Learning Rebels Podcast

Providing Business Value, the Key to L&D Success

For Laura Overton, it all started with a question: When you talk about the value L&D is providing to your organization, what narrative of success do you use?
 
Laura’s research found that L&D professionals focusing on business value were better positioned to harness learning innovation to deliver business results. Click here to view the Learning Value Spectrum chart.
 
On one end we have Learning Value: "Our connection with and activity around our programs: hours, engagement, and efficiency."On the other end, we have Business Value: "Where our #1 focus is on the outputs that are important to our organization."
 
At a time when L&D has the opportunity to connect with business leaders with the skills agenda being one of the highest priority needs for business today, who can leaders depend on?
 
Hopefully us. 
 
Read more about the Learning Value Spectrum here:
 
I encourage you to download the chat. So many supportive comments and action ideas.  
 Get your recording here
Get your copy of the chat messages here
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Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.  
 
Host: Shannon Tipton 

The Good, the Bad and the Potential of a Career in L&D

The Good, the Bad and the Potential of L&D
 
It was very interesting getting the Coffee Chat view on how L&D can leverage their superpowers of collaboration and ideation to build fresh solutions to strengthen skill building. 
 
Wonder Twin Powers ACTIVATE!! 
 
Today’s question on the table was all about “How can L&D harness our momentum with businesses today, to add greater business value?”
 
L&D is seeing a transformation like nothing in the past! Learning Professionals are busting through traditional silos to collaborate on more holistic visions to create stronger connections between learning and business goals.
 
The LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report shared that L&D leaders agree that L&D has become more influential over the past year. This also means that the demand is greater for results.
 
From ideas about activating management to how to change our vocabulary, there were many solid, actionable steps we can take TODAY to improve our relationship with business leaders. 
 
Get the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report here
 
Watch the live video here
 
Get more information by downloading the Chat Message Box
 
Or download the full transcript here
 
Books: 
 
The Squiggly Career by Helen Tupper
 
The Learning and Development Handbook: A Learning Practitioner's Toolkit by Michelle Parry-Slater
 
Design Thinking for Training and Development by Sharon Boller
 
Lynch Pin: Are you Indispensable by Seth Godwin 
 
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton

Learning from Failure

How can we best treat failure as a positive aspect of life, rather a negative?
This was the question on the table as we discussed learning from failure.
This was an interesting chat – there were many directions to take, as people process failure in a variety of different ways. Some people go internal, and dig deep into themselves to consider what may have gone wrong that they can control, while others process failure as a data collection exercise.
Where do you fall on the continuum?
Two takeaways:
From Dickson – Sometimes we turn the “why not’ question into a way to find out “why NOT”. However, Dickson tells us that the adventure begins with why not. Sometimes “why not” is scary, and can most certainly be intimidating – but is take was treating “Why Not” as the beginning of a journey, and when doing so, you find some of the most remarkable things. So put your fear of failure to the side and treat it as an exercise in “why not”. 
From JD - "Be Kind to Yourself" Being self-aware that failure happens – EMBRACE the SUCK! Time tempers failure, be kind and realize that things happen. Surround yourself with positive people and environments. Failure is not the end-all be-all it’s part of the continuum of live. Stop putting pressure from yourself.
 
Let’s remember that failure is only bad if we treat it as something bad. Reframing how we think about failure will take our mental health to a place that is more managable. It’s not necessarily failure, but simply making a mistake and moving on.
 
Stay Curious! Shannon
 
All the Coffee Chat Resources! 
Get the live video recording here Get your copy of the chat message box here  
Check these out!
HBR: Strategies for learning from failure
Ball State University: Learning from Failure Research Paper
 
All the Books!
Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success by John Maxwell
Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success by Ryan Leak
 
 
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton

Evaluating Impact

The importance of evaluating training impact is something we can all agree on. But it's not something we all do. The reasons are varied:
The business doesn't give me time
I don't have access to important data
The expectation is "butts in seats"
The hard truth is that, when planning learning initiatives for your business, there is an expectation for something to happen. The business expects the people participating in the training to have gained improved skills, demonstrate behavior change, and ultimately to place into action the lessons delivered.
To begin with the end in mind – it's important to think about conducting a skill gap analysis for the future of work
Then couple it with information to evaluate training success – start here with a tool created by Michelle Ockers of the Emerging Stronger team: https://bit.ly/ESImpactTool
Our conversation took us in many directions – The importance of talking the language of business versus learning. Understanding what the business goals are before putting a training plan in place. We also discussed tools we can use to help us along the way. Tools like:
Survey’s
Work observation
Focus groups
Pre/post 360 surveys
Measuring pre/post KPI’s
We hope you can take one idea to apply Kirkpatricks level 3 & 4 and stop using “butt’s in seats” as your success metric. Because let’s face it, just because you like a class doesn’t mean you’ve learned from it –the same applies, and especially applies to workplace learning.
 
Take your knowledge to the next level:
Read these!
Assessing Impact: Evaluating Professional Learning by Joellen Killian
Evaluating the Impact of Training by Scott Parry
Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels by Donald Kirkpatrick
Training for Impact: How to Link Training to Business Needs and Measure the Results by Dana Gaines Robinson
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton

Learning Rebels in 15: Creating Leadership Programs with Impact

Your weekly double shot is “Leadership Development: People not Classes”
 
Our first Learning Rebels in 15 is out of the bag! 
 
Why not start this series with a topic that got EVERYONE riled up? “Why Leadership Development Programs Fail.” There was a lot of discussion around this topic and I think we captured it's essence here. 
 
