The average learning business does a lot. Add what a learning business could or should do to what it already does, and the list of possibilities is overwhelming. This episode of the Leading Learning Podcast focuses on four often-overlooked areas where we think investing more time and energy will pay off for learning businesses: supporting subject matter experts, providing practice opportunities, evaluating impact, and telling a coherent value story.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode380.
Developing effective learning products should be a central goal of all learning businesses, and one way to gauge effectiveness and then refine learning products is with learner surveys. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with a true expert in the domains of learner surveys and learning effectiveness: Dr. Will Thalheimer. Will is a consultant, speaker, researcher, and author of Performance-Focused Learner Surveys: Using Distinctive Questioning to Get Actionable Data and Guide Learning Effectiveness.
Jeff and Will talk about four pillars of training effectiveness, learner surveys and smile sheets, Will’s Learning Transfer Evaluation Model (LTEM), distinctive questioning for evaluations, the role of evaluation in making learning products more effective, ways to get more learners to respond to surveys, and the important role of translating research into practical recommendations.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode379.
Learning businesses should base their design choices on evidence-based practices. But keeping up with the latest research takes time and energy that many learning business professionals simply don’t have. Luckily, people like Jane Bozarth exist to help bridge the gap between academic research and the implications for the design and delivery of learning experiences.
Jane Bozarth has spent many years as a trainer, a facilitator, and an e-learning designer, and she currently serves as the director of research at the Learning Guild, where she puts out monthly reports.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Jane talks with co-host Celisa Steele about learning styles and other myths, evidence-based alternatives to popular misconceptions, the growth mindset and whether learning businesses can help alter learners’ perceptions, and what artificial intelligence does well and where it falls short.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode378.
Practice is a powerful tool for learning, and, when you stop to look at what you do on a daily or weekly basis, you’ll see how common and natural practice is in so many realms. But too often learning businesses don’t incorporate practice into their portfolio of offerings.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, we focus on practice, but, rather than take a learning science-backed view, we take a look at a specific, real-world example of practice. Co-host Celisa Steele interviews co-host Jeff Cobb about a practice project he's working on.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode377.
Soft skills training is a different beast than technical training, and Manny Avramidis, president and CEO of the American Management Association, knows this well. AMA provides management development and educational services to individuals and organizations in over 100 countries, with a primary focus on soft skills.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, Manny talks with co-host Jeff Cobb about how the market for professional development and education has changed and matured during his quarter century working at AMA, how AMA places emphasis on the application of the skills and knowledge it teaches, and how it can say that a very impressive 98 percent of people who have taken AMA training confirm that they apply what they've learned.
Manny also touches on his belief that a leader's success should be measured by the intelligence of their team, the value of leveraging partnerships, and why AMA and Tagoras (the parent company of Leading Learning) formed a partnership to allow membership organizations to get their learners access to AMAs library of 70 plus e-learning modules. For leaders of learning businesses and aspiring leaders, there's lots to glean from this conversation.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode376.
Social learning is a fundamental, age-old method of learning. But it got somewhat lost in the broader adoption of digital learning, especially self-paced e-learning, that happened in the last 20 years, and social learning suffered again during COVID. But, done right, social learning is a highly effective and efficient way to learn.
Our guest in this episode is Nellie Wartoft, founder and CEO of Tigerhall, a social learning platform that’s trying to change how professionals learn from one another in the real world. Nellie talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Jeff Cobb about what’s wrong with the current approach to education and how social learning can help, five key aspects of social learning, how to tackle measuring the effectiveness of social learning, and how artificial intelligence can be used to support social learning.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode375.
The Leading Learning Podcast is just one part of what we do at Leading Learning. In this episode, we reintroduce Leading Learning and the range of resources, education, and insights Learning Learning provides to learning business professionals.
In brief, Leading Learning provides resources, education, and insights to learning business professionals, and we provide those resources, education, and insights via several avenues, of which the Leading Learning Podcast is just one.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode374.
On the Leading Learning Podcast, sometimes we get to talk with someone whose thinking and research have deeply influenced our work and lives. Such is the case with Ellen J. Langer, AKA the mother of mindfulness.
Dr. Langer was the first woman to be tenured in psychology at Harvard, where she is still professor of psychology. The recipient of three Distinguished Scientists awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Liberty Science Genius Award, Dr. Langer wrote the international bestseller Mindfulness, as well as The Power of Mindful Learning, Counterclockwise, On Becoming an Artist, and, most recently, The Mindful Body.
