Month: December 2019

Definitely something different on this week’s ‘Learning Is The New Working’ podcast. How so? Because we talk to two very impressive young men who have gone off and founded a fascinating little Learning technology platform while still in school.

In this case that school’s Boston’s Babson College, which famously encourages an entrepreneurial mindset and which seems to be the perfect foil for these two edtech pioneers. In any case, the two founders of the start-up in question, Michael Ioffe (CEO) and Ryan Laverty, of Arist, a Learning platform available since 2018, really seem to have benefited from  that environment.

Arist, a text message based learning platform that helps individuals and organizations instantly improve learning and training, one text message ‘course’ at a time, and which is being used for everything from compliance training to content reinforcement. (To avoid confusion, ‘text’ here should be read as ‘SMS’ – obviously, we work with text as content all the time in Training.)

What that looks like in practice is a daily push of no more than 1,200 characters, a discipline that forces instructional designers to really get as precise and on-point as possible. In our conversation, which is also a first for us with multiple interviewees bridged from my home office in Seattle, Ryan in his dorm at Babson and Michael in Shanghai, we delve into their ‘answer’ to the problem Josh Bersin so memorably frames for us: that today’s super-busy, time-poor worker might just get 24 minutes of their time to try and help them learn new skills.

I learned a lot doing this interview, and have done an really cool Arist course on one of my passions, modern architecture (check out the portfolio yourself here). I am sure you will too. And of course, our conversation with Arist is a brilliant example of what we’re trying to do in Season 3 of LITNW: explore The Rise of the Learning Scientist.

So in this season, we’re looking at what we can learn from adjacent disciplines to help start to build a new model for Adult and Workplace Learning. And we’re doing that by talking to computer scientists and engineers, social scientists, neuro- and data-scientists, experts and practitioners who are both doing great work but also trying hard to fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

Don’t worry, we’ll still be hearing from frontline CLOs and HR thinkers on other episodes of the podcast.. but it’s time, we feel, to build a scientific basis for our practice if we are to respond to the challenges Learning is starting to face, and my hunch that Michael and Ryan are well-placed to comment on these important issues.

Thanks guys, but I would also like to thank our latest great new sponsor for helping make this possible: Mandel Communications, the global leader in communications skills training for line of business managers, sales teams, and technical or analytical professionals, and which strives to help CEOs deal with the fact that poor communication costs the average US business $52.5 million a year in lost productivity and opportunities.

I recommend you check both Arist and Mandel out… and hope as we start our new decade you can find 32 minutes of your valuable time to listen to this great joint interview! Click to subscribe directly to ‘Learning Is The New Working’ on Apple Podcasts Spotify GooglePlay SoundCloud

Tomorrow, the next episode of what we’re kind of calling ‘Season 4’ of the Learning Futures Group podcast, ‘Learning Is The New Working,’ drops with a special Holiday goodness for you: a wide-ranging conversation with one of the most interesting people in non-profit Workplace Learning right now, Professor at Columbia & Georgetown Nick Martin.

Nick is President and CEO over at TechChange, which works to connect implementers in public health, emergency response, and monitoring and evaluation functions with relevant content, experts, and certification using its special facilitated learning platform, and which has worked with teams at places like the Compact of Mayors and Unicef.

So as one of the largest providers of online education for the nonprofit and social sectors, TechChange really is right in the eye of the Learning storm, as well as being a Washington DC-based ‘full service learning solution’ social enterprise building awesome online courses for the individuals and institutions trying to make a positive difference in the world.

My conversation with Nick is the latest in a stream of interviews I’m putting together with my esteemed co-host/co-curator of ‘Learning 4 Good,’ Lutz Ziob – long-term colleague, mentor, friend and all-round, proud and out-loud fellow ‘Learning Geek’ 🙂 Lutz, who many of us will know from his many years at Microsoft, including at Microsoft Africa, now runs Ziob Consulting, a company 100% focused on the dynamic interaction between technology innovation, skills and job transformation, and the changing approaches to learning and skills development. And we’re working together on all this because just as I do, Lutz sees digital transformation/the 4th Industrial Revolution, as a truly global process.