You can find the entire conversation here. 
 
In short, a lot of money is being spent on leadership development programs. In fact, a McKinsey report tells us that U.S. companies alone spend almost $14 billion annually on leadership development. However, we find that these programs fail with increasing speed and regularity. 
 
What’s behind this failure, and how can we make improvements that can really impact the “way we’ve always done it”?
 
In this Learning Rebels in 15 - Coffee chat participants David K., Andrea J., Joe M., Andrew J., and Angie E. from the original episode discuss three main points:
 
Point #1: Fail - We treat Leadership development as one-size-fits-all programs. As we all know, training programs built for everyone usually benefit no one. 
 
Point #2: Fail - Programs are treated as theatre. 
 
Point #3: Crazy thought - moving leadership from classes to cohort.
 
To keep this short, I’ll leave you with this thought: 
 
It’s not the programs or processes that make organizations successful - it’s the people. So let’s take the theatre out of leadership development and focus on building successful leaders rather than mediocre leadership programs. 
 
Stay curious & take over the world!
Shannon
 
 
View the original  video recording here 
Download Andrew’s Leadership  Framework Here 
Find Andrew here on LinkedIn 
And on Twitter 
Review this report: Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development 
Check out this HBR Article: The Future of Leadership Development 
 
Join the conversation 
You can have an opportunity to be part of the original live coffee chats! Sign up here.  
 
 
Hire Learning Rebels 
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.  
 
Host: Shannon Tipton 
 

Exercises for Boosting Creativity

How can we encourage our own creative spirit?
It all started with the question on the table - what will it take to move out of the limiting belief, that we "cannot or are not creative"?
 
Two takeaways:
From Heather – control our inner dialog and simply take it out of our vocabulary. This is an approach that can seriously help us all grow in all areas of life as the voices inside our heads have the ability to drive our actions. If we keep telling ourselves we aren't creative, then it must be true.
From Kely - "The creative process is full of failure" Creativity is a continuum. Sometimes we’re rich with ideas, and sometimes not so much. Don’t put undo pressure on yourself.
"I don't want to share because it's ugly""What if I write and no one reads it?"  But if you're happy with your creation, isn't that all that matters?
 
All the Coffee Chat Resources! 
Get the live video recording here Get your copy of the chat message box here
A list of simple daily habits to boost your creativity 
Check these out!
Elements of creative thought: Investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of association and bi-association processes by Mathias BenedekPodcast on Froebel's GiftElements of creative thought: Investigating the cognitive and neural correlates of association and bi-association processes
 
All the Books!
Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzieThe Designer's Dictionary of Color by Sean AdamsDangerous Ideas: When Provocative Thinking Is Your Most Valuable Asset by Alf RehnHow to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci by Micheal GelbThe Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday
 
 
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton
 
 

Buried Alive? Building a Productivity Ecosystem.

With the pace and speed of business at unprecedented levels, how can we better focus on what matters now?
This is the question on the table today with the Learning Rebels Coffee Chat.
For those of you who at times feel overworked, overstretched, or overwhelmed, this podcast episode is for you. Because sometimes all you need is a little nudge, tip, or REALLY helpful tool to help you refocus on what matters most.
Do you feel this way?
“Right now, I have a series of islands without good bridges” - Heather V.
As it stands, distractions are more prevalent, and there never seems to be enough time or resources to do anything, let alone everything. Especially when it's a gorgeous day, and all you want to do is go outside. It's hard not to feel like you are missing out on life because things and lists keep popping up around you.
Remember this - you have a finite number of breaths in your body, do you want to waste them on being stressed out over endless to-do list items and pressures?
I thought not.
Here are some resources to help with the journey:
 
Check this out!
Get your copy of the productivity 30 day challenge: Download here
YouTube: Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator: https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU
Getting started with Google Tasks (Article): View here
Getting Started with Google Tasks (video): https://youtu.be/b82GeFbxIj8
Eat that Frog Book (updated and revised): https://amzn.to/3v6dVKf
Eisenhower Urgent-vs-Important Matrix: Learn More!
 
Plus!
Get the live video here
Get your copy of the chat message box here
 
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton

Skills Gap Analysis for the Future of Work

What it will take to conduct a skill gap analysis in this new generation of work?
This is the question on the table today with the Learning Rebels Coffee Chat.
Typically, when considering conducting a skills gap analysis, this means identifying the needed skills to make our organizations successful. To make people smarter, better, faster than they were the day before.
But what does this look like now? Will the same tools work? How will we present findings to leadership? Let’s gather and discuss what it will take to conduct a skill gap analysis in this new generation of work.
It was interesting having this conversation with everyone. I think the realization was that we all approach a gap analysis from different angles, but it's clear that in this fast-paced work environment, it's something that needs to happen.
Here are some resources to help with the journey:
Download these Resources
The World Economic Forum Report (2020)
The World Economic Forum report (2018)
Learning Rebels Skills Gap Analysis Blog
How to: The Action Priority Matrix
Chart: Priority Matrix
Word Doc: Training Needs Analysis Interview Form
Skills Gap Analysis Excel Template
 
Get the live video here
Get your copy of the chat message box here
Get the full transcript here
 
Join the conversation
You can have an opportunity to be part of the live chat! Sign up here.
Support the Learning Rebels Community
To contribute and be part of the community, join our Patreon Page here
Hire Learning Rebels
Visit the Learning Rebels website to learn more about how Learning Rebels can help you reimagine workplace learning.
Host: Shannon Tipton