In this episode, co-host Celisa Steele talks with return guest Dr. Langer about what mindfulness is (hint—it’s not meditation), the ubiquity of uncertainty, mind-body unity, and attention to variability. They also discuss mindful contagion and how our perception (of time, of ability) changes what we’re capable of.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode373.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important goals for any business, including learning businesses. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, DEI gained ground, but many initiatives, unfortunately, have faltered or been cut completely in the years since.
Our guest in this episode is Miranda McKie, founder and CEO of McKie Consultants, a strategic consulting firm focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion and inclusive product design. Miranda believes in the need for evidence-based, long-term-goal-oriented DEI initiatives.
She talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Jeff Cobb about the role of data in DEI, how some familiarity with data analytics is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for many jobs, and why we need to think about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the same way we approach climate change.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode372.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode, WBT Systems.
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TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs.
The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams.
WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.
Business models are a key part of the strategy of any business. But, in our experience, learning businesses often take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to business models.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, we make the argument for why you should regularly revisit your business model. We also discuss the four key facets that are part of any business model: those are who you charge, what you charge for, how much you charge, and who you share costs or profits with.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode371.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode, WBT Systems.
***
TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs.
The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams.
WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.
There are three goals at the heart of almost all learning businesses: reach, revenue, and impact. Generating revenue is essential in helping learning businesses reach the right audience and make an impact.
In this episode, co-host Celisa Steele delves into the topic of revenue with Brent Keltner. Brent began his career as a PhD social scientist and spent 10 years conducting qualitative research interviews at Stanford University and the RAND Corporation. He’s now president of Winaltyics, a go-to-market and sales acceleration consultancy, and author of The Revenue Acceleration Playbook.
Brent and Celisa delve into what it means to design an authentic buyer journey, the importance of aligning and organizing content around value, personalizing buyer value, capturing the customer voice, and how to get effective social proof and testimonials, all with the ultimate goal of accelerating revenue for your learning business.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode370.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode, WBT Systems.
***
TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs.
The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams.
WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.
Learning ecosystems, learning engineering, learning in the flow of life and work—these could be a list of top buzzwords. But each has gained attention for a reason. Each is important in the design and delivery of effective lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development, and each gets its due in this episode, which features a conversation with Sae Schatz.
Sae formerly served as director of the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, and she was there when she first came on the Leading Learning Podcast. Though she no longer directs ADL, she continues to work at the intersection of human cognition and learning, technology, and data and is founder and CEO of the Knowledge Forge, which helps advance organizations through human performance and learning.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele and return guest Sae Schatz talk about learning in the flow of life and work, with Sae sharing insights from her work in Ukraine. Sae also shares her vision of how learning experience design, learning ecosystems, and learning engineering fit together to help organizations create and deliver effective products. Along the way, they touch on data analytics, competency-based learning, verifiable credentials, distributed identities, integration, privacy, artificial intelligence, and more.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode369.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode, WBT Systems.
***
TopClass LMS provides the tools for you to become the preferred provider in your market, delivering value to learners at every stage of their working life. WBT Systems’ award-winning learning system enables delivery of impactful continuing education, professional development, and certification programs.
The TopClass LMS team supports learning businesses in using integrated learning technology to gain greater understanding of learners’ needs and behaviors, to enhance engagement, to aid recruitment and retention, and to create and grow non-dues revenue streams.
WBT Systems will work with you to truly understand your preferences, needs, and challenges to ensure that your experience with TopClass LMS is as easy and problem-free as possible. Visit leadinglearning.com/topclass to learn how to generate value and growth for your learning business and to request a demo.
Innovation is crucial to the continued success of any organization, and that’s arguably truer for learning businesses than it is for many other types of organizations because of their focus on external learners and the field, industry, or profession those learners serve.
In this episode, we unpack that assertion while also breaking innovation down. Innovation isn’t monolithic and uniform. Rather innovation is variable and nuanced, and that’s what we want look at, with an eye specifically to external innovation in the context of learning businesses.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode368.
Managing content well and communicating effectively with audiences are two key competencies needed by a learning business that wants to thrive, and taxonomies and metadata can play an important role in both.