That’s why he is so interested on its impact right across the African continent, as well as the opportunities opening up through collaboration between Africa and Europe (and his home country, Germany). Hence our dialog here with TechChange, which is a big contribution to our current in-depth exploration of the global $200bn global aid sector in terms of what it can teach us in the Workplace Learning community.

One of the most dynamic, intriguing, hard-pressed, for sure, but vital parts of the human story, the work that’s going on in the voluntary and NGO space to make the world a better place deserves all of our attention. From government agency to the millions of local helping hands, from the public-private partnership to the intervention of the well-funded tech benefactor, we’re trying to map how the same factors of change and disruption we have talk about in other parts of ‘Learning Is The New Working’ are playing out here.

I really hope you agree ‘Learning 4 Good’ sounds interesting to you, that you have enough time to listen to this discussion with Nick, and if you feel you want to hear more about Learning 4 Good topics, click to subscribe directly to ‘Learning Is The New Working’, where ‘Learning 4 Good’ is running on alternate 2-week cycles with our regular LITNW episodes over on Apple Podcasts Spotify GooglePlay SoundCloud

Enjoy!

Chris Pirie

Founder & CEO

You know that I hate hyperbole… but tomorrow, the next episode of what we’re kind of calling ‘Season 4’ of the Learning Futures Group podcast, ‘Learning Is The New Working,’ drops and I think it’s genuinely the most thought-provoking one we’ve ever done.

That’s because it’s an intense and far-reaching conversation about things that matter just as much as the future of workplace learning: ultimately, it’s a rumination on, Is the global economic system we’re all so used to actually working for enough of us any more?

To be clear: this isn’t any kind of Democrat or Republican political caucus meeting! It’s simply the thinking of an L&D practitioner right at the cutting-edge of social change in Africa – Rob Burnet, the Founder & CEO of Well Told Story, the Nairobi-based company two-times Emmy-award winning youth communications platform media and communications Shujaaz.

Well Told Story, an amazing East African-based social enterprise, is ultimately all about helping young Africans find the economic opportunities and a way to shape the futures they deserve, in a system which simply isn’t creating enough conventional jobs for them. As we’ll find, that’s no less than 8 million Kenyans and Tanzanians, for whom Burnet and his growing team see as the audience they need to speak to and help.

Conducting our engagement with Well Told Story and its very singular message of hope and achievement in a complex world this week is my esteemed co-host/co-curator of this special Global Aid-focused episode run, Lutz Ziob – long-term colleague, mentor, friend and all-round, proud and out-loud fellow ‘Learning Geek’!

 Lutz, who many of us will know from his many years at Microsoft, including at Microsoft Africa, now runs Ziob Consulting. That’s a company 100% focused on the dynamic interaction between technology innovation, skills and job transformation, and the changing approaches to learning and skills development. Just as I do, Lutz sees digital transformation, often described as the 4th Industrial Revolution, as a truly global process, which is why he is so interested on its impact right across the African continent, as well as the opportunities opening up through collaboration between Africa and Europe (and his native Germany in particular).

 You may recall that this is part of our current in-depth exploration of the global $200bn global aid sector in terms of what it can teach us in the Workplace Learning community. One of the most dynamic, intriguing, hard-pressed, for sure, but vital parts of the human story, the work that’s going on in the voluntary and NGO space to make the world a better place deserves all of our attention. From government agency to the millions of local helping hands, from the public-private partnership to the intervention of the well-funded tech benefactor, we’re trying to map how the same factors of change and disruption we have talk about in other parts of ‘Learning Is The New Working’ are playing out here.

 I really hope you agree ‘Learning 4 Good’ sounds interesting to you, and that you have enough time to listen to this discussion with Rob. I promise it’s one of the best uses of an hour you will find all year… and if you feel you want to hear more about Learning 4 Good topics, click to subscribe directly to ‘Learning Is The New Working’, where ‘Learning 4 Good’ is running on alternate 2-week cycles with our regular LITNW episodes over on Apple Podcasts Spotify GooglePlay SoundCloud

 Enjoy!

