L&D Activities
Are you leveraging the influencers in your organization to communicate the impact of your L&D activities? If you answered no and are intrigued about how to do this, then you will want to hear Dave Atack’s insights on episode 6 of the Learning and Development Stories podcast.Dave, formerly the Head of Learning at D.E. Shaw and the VP of Learning Strategy and Performance at Xerox, shared how …