Stephanie Lemieux is an information management consultant specializing in taxonomies and metadata. Educated as a librarian, Stephanie is now president and principal consultant at Dovecot Studio, which helps organizations optimize the way they structure and manage their mission-critical content.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Stephanie about what taxonomies are and the negotiation that has to take place between an organization and its audience to create an effective taxonomy. They also discuss the role of taxonomy in search, findability, integration, analytics, and personalization, and they talk about how content has gotten more targeted and more granular in Stephanie’s years of work. They also touch on artificial intelligence and how AI and machine learning can both benefit from and contribute to tagging and taxonomies.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode367.
Empathy is essential to both learner-centered design and effective leadership, and empathy with doubly disadvantaged individuals, like Black women, can be that much more important—and rare.
L. Michelle Smith is a certified executive and personal coach whose work is informed by positive psychology and neuroscience. She’s the author of three books, including Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite. L. Michelle’s specialty is moving women and women of color to the C suite and E suite. She focuses on both professional and personal success, working with women so they can lead organizations they love while also living the lives they want.
In this episode, co-host Celisa Steele and L. Michelle Smith talk about the difficulty women of color and women in general face in the workplace because of microaggressive behaviors and gender biases. They also touch on intrinsic motivation, positive emotions like gratitude and amusement, demographic changes to the workforce, the importance of sponsorship and mentorship, and the role of empathy both when leading and when designing learning.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode366.
Travel can serve as a field laboratory for learning. Whether a trip is short or long, near or far, done alone or with others, travel offers an opportunity to learn.
In this episode, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss the pre, during, and post phases that make up both travel and learning experiences; feelings of belonging and othering that can arise; and the value of learning business professionals reflecting on their own experiences to help them design better and more empathetically for others.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode365.
If we had to pick just one thing as the key to the success of a learning business, we would argue for the learning experiences offered because those learning experiences are at the core of what learning businesses do.
In order to offer effective learning experiences, we need a solid understanding of adult learning theory. Although many of learning business professionals are already familiar adult learning theory, there can be tremendous value in taking time to periodically revisit it.
In this redux episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb examine three principles of adult learning theory and the implications each has on designing, developing, and delivering meaningful learning experiences.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode364.
It’s an old debate in education, whether learning needs to be for something or whether learning in and of itself is of value. Looking at the rise of STEM and the growing focus on skills-based, job-relevant training, one might conclude that the for-something side is winning the debate. And, yet, soft skills and less immediately applicable subjects endure.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with Jeffrey Scheuer about the role of the liberal arts in creating critical thinkers and the essential part critical thinking plays in democracy and community. They shed light on how the individuals we educate and train can contribute positively and intelligently to society at large.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode363.
The traditional long summer break from school in the U.S. can mean fun in the sun—and summer learning loss (SLL). While SLL is a documented phenomenon, not all K-12 students lose the same skills and knowledge over the summer. In fact, some make gains over the summer holiday. One of the most important things students can do to improve is read. And reading can be a powerful driver of learning for adults as well as K-12 students.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele offer a preview of their summer reading list, each sharing one book of nonfiction, one of fiction, and a wildcard—with a few bonus books thrown in for good measure.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode362.
To be a learner, we have to identify as a learner, and belonging is critical to self-identification. That means all learning businesses need to think about how they can create situations and offerings where individuals feel a sense of belonging.
Dr. Susie Wise is a learning experience designer and author of the book Design for Belonging: How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration in Your Communities. Susie coaches leaders in equity design and innovation practices and teaches at the d.school at Stanford.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb talks with Susie about the fundamental role of belonging in learning, eight moments of belonging she’s identified, and ways to intentionally design learning experiences where belonging can emerge.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode361.
Competition from free and low-cost offerings is a reality for many learning businesses. But it’s also true that most learning businesses do offer—or should offer—free or low-cost options in their own portfolios. CMEpalooza offers an interesting case study to examine both for competitive insight and as a potential model to emulate.
Scott Kober and Derek Warnick produce CMEpalooza, a free biannual virtual conference for CME and CE professionals. CMEpalooza is a side gig for these fearless co-producers. By day, Derek Warnick works as a grant officer on the global medical team at Pfizer, and Scott Kober is managing director at Excalibur Medical Education.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with return guests Scott and Derek about how COVID did—and didn’t—impact CMEpalooza and how competition does—or doesn’t—factor into their thinking. They also discuss how producing the conference provides them with invaluable market insight and how their value proposition has evolved organically over the years but has always been guided by three principles: high-quality, easy, and free.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode360.
What does the term "lifelong learning" mean for you? It’s an important question for learning business professionals to ask because taking the time to reflect can lead to a better understanding of the influential role your learning business plays in your stakeholders' lifelong learning journey.