 Chris Pirie

The Learning Futures Group

Recently, I sat down with Matt Donovan, Vice President of global learning and performance improvement organization GP Strategies Corporation for a November episode of my podcast, Learning Is The New Working. Think of it as a view from 30,000 feet on the on-going digital transformation of Learning, including handling rising Learner expectations of better digital experiences, based on their exposure to great consumer tech.

In our conversation, Matt also gave me a very thoughtful ‘state of the union’ on what’s happening in the weird and wonderful world of instructional design.. which, as he jokes with me, he’s well placed to give, as he describes himself as “a recovering instructional designer”!

What Matt told me: there is an essential core of ID that remains perfectly valuable and fit for purpose in the modern L&D world. But just as interestingly, he shares a frame of reference for the modern Workplace Learning technology stack, and importantly where tech should ideally fit in the overall schema of design considerations:

It’s a journey, not a transaction Don’t focus on courses, but on where you need learners to get to and build awesome Learning journeys for them

• Think About The 5 Moments of Need This a great tool for starting to pick up when Learners are most primed. In parallel, think of practical ways of connecting people across the ecosystem of performers to get help from experts at the right moment.
• The Value Of Measurement Put the work in to identify the critical business metrics you want to impact and work back from the business data, as, remember, you get back what you measure
• L&D Needs To Move At The Speed Of Business Today Optimize our process to remain relevant! 
• Agile/Waterfall Methodology is critical but  it’s an ‘and’ not a n’or’ conversation. His (very useful) rule of thumb: if you don’t know what good looks like, be agile and iterate; if you know, use Waterfall.
• Adopt a Discrete to Integral Manufacturing Mindset Aka, a human enablement system holistically integrated into industrial processes

Ultimately, Matt believes that the core principles of ID hold up well, but that there is hard work that practitioners still have to do have to do around being evidence based, Learner and business centered, and fully open to our stakeholders into the system – after all, as he says in our conversation, ‘We are not Instructional Psychics!’

As we grow into adulthood, and all that wonderful brain plasticity we came into the world gifted with starts to change. Sure, we are all lifelong learners by default, but learning, remapping, and establishing new habits in the adult brain, gets tougher and requires more attention and motivation. Perhaps learning a new language as an adult might provide the perfect use case.

“It is important to recognize that the normal course of aging is one of decline in many core cognitive abilities (commonly referred to as fluid intelligence), including speed of processing, working memory, long-term memory, and reasoning.” Park and Bischof. The aging mind: neuroplasticity in response to cognitive training

Sigh! Like many of us, I’ve put my brain — and myself — to the test by attempting to brush up my Spanish and French in the last few years. I’ve learnt a lot about myself and the study process along the way, which is why tomorrow’s episode of Season 3 of ‘Learning Is The New Working,’ The Learning Futures Group’s podcast, was so interesting for me — and, I hope, you guys!

 Available in a few short hours, it’s a chance to learn from one of the world’s biggest e-learning companies, language platform Babbel. Specifically, we got a chance to chat with the company’s Chief Product Officer, Geoff Stead, who leads us on an amazing journey about everything from cultural and generational Learner differences to why changing routines is so central to getting Learner motivation right and what Attention Economics can maybe teach us.

 I really wanted to see how Geoff sees the difference between learning a language to what Workplace Learning asks of us, and he gives me some fascinating thoughts, especially around motivation and persistence. Indeed, my conversation with Geoff is a brilliant example of what we’re trying to do in Season 3 of LITNW: explore The Rise of the Learning Scientist. We’re looking at what we can learn from adjacent disciplines to help start to build a new model for Adult and Workplace Learning. And we’re doing that by talking to computer scientists and engineers, social scientists, neuro- and data-scientists, experts and practitioners who are both doing great work but also trying hard to fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

 Don’t worry, we’ll still be hearing from frontline CLOs and HR thinkers on other episodes of the podcast.. but it’s time, we feel, to build a scientific basis for our practice if we are to respond to the challenges Learning is starting to face, and Babbel, as a company on the cusp of both exploitation of data-science and edtech, is well-placed to comment on all of these issues. And by the way, there is no charge to listen in on our conversation!

Por favor, escucha nuestro podcast. Gracias. See what I did there?

Chris