In this episode, we explore the history of lifelong learning and major viewpoints on what it is, the reasons behind a renewed interest in lifelong learning, and why taking time for to know the backstory of lifelong learning represents an opportunity for learning business leaders.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode359.
The full, complete experience of the learner—from before they decide to sign up for a course or event, until after it's over—should be a primary concern for all learning businesses.
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Jeff Cobb is joined by return guest Diana Howles, CEO and co-owner of Howles Associates, which specializes in virtual training, virtual presentation coaching, and learning experience design.
They delve into the topic of learning experience design—what it is, why it matters, and how to implement it. They also discuss evidence-based practice, the four dimensions of learning, learner personas, journey mapping, social proof, and the importance of feedforward, not just feedback.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode358.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode Thinkific.
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At Leading Learning, we believe reach, revenue, and impact are essential for all learning businesses. Thinkific Plus is a new-generation platform purpose-built to help growing businesses scale revenue.
With Thinkific Plus, you can generate monthly recurring revenue through course subscriptions and membership programs, sell multiple seats for your learning products to a single buyer, suggest additional products in the learning flow to increase sales, and go global with 0 percent transaction fees and payments accepted in over 100 countries.
Coastal Drone Co. uses Thinkific Plus to sell online courses, memberships, and certifications to those looking to fly drones in Canada. Since converting its training materials into online courses on Thinkific Plus, Coastal Drone Co. has scaled its business, earning more income, training more people, and positioning itself as a leading educator in the Canadian drone industry.
Right now, as a Leading Learning listener, you can get a free month of Thinkific Plus by going to our special URL. Start your free month today at thinkific.com/learning.
COVID permanently altered the operations and offerings of many learning businesses, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Duke University is one such example
In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, co-host Celisa Steele talks with return guest Chris McLeod, who directs OLLI at Duke, about the pandemic-driven changes her group made and their related short- and long-term implications. Chris shares how COVID got them to rethink the competitive environment and the importance of social offerings as a key differentiator. They also discuss how the OLLI team worked together during the early days of COVID, balancing a member-driven approach to the course catalog with staff oversight, and the enduring appeal of the humanities.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode357.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode Thinkific.
***
At Leading Learning, we believe reach, revenue, and impact are essential for all learning businesses. Thinkific Plus is a new-generation platform purpose-built to help growing businesses scale revenue.
With Thinkific Plus, you can generate monthly recurring revenue through course subscriptions and membership programs, sell multiple seats for your learning products to a single buyer, suggest additional products in the learning flow to increase sales, and go global with 0 percent transaction fees and payments accepted in over 100 countries.
Coastal Drone Co. uses Thinkific Plus to sell online courses, memberships, and certifications to those looking to fly drones in Canada. Since converting its training materials into online courses on Thinkific Plus, Coastal Drone Co. has scaled its business, earning more income, training more people, and positioning itself as a leading educator in the Canadian drone industry.
Right now, as a Leading Learning listener, you can get a free month of Thinkific Plus by going to our special URL. Start your free month today at thinkific.com/learning.
We believe deeply in the power of learning to transform individuals, organizations, and communities. That’s why we focus the Leading Learning Podcast on serving the learning businesses and learning business professionals that create and support adult lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development.
Learning business professionals need to invest in their own learning and development so they can grow and help the learning businesses they serve improve their reach, revenue, and impact. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, we highlight one of our existing resources: the informal learning business curriculum. We also take a high-level look at the why, what, and how of learning for learning business professionals.
Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode356.
We are grateful to our sponsor for this episode Thinkific.
***
At Leading Learning, we believe reach, revenue, and impact are essential for all learning businesses. Thinkific Plus is a new-generation platform purpose-built to help growing businesses scale revenue.
With Thinkific Plus, you can generate monthly recurring revenue through course subscriptions and membership programs, sell multiple seats for your learning products to a single buyer, suggest additional products in the learning flow to increase sales, and go global with 0 percent transaction fees and payments accepted in over 100 countries.
Coastal Drone Co. uses Thinkific Plus to sell online courses, memberships, and certifications to those looking to fly drones in Canada. Since converting its training materials into online courses on Thinkific Plus, Coastal Drone Co. has scaled its business, earning more income, training more people, and positioning itself as a leading educator in the Canadian drone industry.
Right now, as a Leading Learning listener, you can get a free month of Thinkific Plus by going to our special URL. Start your free month today at thinkific.com/learning.